home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- From: chris@xs4all.nl (chris)
- Newsgroups: alt.drugs
- Subject: Re: Lophophora diffusa
- Date: 30 Sep 1994 04:27:28 GMT
- Message-ID: <36g43g$lc4@news.xs4all.nl>
-
- rbrennan@aol.com (RBrennan) writes:
-
- >O.K. Chris, I found the article; this is the article that identified the
- >highest mescaline content in T. pachanoi and they used L. diffusa samples
- >as a control to determine the accuracy of their mescaline testing in
- >pachanoi.
-
- >The article is "Determination of psychotropic phenylalkylamine derivatives
- >in biological matrices by high-performance liquid chromatography with
- >photodiode-array detection" by Hans-Jorg Helmlin & Rudolf Brenneisen,
- >Journal of Chromatography, 593 (1992) 87-94.
-
- >Direct quote: "The intra-day precision of mescaline in the cactus sample
- >material [T. pachanoi] was determined by analyzing a dried and pulverized
- >*mescaline-free cactus specimen (Lophophora diffusa)* spiked with a
- >methanolic solution of 1 mg/ml mescaline," emphasis added.
-
- >I'm sure I have other info reinforcing my belief that L. diffusa is
- >mescaline-free, if this does not do it for you.
-
- Very good! I have also some stuff that states this. I KNEW that
- lophophora diffusa does not contain mescaline. Which makes it all the
- more interesting , because L. diffusa is DEFINETIVELY very active as a
- psychotropic plant. I will hereby present an account of a L. difffusa
- experience.
-
- In 1978 I undertook a journey to Mexico ( I'm living in Holland).
- I was 22 years old and had read all of Castaneda's stories to date.
- Eventually Castaneda turned out to be a fraud, but i was not aware of
- this at that time. I was a biology student at that time and was doing a
- minor in Botany. I read a lot of Schulte's stuff and works on ethobotany
- buy William Emboden. My goal was to collect some of the "lesser known"
- psychoactive plants from Mexico as mentioned by Emboden, bring 'em home to
- the lab, fractionate extracts, test the fractions on psychedelicity
- and discover a new pscychoactive substance.
- When in Mexico i aquainted a British botanist who was specializing on
- cactaceae from Mexico. He was able to point out exact locations to find
- certain cacti. One of these was L. diffusa. Because of the relative
- accessibility of the particular spot where this cactus could be found
- I chose to at least get some specimens of this species.
- I left on the day before christmas 1978 from Jalapa de Chimenez in the
- state of Veracruz to the city of Queretaro, 50 miles north of Mexico city,
- together with another english guy who was in Jalapa teaching english to
- rich mexicans and reading " waiting for Godot" in the meantime.
- The last part of the route to pole XX on the road from Queretaro to YY
- we traveled in the back of an old pickup truck, together with a huge pig
- and a barrel of gasoline. We got off at pole XX, walked up the hill by
- the side of the road and there they were: L. diffusa's all over the place.
- They are very hard to tell apart from real peyotes: there is apparently
- no difference in appearance: Like peyotes, this cactus has no spines. it
- defends itself against being eaten by sticking barely out of the ground,
- the main portion of the cactus being a cone shaped root which is to 6
- inches deep into te ground. Like this:
-
- (^^^^^^^^^^^)
- ___________( L.Diffusa)_________
- ( )
- Earth ( )
- ( )
-
- Another way this species apparently defends itself is its ABSOLUTELY
- HORRIBLE taste. My friend and I had decided we were going to find out
- what this cactus was all about. We set up tent in a nearby canyon,
- made a little fire and sliced about 10 specimens. into "peyote buttons"
- We tried to chew a button and swallow it, without succes: the taste was
- so repulsive it was impossible to swallow. Finally, by boiling 20 buttons
- in aguardiente and swallowing the liquid, we were able to get a fair
- amount of extract down our throats.
- Within 30 minutes my hearing began to change: it was was like every word
- I or my friend said was pitched down considerably until it sounded like
- a growling or rumbling. This effect lasted untill well after the actual
- experience. Afer another 10 minutes I felt catatonic: transfixed in a
- motionless position. Eventually i probably fell over on my side
- and lay there, unable to move. I suddenly saw myself walking through the
- desert, the same we were currently in, until I arrived at a lonely house
- in the middle of nowhere. I went inside and came into what looked like a
- doctor's waiting room. Several indians were sitting there, apparently
- waiting to meet the "doctor". Eventually, it was my turn to enter the
- doctors office. Behind a desk there was a "man" looking like a giant
- peyote cactus, all green and with a "crown" like the fluffy rosette on
- top ofd a peyote. The man spoke, introduced himself as "doctor Roskowski"
- or something like that. Then he (it?) asked me " what was my reason to
- come and visit him?" I did not know what to answer and said something like
- " well, uhuhuhuh , I uuh just took some cactus to see what it was like..."
- He immediately went furious and made me understand that I was wasting his
- time and that people came to him for very good reasons, for advice etc.
- So he ordered someone to kick me out and told me to leave the area
- immediately. and I was literally kicked out of
- the house and was back in the desert. I walked through the desert for a
- long time until i saw my friend walking towards me in the distance.
- At the moment we were close enough to say "how'ryadoin" I "woke up"
- and saw my friend standing in front of me. Later he told me he had had
- EXACTLY the same experience...He was frightened and wanted to leave the spot
- instantaneously. So we hitched back to Queretaro.
-
- Weird huh? This is a true story! So now about: what is it?
- L. Diffusa does not contain mescaline, which was obvious during
- the "trip": there were no bright visuals, nor a "psychedelic" feeling.
- The whole experience could be compared better to a " delirium" you get
- from plants like Datura, Belladonna etc., a dreamlike state with very
- realistic hallucinations, without any profoundness or a lifting of spirits
-
- Lophophora diffusa DOES contain several "(tetrahydro)isoquinolines" which
- could be regarded "mescaline after it reacted to other stuff" with the
- general structure:
-
-
- / \ / \
- I I I
- \ / \ /N
- I \
- R R
-
- Some names are pellotine , gigantine, anhalonidine, Lophophorine etc
- whereby the phenolic ring may be substituted with methoxy groups in
- various arrangements and the R's in the figure above could be methyls or
- hydrogens.
- Now one or a few are definitely very psychoactive, obviously with
- effects comparable to these above. I never got really into the
- psychopharmacology of these substances. Back around 1980 very little
- if anything at all was known (please enlighten me on more recent
- developments!)
-
- Since these substances are also present in the true peyote, L.
- williamsii, it is quite likely that they modify a peyote experience
- considerably, as compared to pure mescaline!!
-
- So again who has ever experience L. diffusa or L.williamsii
- and wants to share some experiences or other knowledge?
-
- Chris
-
-
-
-
-
-
-