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Rik
Biohacker


Registered: 01/09/11
Posts: 183
Loc: Caribe
Last seen: 1 year, 11 months
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Id please
#14165418 - 03/22/11 03:58 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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PoC
Relax


Registered: 03/10/04
Posts: 2,142
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Re: Id please [Re: Rik]
#14166712 - 03/22/11 07:37 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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Cereus
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Rik
Biohacker


Registered: 01/09/11
Posts: 183
Loc: Caribe
Last seen: 1 year, 11 months
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Re: Id please [Re: PoC]
#14166837 - 03/22/11 08:20 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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I found this
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leptocereus
its in spanish but you can translate it. It must be some subdivision because it says there are 15 species. From what I have been able to read there are 3 endemic cactus here and Im kinda feeling in the mood to try and find one of each. One has a wild population of 50 specimens. I think it will be a nice conservation act.
Is there any relation between spines and alkaloids?? Because it seems to me that most active cacti have either no or little spines. Alkaloid production as an alternative defense mechanism??
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karode13
Tāne Mahuta



Registered: 05/19/05
Posts: 15,290
Loc: LV-426
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Re: Id please [Re: Rik]
#14167777 - 03/23/11 12:07 AM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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T.bridgesii have large spines and are chock full of alkaloids so I wouldn't necessarily say that spineless ones are more active than their spiky brethren.
A lot of cactus spineless and spiny contain trace amounts of mescaline and other alkaloids. It's just that some seem to have a higher concentration than others. No one knows exactly why, only theories.
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naum



Registered: 10/09/07
Posts: 4,069
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But T. bridgesii have a relatively accessible epidermis to small things like insects compared to something say like T. spachianus or many other columnar cacti or even globular cacti for that matter.
Rik: That being said the mescaline/ active alkaloids as a chemical defense mechanism doesn't really make too much sense if you consider that members of Lophophora other than williamsi contain no appreciable amount of mescaline, and mescaline concentration is highly variable ranging from almost nothing to north of 5% dry weight of the dry weight in both Trichocereus pachanoi and peruvianus.
Keep in mind that many cacti contain a large portion of the pathway necessary mescaline biosynthesis--it's only a couple of steps that are missing or simply deficient. There hasn't bee much research on the topic so only the cacti know for now.
That being said... I can't think of many particularly spikey cacti that contain high concentrations of mescaline. But all of the cacti known to contain high concentrations of mescaline were used as entheogens. Perhaps a more plausible thesis is that it was easier for humans to bioassay less spikey cactus.
-------------------- Let's upgrade our security practices and move toward client-side PGP for encrypted PMs. My Public PGP Key: hxxps://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/24002249#24002249
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Rik
Biohacker


Registered: 01/09/11
Posts: 183
Loc: Caribe
Last seen: 1 year, 11 months
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Re: Id please [Re: naum]
#14168726 - 03/23/11 08:20 AM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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Im thinking that the Taino indians had trade with all of the americas, from the people of north america, center america and south america. For example here there are native populations of ololiuqui, as well as cojoba/yopo, cacao, tabaco, and I am sure many other, but since the colonization process was so brutal in the caribbean much of that knowledge was either lost or banned by the Spanish. But the indians sure loved their magical plants. There are is room for speculation here i suppose. How can one know if a cacti has alkaloids? I chewed a piece of it just to know if it was bitter and it cas actually kind of refreshing to chew.
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