About half of all pharmaceuticals including many effective i

About half of all pharmaceuticals, including many effective in neurological problems, are derived originally from plants. Find information and provide your informed explanation why the giant red toadstool, the fly amanita or Amanita muscaria, and the tobacco plant produce neurotoxins. These organisms, as well as many other fungi and plants produce neurotoxins to protect themselves from herbivorous insects . Insect neurons have many similarities to our own and are sometimes used to experiment on new psychopharmaceuticals.

Solution

1. The Giant red toadstool, the fly amanita or Amanita muscaria is a psychoactive basidiomycete fungus noted for its hallucinogenic properties with its main compound being muscimol. Ibutenic acid which is a neurotoxin serves as a prodrug and these act as a neurotransmitters of the Central Nervous System.

2. The Muscimol is a potent, selective agonist for the GABA receptors and displays sedative hypnotic and dissociative psychoactivity.

3. The tobacco plant produce many secondary metabolites like nicotine which acts as a defence reaction in order to protect themselves from herbivorous insects and kill them with their smell.