The fungus that promised the female orgasm and was a fiasco – 08/13/2023 – Science

“On the island of Hawaii… growing only on lava poured 600 to 1,000 years ago, the fungus is reputed to be a powerful female aphrodisiac.”

These are the effects of a fungus of the possible genus dictyophoradescribed by John Holliday and Noah Soule in an article published in 2001 in the journal International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms.

The authors add that “nearly half of the women in the study — there were 19 participants, it was reported — experienced spontaneous orgasms when smelling the fungus.”

The researchers do not mention the capricious sexist nature of the fungus and its apparent potential to only affect women. But Holliday and Soule take care to explain the scientific arguments for their discovery:

“The volatile components of the spores may have certain similarities to the neurotransmitters that are activated during sexual encounters.”

That’s how a mysterious fungus that grows on the lava of Hawaii’s volcanoes became an aphrodisiac icon, displacing oysters.

As if science wasn’t enough, a legend arose

Next to the article International Journal of Medicinal Mushroomswas narrated the legend of Makealani, daughter of the ancient king of Hawaii, Kupakani.

The story goes that, while walking through the woods on her 16th birthday, Makealani noticed a strange and attractive scent. At that moment, she began to imagine herself alone with Kepa’a, the son of her father’s friend.

When he got to the source of the odor, Makealani noticed a strange orange-pink plant. It stood with a single stem and a curious veil around it.

The scent, equally repulsive and enticing, urged her to get down on her knees and sniff it straight from the source. And, absorbed in a deep sexual ecstasy, she ran to the village, where she met Kepa’a and gave herself completely to him.

Specific research on the fungus was published without protocols, without photographs of the fungus and without definitive conclusions, which quickly raised suspicions about its veracity.

At the time, Holliday was an editor at the journal that published the article. But he was also an employee of a powerful pharmaceutical company.

Holliday and Soule were then accused of seeking only the economic benefit that would be offered by a pharmacy elixir with aphrodisiac purposes.

The supposed aphrodisiac fungus

Some fungi belonging to the genus dictyophora are closely related to sexuality in different cultures. rebranded as Phallusdue to their whimsical shape, these fungi have been the object of curious observation and attraction.

There are people who consume it in its egg state, as if it were a fungus of the genus Amanita. It is not known to be anything poisonous or harmful. But of course there is also no evidence that the fungus causes orgasms or activates sexual desire.

And, as the legend of Makealani already announced, this unique fungus hides a terrible characteristic: its fetid odor. To some people it smells like decaying meat or fish, while to others it resembles the putrid odor of a corpse.

It is enough to walk through the field to know if there is any fungus. Phallus around. Its scent can be perceived long before it is located visually.

Why it seems true that a fungus causes sexual desire

Smell is one of the most powerful senses of most living beings.

The plant kingdom is a master at using odors for a variety of functions, including reproduction. Whether to attract pollinators or feed themselves, plants have a wide variety of aromatic strategies.

Imperceptible scents also affect humans. We’ve all heard that fear can be smelled—birds themselves smell fear in their young.

And our body, faced with certain stimuli or situations, such as possible illnesses, produces hormones that dogs or cats can detect thanks to their powerful sense of smell.

The responsible agents are pheromones —chemical substances that we produce and that provoke reactions in other living beings. They have a wide variety of functions: alarm, trail, dispersion…

But perhaps one of the best-known functions of pheromones is sexual attraction. They are widely used by insects, although the extent to which they intervene in the sexual response of mammals is not completely certain.

With all this information in the collective unconscious, it is easy to believe that the odor of a fungus produces orgasms in women. And so we return to the fungus that grows in the lava of Hawaiian volcanoes, but now to unravel its legend.

Sometimes the truth hurts

A National Geographic reporter, Christie Wilcox, became aware of Holliday and Soule’s article and decided to check whether or not the sex fungus story was true.

Despite the very little information available, Wilcox was able to locate John Holliday and interview him. He provided only vague indications of where to find the fungus and little or no information about his experiments.

In his search, Wilcox contacted friends and researchers in Hawaii, to try to expand his incipient information. And soon he began to suspect fraud, since no one there knew the legend of King Kupakani’s daughter.

The legend didn’t even seem to be linguistically coherent. It blended aspects of Maori and Hawaiian culture, explained Hawaiian studies professor Glenn Kalena Silva of the University of Hawaii.

Enthusiastic about the subject, emeritus professor of botany Don Hemmes, from the University of Hilo, Hawaii, ventured further than expected. Hemmes defined the name of the much desired fungus. He stated that it could be the fungus phallus cinnabarina.

No orgasms, but a disgusting horror

Christie Wilcox organized a trip in search of the fungus, accompanied by her boyfriend Jake. Her intention was to carry out the research as realistically as possible.

After a long search, they found several specimens described as the fungus dictyophora. Jake and Wilcox then began testing.

Both smelled the fungus at different distances and time intervals, recording their sensations and their biological reaction when given over to the disgusting aroma of the much desired fungus.

And the reaction was not long in coming. Christie Wilcox remembers almost throwing up, while Jake only mentions the unpleasant odor.

It is true that both of their heartbeats increased, but this had nothing to do with sexual ecstasy. It seemed more to have been caused by the urge to flee away from that hideous fungus.

It was clear to Wilcox that the precious fungus was not sexual at all, as it did not produce pleasurable sensations, not even remotely so. But, according to Holliday, pharmaceutical research continues to this day, which also lacks any confirmation.

The mystery continues and the hideous phallus remains in popular culture as a curious aphrodisiac, alongside asparagus, bananas and rhinoceros horns — regardless of its smell.

* Sergio Fuentes Antón is professor of Didactics of Experimental Sciences at the University of Salamanca, Spain.

This article was originally published on the academic news site The Conversation and republished under a Creative Commons license. Read the original Spanish version here.