The drink of the Gods

The earliest written reference to the consumption of fungi as a medicine, rather than a food, is within the Sanskrit hymns contained in Rig veda, which forms a part of the oldest sacred texts of Hinduism, the Vedas. In one of the hymns (Book 8, hymn 4, stanza 3) 'Soma' is described as an inebriating ritual drink, which was thought to infer divine powers on those who drank it:  

We have drunk Soma and become immortal;  

We have attained the light, the Gods discovered. 

Now what harm may foeman's malice do to harm us? 

What, O immortal, mortal man's deception?   

The toxic fungi  Amanita muscaria, commonly known as the fly agaric, was used to prepare the soma.¹ The feelings of euphoria or invincibility experienced by those who drank it were eventually attributed to a group of isoxazoles centuries later. Two of these - ibotenic acid (1) and muscimol (2) - were first isolated from the Japanese mushroom Amanita ibotengutake  in the 1960s, but found in abundance in all Amanita mushrooms.