Well-known tryptamines include serotonin, an important neurotransmitter, and melatonin, a hormone involved in regulating the sleep-wake cycle.Tryptamine alkaloids are found in fungi, plants and animals; and sometimes used by humans for the neurological or psychotropic effects of the substance.[19][20][21] α-Alkylation of tryptamine makes it much more metabolically stable and resistant to degradation by monoamine oxidase, resulting in increased potency and greatly lengthened half-life.[19][20][21] The most well-known of these agents are α-methyltryptamine (αMT) and α-ethyltryptamine (αET), both of which were used clinically as antidepressants for a brief period of time in the past and are abused as recreational drugs.Like tryptamines, these related compounds are primarily active as agonists at the 5-HT2 family of serotonin receptors, with applications in the treatment of glaucoma, cluster headaches, or as anorectics.
The structure of substituted tryptamines with all positions labeled.