Albert Hofmann First Synthesizes LSD

In Brief

Albert Hofmann first synthesized LSD at Sandoz in Basel on November 16, 1938, while researching compounds related to ergot. The initial synthesis did not immediately reveal the substance's unusual psychological effects. Those became apparent in 1943 when Hofmann returned to the compound. The two dates are often confused.

A Compound Made in a Research Program

Albert Hofmann first synthesized lysergic acid diethylamide at Sandoz in Basel in 1938, a milestone commonly dated to November 16. He was investigating compounds derived from ergot alkaloid chemistry. The compound was designated LSD-25 within the series. At this stage it was a substance prepared and evaluated as part of a search for medically useful effects. It was not yet recognized for the powerful changes in perception that made it famous. Conflating the first synthesis with the later discovery turns several years of pharmaceutical research into an anecdote about one day.

Why Ergot Was a Subject of Study

Ergot is associated with a fungus that infects cereals. Its compounds can have strong effects on the body and had attracted medical and chemical interest before Hofmann's experiments. A chemist could modify related molecules and compare what the resulting compounds did. That work required isolating and characterizing substances before attempting to interpret effects in animals or people. A molecule later regarded as culturally explosive first entered the record through such ordinary institutional practices. Its number and laboratory context tell us more about the purpose of the 1938 work than imagery borrowed from the counterculture decades later.

What Happened in 1943

Hofmann returned to the compound five years later. He described an unexpected experience in April 1943 and then deliberately tested its effects. The bicycle ride associated with the second episode belongs to that year, not to November 1938. The earlier synthesis made those observations possible but did not establish them. His later account is valuable for the chronology and for what he reported experiencing. It should still be read as a personal report, distinct from later controlled studies and from the broad claims others would make for the substance.

How a Compound Acquired Different Histories

LSD entered psychiatric research and later public debates over recreational use, regulation and ethics. The compound was studied, promoted and restricted for different reasons at different times. None of those later histories was contained in the first laboratory record. The distinction is useful because the word discovery can mean making a chemical, identifying an effect or developing a reproducible application. November 1938 marks the first of those milestones. Much of the subsequent history is about the difficulty of deciding what evidence was needed for the others and what institutions should be allowed to do with it.