Muscimol
Also known asAgarin · Pantherine · Agarine · 5-Aminomethyl-3-hydroxyisoxazole · 5-(Aminomethyl)-3(2H)-isoxazolone · Pantherin · 3-Hydroxy-5-aminomethylisoxazole · 5-(Aminomethyl)-3-isoxazolol
5-(aminomethyl)-1,2-oxazol-3-one
- PubChem CID
- 4266
- ChEMBL
- CHEMBL273481
- Measurements
- 41
- InChIKey
- ZJQHPWUVQPJPQT-UHFFFAOYSA-N
I · Summary
What is known
Published passages, each quoted whole and attributed to the database that published it. Two blocks are written here rather than quoted, and both say so where they stand: the synthesized summary at the top, which may draw only on the passages beneath it, and the history note, which cites the works it came from. Every claim in either carries a marker to its source.
What it is
Crystals. Formerly used as a sedative and an anti-emetic. (EPA, 1998)
CAMEO ChemicalsU.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 1998. Extremely Hazardous Substances (EHS) Chemical Profiles and Emergency First Aid Guides. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Muscimol is a member of the class of isoxazoles that is 1,2-oxazol-3(2H)-one substituted by an aminomethyl group at position 5. It has been isolated from mushrooms of the genus Amanita. It has a role as a oneirogen, a psychotropic drug, a GABA agonist and a fungal metabolite. It is an alkaloid, a primary amino compound and a member of isoxazoles.
Muscimol has been used in trials studying the treatment of Epilepsy and Parkinson's Disease.
muscimol has been reported in Amanita gemmata, Amanita pseudosychnopyramis, and other organisms with data available.
Recognized use
Muscimol, thought to be a agonist of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), was administered to eight neuroleptic-free subjects with tardive dyskinesia. At oral dose levels from 5 to 9 mg, involuntary movements were consistently attenuated, usually in the absence of sedation. These results support the view that pharmacologic attempts to stimulate GABA-mediated synaptic transmission may afford symptomatic relief to patients with tardive dyskinesia.
Therapeutic Uses
Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB)PMID 35117Tamminga CA et al; Arch Gen Psychiatry 36 (5): 595-8 (1979)
/EXPL/ Six patients undergoing stereotactic procedures for essential tremor received microinjections of muscimol (a gamma-aminobutyric acid-A [GABA(A)] agonist) into the ventralis intermedius thalamus in areas where tremor-synchronous cells were identified electrophysiologically with microelectrode recordings and where tremor reduction occurred with electrical microstimulation. Injections of muscimol but not saline consistently reduced tremor in each patient. The effect had a mean latency of 7 minutes and lasted an average of 9 minutes. /It was proposed/ that GABA-mediated thalamic neuronal inhibition may represent a mechanism underlying the effectiveness of surgery for tremor and that GABA…
Therapeutic Uses
Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB)PMID 10443891Pahapill PA et al; Ann Neurol 46 (2): 249-52 (1999)
/EXPL/ /A Phase 1 clinical trial sponsored by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)/ will examine the safety and effectiveness of infusing ... muscimol into the brain to control seizures in patients with intractable epilepsy (frequent seizures that persist despite therapy). Muscimol, which is similar to a naturally occurring brain chemical called GABA, has been shown to reduce seizures in rats... . The objectives of this study are to test the hypotheses that direct infusion of the brain (convection enhanced delivery) with neurotransmitter receptor agonists is 1) safe and 2) can be used to study the basic pathophysiology of the epileptic focus in human subjects..…
Therapeutic Uses
Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB)ClinicalTrials.gov;Brain Infusion of Muscimol to Treat Epilepsy. From a search of https://clinicaltrials.gov/search/intervention=muscimol on November 19, 2008
Isolated from Amanita muscaria; Used to study GABA receptors; [Merck Index] Used in studies of GABA-A receptors; [ChemIDplus]
Use Classification
Haz-Map, Information on Hazardous Chemicals and Occupational DiseasesMerck Index - O'Neil MJ, Heckelman PE, Dobbelaar PH, Roman KJ (eds). The Merck Index, An Encyclopedia of Chemicals, Drugs, and Biologicals, 15th Ed. Cambridge, UK: The Royal Society of Chemistry, 2013.
A GABA A-agonist that causes rapid and reversible suppression of neurophysiological activity.
Use Classification
Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB)PMID 18377997Full text: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2440580
Muscimol is produced naturally in the mushrooms Amanita muscaria, Amanita pantherina, and Amanita gemmata, along with muscarine, muscazone, and ibotenic acid. (L1142)
Use Classification
How it acts
Molecular orbital calculations have been carried out on muscimol. The calculated properties of the molecules are related to the ability of muscimol to displace (3)H-labeled GABA (gamma-butyric acid) from the postsynaptic receptors of human cerebellum, & it is suggested that the dominant influence on the gabaergic activity is the pi-electron distribution in heterocyclic ring.
Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB)PMID 6290798ARMSTRONG DR ET AL; J THEOR BIOL 97 (2): 267 (1982)
Previous electrophysiological studies have shown that the GABA(A)-receptor agonist muscimol is able to markedly increase the firing rate of rat nigral dopamine (DA) neurons. This action of the drug is paradoxical since local microiontophoretic application of the drug is associated with a clearcut inhibition of these neurons. ... An attempt was made to analyze the mechanism of this action of the drug /in this study/. Administration of muscimol (0.25-4.0 mg/kg, iv) was associated with a dose-dependent increase in firing rate as well as an increased bursting activity of the nigral DA neurons. Both these effects of muscimol were clearly antagonised by intravenous administration of the NMDA recep…
Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB)PMID 11043612Erhardt S, Engberg G; Life Sci 67 (15): 1901-11 (2000)
Behavior carries the pharmacological classes and the acute-effect durations, with plasma half-life kept separate from duration of effect.
History, discovery and cultural use
— Not in this archive. PubChem, ChEMBL and the Human Protein Atlas publish pharmacology, regulation and toxicology, and none of them publishes a heading for when Muscimol was first made, by whom, or how it has been used. That is a gap in the databases this site reads and not a gap in the literature — the history of these compounds is written, at length and under peer review, in the works below. This site does not summarize them; it says where they are. Where a published passage above happens to touch origin or traditional use, it appears inside the entry that carries it.
Histories of this field
Scholarship on psychedelics generally, not on Muscimol specifically. Whether any of these treats this compound is a question for the book, not for this page.
Mescaline: A Global History of the First Psychedelic
Traces mescaline and the peyote and San Pedro cacti from pre-Columbian ritual use through nineteenth-century chemistry to twentieth-century psychiatry and the counterculture.
Jay M. Mescaline: A Global History of the First Psychedelic. Yale University Press, New Haven and London; 2019. ISBN 9780300231076.
Expanding Mindscapes: A Global History of Psychedelicsopen access
Essays on the international and cross-cultural history of psychedelic science, deliberately decentring the standard North American and European account.
Dyck E, Elcock C, editors. Expanding Mindscapes: A Global History of Psychedelics. The MIT Press, Cambridge MA; 2023. ISBN 9780262546935 (paper), 9780262376891 (open access). doi:10.7551/mitpress/14417.001.0001.
Plants of the Gods: Their Sacred, Healing, and Hallucinogenic Powers
Botany, ethnography and chemistry of the principal hallucinogenic plants, by the founder of modern ethnobotany and the chemist who first synthesized LSD.
Schultes RE, Hofmann A, Rätsch C. Plants of the Gods: Their Sacred, Healing, and Hallucinogenic Powers. 2nd ed. Healing Arts Press, Rochester VT; 2001. ISBN 9780892819799.
Psychonauts: Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind
The tradition of scientific self-experimentation with psychoactive drugs, and its part in the emergence of psychology and of modernism.
Jay M. Psychonauts: Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind. Yale University Press, New Haven; 2023. ISBN 9780300257946.
Ancient Psychoactive Substances
Archaeological and bioarchaeological evidence for psychoactive plant use across the ancient world.
Fitzpatrick SM, editor. Ancient Psychoactive Substances. University Press of Florida, Gainesville; 2018. ISBN 9780813056708.
A chapter tracing psychedelic and entactogen research from earlier ritual use through the mid-century research period to current clinical trials.
Stroud C, Posey Norris SM, Matney C, editors. History and Current Status of Psychedelics and Entactogens for the Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders. In: Exploring Psychedelics and Entactogens as Treatments for Psychiatric Disorders: Proceedings of a Workshop. National Academies Press, Washington DC; 2022. NBK587225.
Workshop proceedings record what participants said; they are not a consensus statement of the National Academies.
Peer-reviewed review covering the isolation, synthesis, pharmacology and ritual use of peyote and mescaline.
Dinis-Oliveira RJ, Pereira CL, da Silva DD. Pharmacokinetic and Pharmacodynamic Aspects of Peyote and Mescaline: Clinical and Forensic Repercussions. Current Molecular Pharmacology 12(3):184–194; 2019. doi:10.2174/1874467211666181010154139.
Institutional archives
- Heffter Research Institute Funds and coordinates clinical research on psilocybin, and keeps records of the studies it has supported since 1993. Sponsors the research it archives.
- Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) Sponsors clinical research, chiefly on MDMA-assisted therapy, and publishes an archive of historical and contemporary documents. A sponsor and an advocacy organization, not a disinterested archive; its clinical programme has a commercial arm.
The rest of this dossier
- Affinity — 41 measurements in this archive, equilibrium constants kept apart from functional readouts.
- Toxicology — 10 published passages, plus any assay in this archive bearing on toxicity.
- Legal — no DEA record is held here — which is not a finding that this compound is uncontrolled.
- Systems — where this compound’s targets are transcribed, by brain region and tissue.
Passages via PubChem descriptive sections, aggregating DrugBank, LiverTox, FDA, DEA, HSDB, EPA. Each is quoted whole and attributed to the database that published it. The only prose written here about Muscimol is the history note, which says so on its face and carries a reference for every claim in it.
II · Identity
Structure and descriptors
Descriptors are computed here with RDKit from the structure PubChem returns — not from the archive's stored copy, so an edited local structure cannot reach this table.
- Formula
- C4H6N2O2R
- Molecular weight
- 114.10g/molR
- Exact mass
- 114.0429DaR
- cLogP
- -0.57R
- TPSA
- 72.0ŲR
- H-bond donors
- 2R
- H-bond acceptors
- 3R
- Rotatable bonds
- 1R
- Aromatic rings
- 1R
- Heavy atoms
- 8R
- Fraction sp³
- 0.250R
- Formal charge
- 0R
Computed with RDKit 2025.09.2 from the SMILES returned by PubChem. Audit run 26/09/2026.
III · Behavior
Behavioral summary
Class, mechanism, and the duration of acute effects — each quoted from the record or trial that publishes it. Duration of effects and plasma half-life are shown separately, because they are different quantities and diverge by a factor of three or four.
Classification
Duration of acute subjective effects
—
No controlled human trial reporting a duration for this compound is cited here. The archive does hold onset and duration ranges for it, inherited from an earlier build, but their source column is empty and so they cannot be shown. A duration is not inferred from a chemical relative.
Plasma elimination half-life
How fast the body clears the drug — not how long the effects last. The two diverge sharply: LSD is cleared with a half-life of about 2.6 h while its subjective effects run 8–12 h.
No half-life is published for this compound in the sources this site reads.
Primary pharmacological drivers
ChEMBL holds no curated mechanism-of-action record for this compound. The measured affinities below are the evidence this archive has for what it binds.
Mechanism, as published
Quoted verbatim from the database named after each passage, never summarized.
Molecular orbital calculations have been carried out on muscimol. The calculated properties of the molecules are related to the ability of muscimol to displace (3)H-labeled GABA (gamma-butyric acid) from the postsynaptic receptors of human cerebellum, & it is suggested that the dominant influence on the gabaergic activity is the pi-electr…
Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB)PMID 6290798ARMSTRONG DR ET AL; J THEOR BIOL 97 (2): 267 (1982) Previous electrophysiological studies have shown that the GABA(A)-receptor agonist muscimol is able to markedly increase the firing rate of rat nigral dopamine (DA) neurons. This action of the drug is paradoxical since local microiontophoretic application of the drug is associated with a clearcut inhibition of these neurons. ... An attemp…
Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB)PMID 11043612Erhardt S, Engberg G; Life Sci 67 (15): 1901-11 (2000) In many neurons, increased rates of firing are accompanied by expression of the proto-oncoprotein Fos. ... Fos-like immunoreactivity in the mamillary body and the anterior thalamus /was examined/ following unilateral injections of ... muscimol into the ventral tegmental nucleus of Gudden (VTN). These injections resulted in a marked incre…
Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB)PMID 8814891Shim I, Wirtshafter D; Brain Res. 1996 Mar 18;712(2):173-8.
IV · Clinical
Clinical description
Where this compound's substance class sits in ICD-11 and DSM-5-TR, and how much of the recorded literature speaks to each domain of a mental status examination.
No diagnostic chapter is shown for this compound. Either PubChem records no MeSH pharmacological class for it, or the class it records is not one of the substance classes ICD-11 gives a chapter to. Inferring a chapter from the compound’s name or its binding profile would be a diagnosis this archive is in no position to make.
How much has been written about each domain
The clinical domains, and how many of the records this archive holds for this compound say something under each. What the terms mean, and the word list behind every spoke, are set out in the method.
- Mood 1
- matched on “elation”, “euphoria”, “irritab” · in Toxicology: Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB)
- Perception 1
- matched on “hallucinat”, “hallucinogen” · in Toxicology: Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB)
- Psychomotor activity 1
- matched on “restless”, “stupor” · in Toxicology: Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB)
V · Systems
Systems physiology
Where the targets this compound binds are transcribed — brain regions on the left, peripheral and autonomic tissues on the right. A join of two measurements, not a claim about what the compound does to either.
Brain
basal ganglia: drawn as the caudate nucleus, putamen and globus pallidus.
Measured but not drawn — this anatomogram has no outline for them: retina 22.8, midbrain 2.4, spinal cord 2.2, pituitary gland 0.5.
Body
Square-root ramp · shared scale across both plates
Shading is transcript level — not affinity, and not affinity combined with expression. Outlined but unshaded organs hold none of this compound’s resolved targets above the atlas’s detection threshold. Anatomy from EMBL-EBI Anatomogram (Apache License 2.0); regions identified by Uberon (uberon.org), CC BY 3.0.
Brain regions
Regions where this compound's measured targets are transcribed. Linked from the plate above.
retina
22.8 nTPMmidbrain
2.4 nTPM- Beta2ADRB26.7 pX2.4
spinal cord
2.2 nTPM- Beta2ADRB26.7 pX2.2
hippocampal formation
2.1 nTPM- Beta2ADRB26.7 pX2.1
amygdala
2.1 nTPM- Beta2ADRB26.7 pX2.1
cerebral cortex
1.8 nTPM- Beta2ADRB26.7 pX1.8
basal ganglia
1.6 nTPM- Beta2ADRB26.7 pX1.6
hypothalamus
1.2 nTPM- Beta2ADRB26.7 pX1.2
cerebellum
0.5 nTPM- Beta2ADRB26.7 pX0.5
pituitary gland
0.5 nTPM- Beta2ADRB26.7 pX0.5
Peripheral & autonomic
Tissues outside the CNS expressing the same targets — where a compound's bodily effects become possible.
lung
18.4 nTPM- Beta2ADRB26.7 pX18.4
liver
13.3 nTPM- Beta2ADRB26.7 pX13.3
skeletal muscle
10.9 nTPMspleen
7.9 nTPM- Beta2ADRB26.7 pX7.9
stomach 1
7.1 nTPM- Beta2ADRB26.7 pX7.1
salivary gland
6.9 nTPM- Beta2ADRB26.7 pX6.9
urinary bladder
6.4 nTPMheart muscle
6.3 nTPM- Beta2ADRB26.7 pX6.3
smooth muscle
3.5 nTPM- Beta2ADRB26.7 pX3.5
small intestine
3.5 nTPM- Beta2ADRB26.7 pX3.5
colon
2.9 nTPM- Beta2ADRB26.7 pX2.9
kidney
1.8 nTPMduodenum
1.8 nTPM- Beta2ADRB26.7 pX1.8
thyroid gland
1.8 nTPM- Beta2ADRB26.7 pX1.8
adrenal gland
1.6 nTPM- Beta2ADRB26.7 pX1.6
pancreas
1.1 nTPM- Beta2ADRB26.7 pX1.1
Each row joins two published measurements and nothing else: the affinity this archive holds for the compound at that target, and the transcript level the Human Protein Atlas reports for that target’s gene in that region. Bars scale with expression only. Expression is not activation — a receptor transcribed in a region is a receptor available to be bound there, which is a weaker and more defensible claim than saying the region is affected.
6 of this compound’s targets could not be resolved to a gene and are absent from both columns: Alpha-1, Alpha-2, GABA-A receptor; agonist GABA site, GABAA, GABAB, Gamma-aminobutyric acid receptor subunit gamma-1.
Expression data from Human Protein Atlas (CC BY-SA 3.0), RNA expression, nTPM (normalized transcripts per million), consensus tissue dataset. Uhlén M, et al. Tissue-based map of the human proteome. Science. 2015;347(6220):1260419.
VI · Profile
Affinity rosette
The strongest measurement at each of 8 molecular targets. Cell-line and whole-organism screens are excluded here — they carry no affinity — and appear in the table below.
VII · Toxicology
Toxicological profile
What has been measured, and what has been published — kept apart, and neither scored. There is no risk rating on this page; the archive once carried one, identical for every compound, produced by a stub.
Measured in this archive
Assays that bear on toxicity, drawn from the same ChEMBL records as everything else on this page. They are measurements of what a compound binds or does to cells — not verdicts about what it does to a person.
No hERG, cytochrome, cytotoxicity or transport measurement exists for Muscimol in this archive.
Lethal-dose values — animal studies
These are not human doses. An LD50 is the dose killing half of a group of animals of one species by one route, and it is a poor predictor of human risk for these compounds. Each value is printed whole, with the species and route it was measured in, because a lethal dose separated from those two facts is worse than no figure at all. Nothing here supports inferring a safe dose for anyone.
LD50 Mouse sc 3.8 mg/kg
Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB)Budavari, S. (ed.). The Merck Index - Encyclopedia of Chemicals, Drugs and Biologicals. Rahway, NJ: Merck and Co., Inc., 1989., p. 995
LD50 Mouse ip 2.5 mg/kg
Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB)Budavari, S. (ed.). The Merck Index - Encyclopedia of Chemicals, Drugs and Biologicals. Rahway, NJ: Merck and Co., Inc., 1989., p. 995
LD50 Rat iv 4.5 mg/kg
Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB)Budavari, S. (ed.). The Merck Index - Encyclopedia of Chemicals, Drugs and Biologicals. Rahway, NJ: Merck and Co., Inc., 1989., p. 995
LD50 Rat oral 45 mg/kg
Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB)Budavari, S. (ed.). The Merck Index - Encyclopedia of Chemicals, Drugs and Biologicals. Rahway, NJ: Merck and Co., Inc., 1989., p. 995
As published
Quoted verbatim from the database named after each passage, never summarized — a summary of a toxicology statement is a new claim.
Toxicity Summary
Muscimol is a potent GABAA agonist, activating the receptor for the brain's major inhibitory neurotransmitter, GABA. Muscimol actually binds to the same binding site on the GABAA receptor complex as GABA itself, as opposed to other GABAergic drugs such as barbiturates and benzodiazepines which bind to separate regulatory sites. GABAA receptors are widely distributed in the brain, and so when muscimol is administered,…
Human Toxicity Excerpts
/HUMAN EXPOSURE STUDIES/ Human volunteers who ingested 7.5 mg muscimol or 50 to 90 mg ibotenic acid experienced within an hour symptoms that lasted 3 to 4 hours, with a few effects that lingered for about 10 hours and a hangover (headache) the next day. Subjects became inactive and experienced fatigue (the mushrooms also often cause an initial drowsiness, stupor or sleep), mild nausea and vomiting, muscle spasms in t…
Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB)Gosselin, R.E., R.P. Smith, H.C. Hodge. Clinical Toxicology of Commercial Products. 5th ed. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins, 1984., p. II-248
/SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS/ Intoxication produced by Amanita muscaria & related species arises from anticholinergic & hallucinogenic properties of variety of isoxazole deriv. symptoms incl irritability, restlessness, ataxia, hallucinations, & delirium. /Isoxazole deriv of Amanita muscaria & related species/
Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB)Gilman, A. G., L. S. Goodman, and A. Gilman. (eds.). Goodman and Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics. 6th ed. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc. 1980., p. 98
/SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS/ Amanita muscaria ... causes salivation, perspiration, nausea, bradycardia, and mydriasis. ... One to four mushrooms cause euphoria, a sense of lightness, colored visions, and visual hallucinations. Although muscarine is a constituent of these mushrooms, there is no constriction of the pupils in this poisoning. Instead there is mydriasis, which is thought to be a sympathetic effect from action on…
Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB)Grant, W.M. Toxicology of the Eye. 3rd ed. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas Publisher, 1986., p. 74
/SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS/ The /emotional change/ is sufficiently attractive to some that Amanita pantherina (which is more potent and more toxic than Amanita muscaria) is collected in the Pacific northwest and consumed (raw or cooked) for recreational purposes. Specimens of the fly agaric found in the eastern USA (especially the yellow variety) are said to be much less psychoactive than those collected in the west. Only r…
Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB)Gosselin, R.E., R.P. Smith, H.C. Hodge. Clinical Toxicology of Commercial Products. 5th ed. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins, 1984., p. II-248
For more Human Toxicity Excerpts (Complete) data for MUSCIMOL (9 total), please visit the HSDB record page.
Published passages via PubChem toxicology sections, aggregating Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB), RTECS, LiverTox. No figure on this page is scored, ranked or combined into a risk level.
VIII · Evidence
Every measurement
One row per published value. The identifier in the last column resolves to the ChEMBL assay record it was read from.
Equilibrium binding constants 21
Ki and Kd — a concentration at equilibrium. Directly comparable across rows at the same target.
| Target | Class | Type | Value (nM) | pX | Organism | Assay |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GABAA | GABA receptors | Ki | 1.30 | 8.89 | HUMAN | PMID 9396785 |
| Unchecked | Unclassified | Ki | 2.60 | 8.59 | — organism not recorded | CHEMBL1020117 |
| GABAA | GABA receptors | Ki | 2.88 | 8.54 | HUMAN | PMID 9396785 |
| GABAA | GABA receptors | Ki | 4.00 | 8.40 | Rattus norvegicus | CHEMBL680229 |
| GABAA | GABA receptors | Ki | 4.30 | 8.37 | HUMAN | PMID 9396785 |
| GABAA | GABA receptors | Ki | 4.57 | 8.34 | HUMAN | PMID 9396785 |
| GABAA | GABA receptors | Ki | 5.00 | 8.30 | HUMAN | PMID 9396785 |
| GABAA | GABA receptors | Ki | 5.37 | 8.27 | HUMAN | PMID 9396785 |
| GABAA | GABA receptors | Ki | 5.75 | 8.24 | HUMAN | PMID 9396785 |
| GABAA | GABA receptors | Ki | 6.00 | 8.22 | Homo sapiens | CHEMBL3370250 |
| GABAA | GABA receptors | Ki | 6.10 | 8.21 | HUMAN | PMID 9396785 |
| GABAA | GABA receptors | Ki | 6.76 | 8.17 | HUMAN | PMID 9396785 |
| GABAA | GABA receptors | Ki | 6.80 | 8.17 | HUMAN | PMID 9396785 |
| Unchecked | Unclassified | Ki | 7.00 | 8.15 | — organism not recorded | CHEMBL2317990 |
| GABAA | GABA receptors | Ki | 8.31 | 8.08 | HUMAN | PMID 9396785 |
| GABAA | GABA receptors | Ki | 8.40 | 8.08 | HUMAN | PMID 9396785 |
| GABAA | GABA receptors | Ki | 8.91 | 8.05 | HUMAN | PMID 9396785 |
| GABAA | GABA receptors | Ki | 9.10 | 8.04 | HUMAN | PMID 9396785 |
| GABAA | GABA receptors | Ki | 11.00 | 7.96 | Homo sapiens | CHEMBL681334 |
| Unchecked | Unclassified | Kd | 15.20 | 7.82 | — organism not recorded | CHEMBL2417020 |
| GABAB | GABA receptors | Ki | 460 | 6.34 | HUMAN | PMID 11093776 |
Functional readouts 20
IC₅₀, EC₅₀, AC₅₀ and potency. Assay-dependent, and not interchangeable with a binding constant.
| Target | Class | Type | Value (nM) | pX | Organism | Assay |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GABAA | GABA receptors | IC50 | 3.00 | 8.52 | Rattus norvegicus | CHEMBL681302 |
| GABAA | GABA receptors | IC50 | 3.20 | 8.49 | Rattus norvegicus | CHEMBL681130 |
| GABAA | GABA receptors | IC50 | 5.00 | 8.30 | Rattus norvegicus | CHEMBL681138 |
| GABAA | GABA receptors | IC50 | 6.00 | 8.22 | Rattus norvegicus | CHEMBL681137 |
| GABAA | GABA receptors | IC50 | 6.00 | 8.22 | Rattus norvegicus | CHEMBL681241 |
| Gamma-aminobutyric acid receptor subunit gamma-1 | GABA receptors | IC50 | 6.00 | 8.22 | Rattus norvegicus | CHEMBL681136 |
| GABAA | GABA receptors | IC50 | 10.00 | 8.00 | Rattus norvegicus | CHEMBL681240 |
| GABAA | GABA receptors | IC50 | 16.00 | 7.80 | Homo sapiens | CHEMBL881988 |
| Unchecked | Unclassified | EC50 | 53.70 | 7.27 | — organism not recorded | CHEMBL3370496 |
| Unchecked | Unclassified | EC50 | 54.00 | 7.27 | — organism not recorded | CHEMBL3370496 |
| Beta2 | Adrenergic receptors | EC50 | 210 | 6.68 | Homo sapiens | CHEMBL3370259 |
| Beta2 | Adrenergic receptors | EC50 | 214 | 6.67 | Homo sapiens | CHEMBL3370259 |
| Alpha-2 | Adrenergic receptors | EC50 | 407 | 6.39 | Homo sapiens | CHEMBL3370257 |
| Alpha-2 | Adrenergic receptors | EC50 | 410 | 6.39 | Homo sapiens | CHEMBL3370257 |
| Alpha-1 | Adrenergic receptors | EC50 | 537 | 6.27 | Homo sapiens | CHEMBL3370251 |
| Alpha-1 | Adrenergic receptors | EC50 | 540 | 6.27 | Homo sapiens | CHEMBL3370251 |
| Gamma-aminobutyric acid receptor subunit rho-1 | GABA receptors | EC50 | 692 | 6.16 | Homo sapiens | CHEMBL3370253 |
| Gamma-aminobutyric acid receptor subunit rho-1 | GABA receptors | EC50 | 700 | 6.15 | Homo sapiens | CHEMBL3370253 |
| Gamma-aminobutyric acid receptor subunit rho-1 | GABA receptors | EC50 | 2,300 | 5.64 | Homo sapiens | CHEMBL2340049 |
| GABA-A receptor; agonist GABA site | GABA receptors | EC50 | 27,000 | 4.57 | Homo sapiens | CHEMBL2340052 |
- P
- PubChem
- C
- ChEMBL
- R
- Computed here with RDKit
- D
- Derived here from the stored measurement
IX · Trials
Registered clinical trials
Studies filed with ClinicalTrials.gov that name this compound as an intervention. A registered trial is a protocol, not a result — status and enrollment are printed beside every row, and withdrawn studies are counted rather than hidden.
2T
Registered studies
0T
Open or ongoing
2T
With a phase recorded
By phase
A study may carry two phase codes at once, so these count studies bearing each phase and do not sum to the total.
- Phase 12
By status
The registry’s own status for each record. Withdrawn and terminated studies are counted here rather than hidden — a stopped trial is part of what is known.
- Withdrawn1
- Terminated1
Every matched study
Newest first by start date. Each identifier opens the registry record it came from; the title is the sponsor’s own, quoted.
- NCT00921128Withdrawn · Phase 1
Convection-Enhanced Delivery to Study the Pathophysiology Underlying the Clinical Features of Parkinson s Disease
- Enrollment
- 0Tactual
- Started
- 2009-06-02
- Sponsor
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Conditions Parkinson's Disease
Matched “Muscimol” in the study’s intervention “Muscimol”
- NCT00005925Terminated · Phase 1
Brain Infusion of Muscimol to Treat Epilepsy
- Enrollment
- 3Tactual
- Started
- 2000-06-23
- Sponsor
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Conditions Epilepsy
Matched “Muscimol” in the study’s intervention “Muscimol”
Records from ClinicalTrials.gov (U.S. National Library of Medicine, NIH), API v2. A study is listed against a compound only when a verified name for that compound appears as a whole word in one of the study's own intervention names. A short code must appear as written, and a name the registry uses for something else (Aleph, a vaccine maker) is not matched. Title matches are not accepted. The matched name and the intervention text it matched are shown with every row.
Searched as Muscimol · Pantherine · 5-Aminomethyl-3-hydroxyisoxazole. Run this search at the registry — it returns the unfiltered result, including studies this page rejected as belonging to a different molecule.
A registered trial is a protocol somebody filed with the registry. It is not a result, and nothing on this plate says whether Muscimol worked.
X · Legal
Controlled-substance status
United States federal scheduling, read from the DEA records this archive holds. Not legal advice, and an absent record is not a finding that a compound is uncontrolled.
Other regulatory records
Registers outside the DEA that hold an entry for Muscimol — chemical-safety and national inventories, each naming itself. They are not scheduling decisions.
The New Jersey Worker and Community Right to Know Act requires public and private employers to provide information about hazardous substances at their workplaces. (N.J.S.A. 34:5A-1 et. seq.)
Releases of CERCLA hazardous substances are subject to the release reporting requirement of CERCLA section 103, codified at 40 CFR part 302, in addition to the requirements of 40 CFR part 355. Muscimol is an extremely hazardous substance (EHS) subject to reporting requirements when stored in amounts in excess of its threshold planning quantity (TPQ) of 500 or 10,000 lbs. Extremely hazardous substances that are solids are subject to either of two threshold planning quantities ... The lower quantity applies only if the solid exists in powdered form and has a particle size less than 100 microns; or is handled in solution or in molten form; or meets the criteria for a National Fire Protection As…
Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB)40 CFR 355 (USEPA); U.S. National Archives and Records Administration's Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. Available from, as of November 30, 2008: https://www.ecfr.gov
Persons in charge of vessels or facilities are required to notify the National Response Center (NRC) immediately, when there is a release of this designated hazardous substance, in an amount equal to or greater than its reportable quantity of 1000 lb or 454 kg. The toll free number of the NRC is (800) 424-8802. The rule for determining when notification is required is stated in 40 CFR 302.4 (section IV. D.3.b).
Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB)40 CFR 302.4 (USEPA); U.S. National Archives and Records Administration's Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. Available from, as of November 17, 2008: https://www.ecfr.gov
Pursuant to section 8(d) of TSCA, EPA promulgated a model Health and Safety Data Reporting Rule. The section 8(d) model rule requires manufacturers, importers, and processors of listed chemical substances and mixtures to submit to EPA copies and lists of unpublished health and safety studies. 3(2H)-Isoxazolone, 5-(aminomethyl) is included on this list. Effective date 3/7/86; Sunset date: 2/19/95.
Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB)40 CFR 716.120 (USEPA); U.S. National Archives and Records Administration's Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. Available from, as of November 30, 2008: https://www.ecfr.gov
An absent DEA record is not a finding that Muscimol is legal. It means this archive holds no DEA passage for it. The Controlled Substances Analogue Enforcement Act reaches substances that appear on no schedule by name, and many compounds here are ring-substituted analogues of scheduled drugs. Nothing on this plate should be read as saying a compound may lawfully be made, held or supplied.
United States federal status only. State law differs, and so does the law of every other country — none of it is represented here. Scheduling changes, and this reflects the DEA records held by PubChem descriptive sections when the monograph was last harvested, not necessarily today. This is a record of what a database publishes, not legal advice.
XI · Literature
Sources behind this dossier
The papers this compound's values were read from, ranked by what each contributed. Not a review of the field.
Every paper below is one some value on this page came from — a binding constant, a passage of pharmacology or toxicology, or a measured duration. Each entry says what this archive took from it. Nothing else is claimed about any of them: the title is the study’s own account of itself, and a summary written here would be an assertion with no source behind it.
- 01
Ebert B, Thompson SA, Saounatsou K et al. · Molecular pharmacology 1997
- · 14 measurements at 1 target (Ki), strongest GABAA at 8.89 pX
- 02
Chang Y, Covey DF, Weiss DS · Molecular pharmacology 2000
- · 1 measurement at 1 target (Ki), strongest GABAB at 6.34 pX
- 03
Erhardt S, Engberg G · Life sciences 2000
- · Mechanism of Action
- 04
Shim I, Wirtshafter D · Brain research 1996
- · Mechanism of Action
- 05
Armstrong DR, Breckenridge RJ, Suckling CJ · Journal of theoretical biology 1982
- · Mechanism of Action