A note about synthesizing LSD:
This study identifed 68 ergot alkaloids that have a lysergic acid core. ↓ That doesn't mean that 68 alkaloids can be used as the precursor to LSD (many are probably just present in trace amounts), but it suggests that many ergot alkaloids can be used for LSD.
Unraveling the Ergot Alkaloid and Indole Diterpenoid Metabolome in the Claviceps purpurea Species Complex Using LC–HRMS/MS Diagnostic Fragmentation Filtering. Uhlig, Silvio, Rangel-Huerta, Oscar Daniel, Divon, Hege H., Rolén, Elin, Pauchon, Kari, Sumarah, Mark W., Vrålstad, Trude, Renaud, Justin B. 2021. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 69(25), 7137–7148. 10.1021/acs.jafc.1c01973
The 68 figure is mentioned in Raw Data Processing, page 7141
"… in the Pickard bust, they found that they were making the LSD with ergocristine. You also see in the list where it says ergotamine, and ergotamine tartrate is the traditional precursor for LSD. However, in the Pickard lab, they were using ergocristine because they found a way to get higher yields off of it, and it was basically a cost-effective situation for them to do, at least from what I understand." Krystle Cole. Sleepy Grass. 2011-09-07. YouTube: NeuroSoup.
https://web.archive.org/web/20210721211854/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU8Nlu8d2Ts 2:14–2:33
"The major alkaloids are, however, the amides of lysergic acid and of isolysergic acid, and the fragile 1-hydroxyethylamide precursors to them. All these are of interest as themselves, being psychoactive in different ways to different people. A second value is that all these will hydrolyze to the corresponding lysergic acids (LA and iso-LA) with strong base treatment. This mixture is the immediate synthetic precursor to the mixture of LSD and iso-LSD which, on chromatographic fractionation, will provide LSD itself. To be able to go from the local nursery, in two steps and one fractionation, to LSD, would certainly appear to be a virtue to some people."
Alexander Shulgin. TiHKAL. 1997. Transform Press. 9780963009692 Book 1: Chapter 17. MGS, page 314