Truffles contain 'bliss' molecule (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

Presented by
Nic Fleming

The demeanour of pigs and dogs used by truffle hunters when they are close to making a find might best be described as animated. Or possibly even frantic. So what is it about the subterranean delicacies that triggers such vigorous enthusiasm in the animals trained to sniff them out?

Italian scientists may have hit on the answer. It turns out the black truffle (Tuber melanosporum) contains a “bliss molecule” similar to the substance that gives cannabis its psychoactive properties.

Mauro Maccarrone, of the Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome, Italy, and colleagues have revealed the highly-prized fungi produce anandamide, a compound that triggers the release of mood-enhancing chemicals in the human brain, and does so using the same biological mechanism as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the chemical responsible for producing the mind-bending effects of marijuana.

Maccarrone believes truffles use it to attract animals to eat their fruiting bodies, so that their spores are spread more widely and they have a better chance of reproducing.

Black truffles get their colour from dark melanin pigments. Research published by Maccarrone and his colleagues in 2012 showed that in humans melanin production is triggered by the release of anandamide.
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more: http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141221-truffles-contain-bliss-molecule
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anandamide
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=236&topic_id=46458&mesg_id=46463



So ... they have the same effect as pot and smell like dirty sex ? No wonder the prices get so high.

[NV Whino]

1. Chocolate truffles have the same effect.

[truebrit71]

2. LOL! I was juts thinking the same thing!

[Warpy]

3. I've had them beautifully prepared and done in a so-so preparation

and I have to say I was completely blissed out by the former. While I managed to duplicate the dish minus the truffles, I never experienced that kind of bliss with ordinary mushrooms.

So yeah, I'd have to say there is something psychoactive in there, although I wasn't particularly blissed out by the so-so preparation with canned truffles. Maybe the heat of canning destroys the bliss molecule.