[3] Samandarin is also believed to be the active ingredient in Salamander brandy, a Slovenian traditional medicinal alcoholic drink with purported hallucinogenic and aphrodisiac effects.

[1][2] Early descriptions of salamander poisonings were found in the writings of many physicians and philosophers in Classical antiquity and the Middle Ages.

They believed that the mere sighting of the black and yellow spotted animal or ingestion of salamander ashes would lead to sickness and death.

[3] In 1899, Faust purified samandarin as a crystalline sulfate salt by killing the salamanders with chloroform, mincing their corpses, and performing a number of acid-base extractions.

In 1968, Habermehl and Haaf also investigated biosynthesis of samandarines with in vitro and in vivo experiments, finding that the compounds originate from a cholesterol precursor.

It is believed that the samandarine family of compounds is the active ingredient in an indigenous Slovenian drink called Salamander brandy.

Salamander brandy was first brought to attention in 1995 by an article published in the Slovenian magazine Mladina, describing the hallucinogenic and intensely aphrodisiac effects of the drink.

In the excerpt below, Ogorevc describes his intoxication with Salamander brandy: And then it…started unnaturally, colorfully glittering around the treetops and trees, which were weirdly, hysterically rushing into the depths of gorges…It was as if I were totally unburdened by the biology of extraterrestrial beings from some other planet and watched everything, the grass, the insects or a grazing cow in the vicinity…and absolutely everything seemed new and strange, and I wished to fuck something, anything.

The mixture is then left for a couple of months while the salamander secretes its toxins (supposedly samandarines) to avoid ethanol absorption until its eventual death.

Although he and his colleagues traveled to the region where Ogorevc supposedly bought Salamander brandy, Kozorog was unable to obtain any samples.

Those who do consume Salamander brandy, only do so accidentally and as a result, will experience paralysis in the legs (which is one of the symptoms of samandarin poisoning).

In his research, Kozorog was unable to find any hard evidence of the hallucinogenic properties Ogorevc described in Salamander brandy.

Considering the methods that have been described for preparing Salamander brandy, it is likely that samandarine toxins do play a role in the effects of the drink.

Kozorog claims that the excitement surrounding the psychedelic properties of Salamander brandy was engendered mainly by Ogorevc's humorous writing style and grandiose media coverage.

In the early stages of samandarin poisoning, there is over-excitation of the muscles – restlessness, hypertension, rapid breathing, dilated pupils, and increased mucus and saliva.

[1][3] The hallucinogenic and aphrodisiac effects of this molecule class have been mentioned in folklore and reported by media but are largely unfounded.

The carbon chain on the D ring of cholesterol is degraded by functionalizations with carboxyl groups and sequential decarboxylation reactions.