This is certainly a potentially interesting one. By substituting the indole for a benzofuran ring system this compound seems a pretty close structural approximation to 5-MeO-DMT
Will it work though? The indole nitrogen moiety plays an important role in the interaction between tryptamines (be it DMT or substituted tryptamines like psilocin and 5-MeO-DMT) and the serotonergic receptor proteins. Hydrogen bonding between the nitrogen and residues in the protein stabilize and co-ordinate the docking of the drug ligand into the binding pocket in a way that will result in the signal being transduced, resulting in serotonergic activity.
Can the oxygen moiety of the benzofuran suitably fulfill this role? Oxygen residues are certainly also capable of hydrogen bonding, though if I recall correctly they tend to form weaker interactions than those of nitrogen. The precise co-ordination of the interaction may also differ slightly between the two since the nitrogen moiety has an associated proton whereas the oxygen does not. This may account for the reportedly high active dose when compared to its tryptamine counterpart. It certainly seems plausible that it would have some psychoactive properties though, even if it is not as pronounced as that of the tryptamine.
Then again determining the precise relationship between drug structure and activity is difficult. One just needs to look at the reported differences in experience between methamphetamine and "methiopropamine" to see that two structurally analogous substances that differ only by substitution of the ring system will not necessarily give similar results. That said I think this compound is a better approximation to 5-MeO-DMT than "methiopropamine" is to methamphetamine, so I'll be watching this one with some interest.
I guess the biggest looming question will be that of safety. Benzofuranamines are pretty new chemical territory, so whether this substance is metabolically safe over the short and long-term is unestablished. It might prove to be just as safe as the tryptamines or it might give everyone toenail cancer 10 years from now. As with most drugs (e.g. MDMA, cocaine, many pharmaceuticals) it seems probable that there will be a very small but unpredictable subset of the population that will suffer serious idiosyncratic adverse drug reactions to substituted benzofuran drugs.
Another concern might be that the alterations to the ring system chemistry may favor interactions with serotonin receptor subtypes other than those typically sought for recreational effect (usually 5-HT2), which could lead to unwanted and potentially dangerous side-effects such as overheating. In any case it should certainly not be assumed that this would be a like-for-like substitute for 5-MeO-DMT. The relationship between dose, effects, side-effects and toxicity may be quite different. As always with novel substances, caution is advised.
It's certainly nice to see some development of the tryptamine family seeing as it has been somewhat neglected in recent years.. even if that development is a substance that is technically no longer a tryptamine at all!
