I don't know anything about Ott, but he presumably did this a few decades ago when many of the bureaucratic considerations and regulations we have today may not have been very rigorous?
I agree with Dan's point and to clarify some things;
Jonathan Ott did introduce ibotenic acid and muscimol to the scientific research market back in 1976 however I don't know the prices. It is more likely he isolated the alkaloids from
Amanita sp. not synthesized them, here's why.
A. muscaria naturally grows in Northwest wilderness; identifying it is very easy and acquiring it is free. Furthermore in his magnum opus,
Pharmacotheon, he mentions obtaining 93mg of crystalline ibotenic acid which he and chemist Scott Chilton "had isolated from the mushroom
Amanita pantherina in [Chilton's] Seattle laboratory". If you're interested, Dr. Chilton published the bioassy in the 1975 issue of
McIlvainea (specifically; Chilton, W.S. I975. "The course of an intentional poisoning" Mcllvainea 2: 17-I8.) which I assume would contain their extraction method. Unfortunately I cannot find a freely available copy but in lieu you could try these;
Isolation: Takemoto,
Yakugaku Zasshi 84: 1186, 1964 (
Amanita strobiliformis); Eugster,
Tetrahedron Letters 1813, 1965 (
Amanita muscaria)
Synthesis: Gagneux,
Tet. Lett. 2081,1965; Nakamura,
Cherm. Pharm. Bull Jpn. 19: 46,1971; Kishida,
ibid. 14: 92, 1966; Sirakawa,
ibid. 14: 89, 1966
Lastly ibotenic acid's stability should also be considered. Independent isolations by Ott/Chilton and Eugster on "American
A. pantherina" and "Swiss
A. muscaria", respectively, both also yielded ibotenic acid's isomer, muscazone. The isolation procedure is suspected to have caused this. There are also claims of it decarboxylating by heat (or even drying of fungi) to muscimol, so special precautions and/or isolation steps might been needed to ensure stability of desired product.
Hope this helps.