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cuber3
Stranger



Registered: 12/28/09
Posts: 54
Loc: Belgium
Last seen: 3 years, 6 months
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Questions on storing San Pedro
#14262230 - 04/09/11 08:57 AM (12 years, 9 months ago) |
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Hi all! I've been thinking of getting myself a good amount of San Pedro during the upcoming summer. I've been reading up on ways to store it, but I still have some questions.
First off, the drying process. I read that you could turn it into powder by cutting it into buttons, oven-drying them for a while on low temperatures, and then grinding it into a powder.
Q1 I read that you would set your oven to 150°F (~100°C) and leave it for a few hours until completely dry. Erowid says: Mescaline MELTING POINT 183-186° C (Sulfate dihydrate) MELTING POINT 181° C (Hydrochloride) I'm guessing that means I'm safe with above-mentioned temperature setting?
Q2 Would I remove the core of the cactus prior to drying, or does it contain psychoactive alkaloids? From the info I found, it does contain alkaloids, but not a substantial amount. Would I lose much potency throwing out the core?
Q3 What do I use to grind it into a powder? Would a blender work just fine, or do I need to resort to a coffee grinder or something?
Q4 What's the best way to store this powder? Would I just keep it in an airtight container and store it in a dark/cold place, or would it be better to put the powder in capsules and freeze it?
Q5 How long does this powder preserve its potency? Say that I'd freeze the powder in capsules, how long would they last on average?
Q6 Also an important factor, how safe is this powder to dose? Could the mescaline get unevenly distributed throughout the powder, causing some doses to be either really weak, or unexpectedly potent? If so, is there a way to get around this?
I also read about the simple alcohol extraction.
Q7 Would it pay off to do this, compared to just storing the powder? Does the tar-like paste you end up with in the end preserve better or longer than regular powder?
Q8 How about stomach discomfort? Does the powder cause the same amount of discomfort you would get from eating/drinking it the regular way? Does the alcohol-extracted paste cause less stomach discomfort?
Q9 Amount of mescaline
Quote:
Fresh cactus to mescaline ratio 400 g contains about 480 mg mescaline - 0.12% mescaline per gram of cactus (according to Schultes & Hofmann) 400 g contains about 200 - 300 mg mescaline - 0.05 - 0.075% mescaline per gram of cactus (according to another source)
Dried cactus to mescaline ratio 100 g contains about 200 - 300 mg mescaline - 0.2 - 0.3% mescaline per gram of cactus Dry weight is 25% of the fresh weight (75% water)
So, based on this info if I'd get a kilo of fresh San Pedro, this would contain about 1200mg of mescaline according to Schultes/Hofmann, or 500-750mg based on the other source. The difference seems pretty huge. When dried, according to this info a kilo of fresh cactus would turn into 250 grams of dried cactus, yielding 500-750mg of mescaline.
I'd divide this into three to four doses each containing around 200-250mg worth of mescaline. Could anyone that has more knowledge/experience with this please verify? Does 1 kilo of fresh san pedro roughly translate to 3-4 moderate doses?
I'm sorry for the amount of questions, I hope I didn't exaggerate too much. I did do a lot of searching around before I got around to writing this post though. Nobody has to feel obliged to take the time and answer all my questions.
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RourkeAnderson
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Registered: 03/18/11
Posts: 608
Loc: Surrey, BC, Canada
Last seen: 10 years, 3 months
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Re: Questions on storing San Pedro [Re: cuber3]
#14262970 - 04/09/11 12:39 PM (12 years, 9 months ago) |
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I'm not a cacti master, but I've been reading around and can answer a few of the questions at least.
Q1. You "Should" be safe with 150, but most people cut the cactus into thin slices and double string it for drying by a fan. It usually means the mescaline will end up 100% protected.
Q2. Using the stringing method I'd leave the core in tact, it DOES contain SOME alkaloids. You wouldn't miss much if you skipped the core though. My guess would be 20% of the alk is in the core.
I'm afraid I don't know the other answers, hopefully this Pseudo-Bump will get some more of Shroomeries Cactus lovers in here so they can set you on the right path.
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karode13
Tāne Mahuta



Registered: 05/19/05
Posts: 15,290
Loc: LV-426
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Re: Questions on storing San Pedro (moved) [Re: cuber3]
#14264257 - 04/09/11 08:20 PM (12 years, 9 months ago) |
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This thread was moved from The Ethnobotanical Garden.
Reason: You'll probably get better responses in here as the Ethnobotanical Garden is about growing plants and not really about processing them.
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