Amanita muscaria

Is Amanita muscaria safe?

No. Amanita muscaria, the red-and-white fly agaric of fairy tales, is a poisonous mushroom. Its main compounds, ibotenic acid and muscimol, act on the brain's GABA system and cause confusion, agitation, dream-like delirium and deep sleep. In recent years it has been sold in smoke shops and online as gummies, chocolates, capsules and tinctures, marketed as a "legal" alternative to magic mushrooms or as a sleep and anxiety aid.

It scores 31, a little above kratom at 29 and phenibut at 25. It does not carry their risk of dependence. It scores this low because the FDA says it is not safe in food, poisonings are common, and what is in a given gummy is often unknown.

What the FDA says

On 18 December 2024, after reviewing adverse event reports and inquiries from state regulators, the FDA told manufacturers that A. muscaria, its extracts and its constituents muscimol, ibotenic acid and muscarine "do not meet the Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) standard and are unapproved food additives". It said there is "not enough safety evidence to show the consumption of these substances as food ingredients would be safe", that food containing them is adulterated, and that people should "avoid eating foods with these ingredients".

The letter also described what the agency was seeing. Its adverse event system had received reports of "central nervous system depression, drowsiness, seizures, and hospitalizations", and a poison centre query found "hundreds of calls in the last year", with effects including heart problems, hallucinations, slowed breathing and death.

Supplements followed. In September 2025 the FDA sent a warning letter to Blue Forest Farms, which sold A. muscaria capsules, a tincture and a chocolate. It said the mushroom and its compounds are new dietary ingredients with no evidence they were sold before 1994, that there was not enough safety data, and it named "delirium, seizures, coma, respiratory depression, and death" among the concerns.

The mushroom is not federally controlled, but Louisiana has banned it since 2005, and the Netherlands, Romania, Poland and Lithuania control it or prohibit its sale.

The Diamond Shruumz outbreak

The case that brought this market to national attention was Diamond Shruumz, a brand of "microdosing" chocolate bars, cones and gummies. In 2024, CDC and the FDA linked mushroom-containing chocolates to 180 illnesses in 34 states. Seventy-three people were hospitalised, 38 needed intensive care, 29 needed a breathing tube and 2 died. Eating Diamond Shruumz bars raised the odds of seizures about eight-fold compared with other mushroom chocolates. The maker, Prophet Premium Blends, recalled all its products in June 2024.

FDA testing showed why the effects were so varied. Some bars and cones contained muscimol, and the raw ingredient contained ibotenic acid and muscimol. Others contained psilocin (a Schedule I drug), the prescription drug pregabalin and kava compounds. Contents differed even between samples of the same flavour.

Do the gummies contain what they say?

Often not. A 2025 study of eight mushroom gummies bought in Portland, Oregon smoke shops found no ibotenic acid or muscimol in the two products labelled as A. muscaria extract; both contained psilocin and related tryptamines instead. A separate analysis of 27 consumer products found no ibotenic acid in any of the 11 gummies claiming Amanita extract, psilocybin in one labelled "no psilocybin", and none of the tested compounds at all in five products.

Doses are large and vague. A study of the 13 most-visited online retailers in April 2025 found gummies listing an average of 4,182 mg of mushroom per product, from 2,000 mg to 8,000 mg, and some also contained THC. Muscimol content in the mushroom itself varies by season, region and how it is dried or cooked, so no label can give a reliable dose.

What poisoning looks like

Symptoms usually start 30 minutes to 3 hours after eating: nausea and vomiting, then confusion, dizziness, muscle twitching, distorted perception and hallucinations, followed by lethargy and deep sleep. Large amounts, extracts and isolated compounds can cause seizures and coma, according to the FDA. Most cases resolve within hours. Deaths are rare; a 2025 review puts mortality at about 2% to 5% of reported accidental poisonings, mainly in older literature.

Older adults, children and people with heart disease are more vulnerable. Muscimol's sedating effect adds to that of alcohol, benzodiazepines such as alprazolam, sleeping pills and other sedatives, and US poison centre data from 2023 to 2024 found that mixing substances with mushroom edibles more than doubled the odds of hospital admission.

What to do

Avoid Amanita muscaria products. If you or someone else has taken one and becomes very confused, agitated, hard to wake, has a seizure or is breathing slowly, call 911. For advice on a suspected poisoning, call Poison Help at 1-800-222-1222 (US) and keep the package, since the label may not match what is inside. Children who eat gummies by accident need to be checked by a doctor even if they seem well.

If you were looking at these products for sleep or anxiety, talk to your doctor or pharmacist about options with safety data.

How we scored it

Product quality (15) and regulatory actions (15) are the weakest factors: products contain other drugs or none of the expected compounds, and the FDA rejects the mushroom in both food and supplements. Dose safety (30) reflects delirium, seizures and coma at amounts sold. Organ toxicity (45) and interactions (45) are higher because harm falls on the brain rather than the liver, and there is no dependence.