Ibotenic acid is a chemical compound that is naturally occurring in the mushrooms Amanita muscaria and Amanita pantherina, among others. Ibotenic acid is a powerful neurotoxin that is used as a "brain-lesioning agent" and has shown to be highly neurotoxic when injected directly into the brains of mice and rats. Unlike muscimol, the main psychoactive constituent of Amanita muscaria, which produces sedative-hypnotic effects and dissociative hallucinations, ibotenic acid's psychoactivity is not completely established and does not contribute in any known way to the effects of Amanita muscaria other than serving as a prodrug to muscimol. Ibotenic acid is used as a brain-lesioning agent in the research environment. When injected intracranially, ibotenic acid causes the development of excitotoxic lesions of the brain.
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