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What is DMT? The molecule, 5-MeO-DMT and the risks

BySafe Ceremonies

DMT, short for N,N-dimethyltryptamine, is a psychedelic compound found in many plants. It is the main active ingredient in ayahuasca, and it is sometimes inhaled on its own, when its effects come on within seconds and pass within half an hour. A close chemical relative, 5-MeO-DMT, is the compound behind “bufo” or toad ceremonies. The two names look alike and are often mixed up, but they are different drugs with different risks.

This guide explains what each compound is, where it comes from, what research has found and what is known about the risks. It doesn’t cover doses or how to obtain or prepare either one.

What DMT is

DMT is a tryptamine, a molecule built from the amino acid tryptophan, in the same broad family as psilocybin and the brain chemical serotonin. Like the other classic psychedelics, it acts mainly on the serotonin 5-HT2A receptor.

Its history in Western science is short. A review in Frontiers in Neuroscience gives the outline: the Canadian chemist Richard Manske first made DMT in 1931, it was found in plants in 1946, and its psychedelic effects were only described in 1956, when the Hungarian chemist Stephen Szára extracted it from a plant and described what it did. Indigenous peoples in South America were using DMT-containing plants long before any of that.

Why the way it’s taken matters

The route changes everything about a DMT experience.

  • Swallowed on its own, DMT does almost nothing. Enzymes called monoamine oxidases break it down in the gut and liver before it reaches the brain.
  • In ayahuasca, the vine supplies compounds that block one of those enzymes for a while, so the DMT gets through. The experience then lasts around four hours. Our guide on what ayahuasca is explains the brew.
  • Inhaled or injected, DMT acts within minutes or less. The Frontiers review says effects from vaporized DMT come on as fast as an intravenous injection and last less than 30 minutes.

In a placebo-controlled study published in 1994, the psychiatrist Rick Strassman gave intravenous DMT to volunteers who had used psychedelics before. At the higher doses, people described a fast-moving, brightly colored display of images that peaked within about two minutes, and the effects had resolved by 30 minutes. Blood pressure, heart rate, pupil size and body temperature all rose, more so at higher doses.

A short experience is not necessarily a mild one, and once it starts there is no way to stop it.

DMT in the body, and the pineal gland story

DMT is made naturally in small amounts in mammals, including humans. That fact has grown into a popular story: that the pineal gland releases DMT at birth, during dreams, in deep meditation and at death, and that this explains near-death experiences.

The evidence doesn’t support it. In a 2018 paper titled “N,N-dimethyltryptamine and the pineal gland: separating fact from myth,” the pharmacologist David Nichols pointed out that the adult pineal gland weighs less than 0.2 grams and that its main job is making a tiny daily amount of melatonin, the hormone that helps set your body clock. Very small amounts of DMT have been detected in the brain, he wrote, but they aren’t enough to produce psychedelic effects. Whether natural DMT does anything in the human body is still an open research question.

If a facilitator tells you that a ceremony “activates your pineal gland” or “releases your own DMT,” treat it as a belief, not a fact about your body. Our guide on grounded and woo-woo language is about exactly this.

5-MeO-DMT and bufo

5-MeO-DMT is a related tryptamine with a different profile. A 2022 review in the Journal of Psychopharmacology lists its sources: the dried secretion of the Sonoran Desert toad (Incilius alvarius, formerly Bufo alvarius), several plants, and laboratory synthesis. When inhaled, its effects peak within two to five minutes, last 15 to 20 minutes, and are back to baseline by about 30 minutes.

Bufo ceremonies are often sold as ancient. The review found no conclusive historical evidence that Indigenous peoples used the toad for its psychoactive effects before 1984. Plants containing 5-MeO-DMT do have a documented traditional history in South America. The toad does not, as far as anyone has shown.

The review also describes what is known about risks:

  • Common acute effects include fear, anxiety, confusion, a strong sense of one’s own death, nausea and vomiting.
  • Some people report “reactivations,” brief returns of the experience later on, more often after inhaled use.
  • Psychosis has been reported, though rarely.
  • Combining 5-MeO-DMT with an MAO inhibitor such as harmaline, one of the compounds in ayahuasca, blocks the body’s main way of clearing it. Several deaths have been reported after use, though none clearly caused by 5-MeO-DMT alone. One involved ayahuasca taken together with 5-MeO-DMT.
  • When the review was published there were no completed human clinical trials. Clinical trials were only beginning.

Because the effects arrive so fast, a careful facilitator plans for the moment they hit: you take it lying or sitting where you can’t fall, with someone trained in first aid and able to keep your airway clear beside you. Our bufo and 5-MeO-DMT guide covers what a safe session looks like.

There is a cost to the toads too. National Geographic reported in 2023 that the Sonoran Desert toad, while not endangered, is under growing pressure from poachers collecting it for its secretion, on top of habitat loss, climate change and disease. A conservation official quoted in the article worried about the effect on the species as a whole.

Known risks of DMT

  • Overwhelming fear or confusion. NIDA describes the emotional range of psychedelics as running from intense happiness and connection to fear, anxiety and confusion.
  • Rises in heart rate and blood pressure, which matter if you have a heart condition.
  • Interactions with medicines and other substances, especially when DMT is combined with MAO inhibitors (as in ayahuasca) and serotonin-raising drugs such as SSRIs.
  • Risks for people with a personal or family history of psychosis or bipolar disorder, who are excluded from psychedelic research for that reason.
  • Uncertain content. Anything bought outside a lab has no reliable label, and “DMT” or “bufo” can be something else.

A note on the law

DMT is a Schedule I controlled substance in the United States, and 5-MeO-DMT is also controlled there. It is controlled in many other countries as well, while laws on ayahuasca and on toad secretion vary. Laws change, and this is a description, not legal advice.

Questions worth asking a center

  • Is this DMT or 5-MeO-DMT, and where does it come from? If it’s toad secretion, how is it collected?
  • Do you screen for heart conditions, mental health history and medicines, including antidepressants?
  • Will I be offered more than one substance on the same day or trip? How do you space them?
  • Who stays with me during the session, and are they trained to manage a collapse, vomiting or a seizure?
  • What support is there if I have reactivations or a hard time afterwards?

More guides

Reviews from past participants can show you how a facilitator handles the minutes that matter most in a short, intense session. You can search the Safe Ceremonies listings, including bufo and 5-MeO-DMT and ayahuasca.

Sources

Photo: Milky way near Mammoth Hot Springs by Yellowstone National Park (YellowstoneNPS), Public Domain Mark 1.0 (US National Park Service work).

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