Most, if not all of these fungal molecules are constructed using L-tryptophan, an essential amino acid commonly found in mushrooms that is used to build many different proteins in our bodies, as well as what do magic mushrooms look like in the wild neurotransmitters like serotonin and melatonin. Aside from knowing that it’s important for them, Young says we don’t have a good answer for why tryptophan shows up in mushrooms, too. But, as with other therapeutic compounds in mushrooms, the coincidence could pay off for humans Mushroom foraging, usually for culinary use, is a popular pastime throughout temperate regions of the United States and Canada, Europe, Australia, Japan, Korea, and parts of the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent. It offers people a chance to get out into nature, and maybe find some magic fungi along the way. But foraging doesn’t come without risks. It can be difficult to distinguish edible species from toxic ones, so if you are at all in doubt over the mushroom you have found, you should not eat it.