Rick Doblin, president of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, said Hoffman died of a heart attack.

Hofmann first synthesized the compound lysergic acid diethylamide in 1938 and discovered the drug's psychopharmacological effects five years later when he accidentally took the substance, The New York Times (NYSE:NYT) reported. He went on to take LSD hundreds of times the newspaper said.

He said that LSD is a valuable psychiatry tool but was disturbed by the use of LSD for entertainment, the newspaper said. Hofman told psychiatrist Stanislav Grof in 1984 that LSD experience made him "aware of the wonder of creation, the magnificence of nature and of the animal and plant kingdom."