Hello everybody!

I've been somewhat away from the Nexus lately since I've been so busy, but definitely still here and willing to put more energy into the science and testing side of the Nexus.

The Nexus team is offering an open invitation to all Nexus members who want to test plants for alkaloids, to write here what they want to test, and I will get them free LC-MS/FTIR/NMR lab testing for their plants.

The conditions to participate are:

1- The plants must be either wild/local or grown by the member (from seed or cutting doesnt matter), no store-bought dry ethnobotanicals.

2- They must be suspected to contain a natural psychedelic or related compounds, such as NMT/DMT/5-MeO-DMT/bufotenine/Harmala/Mescaline/salvinorin/LSA/etc

3- The tests will be done on extracts, not on plant material itself, so you'll have to do a small extract. The amount needed for analysis is very small, 10-20mg is plenty, so you can do it in a small amount of the plant material. A propper STB or A/B extract is great but if that's not possible, at least a crude extract like alcoholic extract or something of the sort, is good enough.

4- No destructive harvesting!! Please take care of plants and harvest small amounts sustainably.

5- Notes must be taken: Quantity of starting material vs quantity of extract, conditions of growth, season of harvest, info on local climate, pictures of plant etc..

6- A minimum of 2 samples must be sent at once, comparing some variable (extraction method, solvent used, condition of growth, specimens, whatever)


Whoever is interested please post here and write what plant(s) you want to test, and I will arrange for the lab testing to happen. Dont worry you wont have to give any personal info, it will be done anonymously.

Hi,

I would basically be interested. But don't know, if my plants qualify. Last year I bought some Phalaris clones (AQ1, BigMedicine, TurkeyRed and a picta strain) from a private person, which grow currently at my window and shall be planted in the garden this spring.

And I would actually be very interested in the profile of "Turkey Red" and a picta version.
The seller said, this picta has a 5-MeO-profile.
I'm not aware that anyone every did a proper analysis of a Turkey Red. That's why I'm interested. (If anyone is aware of a proper *C/MS profile of a Turkey Red then please give a link!)
But then I also don't know, if this would be the right time. As it is still winter here, and alkaloid profile is probably bad...

Yes I've been wanting to do this for a while .
Autumn olive Elaeagnus umbellata

grows everywhere in my area definetly contains alkaloids but to what extent is unknown.

this is so awesome endlessness.

is goo justifiable as an extract? or only solid precipitation?

Would like to send in some of my kanna plant. It has been growing like a bad herb.

Goo is no problem

As for the phalaris question, sounds perfect too. No problem that it is winter, it will be nice to compare the profile now in winter versus when you harvest again in some months from now..

Also endy what do you exactly mean by that
The conditions to participate are:

1- The plants must be either local or grown by them, no store-bought ethnobotanicals

Grown by them does that mean plants & seeds are okay if bought somewhere but grown for an extended time by a nexian?

Yes Ulim growing cuttings or seeds bought elsewhere is fine, just no dry ethnobotanicals from stores..The idea is to increase knowledge on local plants or plants nexians have that could be propagated in case the content is interesting.. also it makes identification more reliable since the nexians can take good pics of different plant parts and we dont have to depend on suppliers' words which may be wrong.

Kanna doesnt enter the criteria though since its not dmt or harmalas or mesc. Personally i find all sorts of different plants interesting and eventually we should be able to test them too but since i dont know how many people will participate, I think we better focus on those plants i mentioned first since more people will benefit from that info and its relevant to the focus of this forum. If not many samples are to be tested, we can broaden the scope. Hope you understand

Okay then i will send part of my hardware store lophophora which is already a good time in my possesion

Fantastic idea, I would very much like to participate! At present I have a few different strains of cacti, a large psychotria, and various seeds ready to start. Thanks for offering this opportunity

I would love to see Autumn Olive analyzed, I have a bunch of dried bark that I wildcrafted near me.

Thirding the Autumn Olive...

I'd also love to see analysis of Desmanthus leptolobus done. I have some freezing 1 year old plants in the ground perhaps retrievable by spring. Some other kind nexians may live in an endemic area (BundleflowerPower... )

Also, Passiflora species for harmala content. I'm interested in Passiflora incarnata as its the one that can grow near me, although analyses have in the past been quite low.

Got a load of homegrown Elaeagnus umbellata leaf that I really ought to work up and see if there's any goodies. How refined does the extract need to be? Will a simple boil and evaporate suffice?

I'm definitely interested. I have over 50 species of acacias that are available near me at a local nursery. I was planning on going there every weekend to do an extraction on one species per week. I guess now i have a really good reason.

I've found that the bark of Autumn olive seems to have higher concentrations of alkaloid than the leaf. It would be great to test the ones around my area . It's considered invasive in my state .

WIll the lab provide the spectra or just a yes/no report. Percentages?

Last time I sent a box of samples they paid little attention to my labeling and got several things mixed up, and all I got were useless numbers. Hopefully that won't be the case again.

Pinkoyd, they will definitely send percentages too. I can ask for the spectra reports too.

Im not sure about your specific test and what happened there but I assure you they work very well and any mislabelling issue that has happened in the past was a rare exception, and I appologize in their name for whatever may have happened. In any case when we start getting this going, I will supervise everything so that it works smoothly


So whoever posted here and is willing to participate, you are free to collect the samples and do the extraction and take all notes and pictures so that we can start getting this going. When samples are ready to be shipped, post here and I will give you the address to send it to. Please make sure to measure the starting plant material versus final extract so we can in the end have some percentages on plant material vs alkaloids.

As for whoever asked before, a simple tea and evap would not be good enough, you'd need to redissolve it in methanol or ethanol or something and filter that properly and evap again, or do an STB or A/B.

I have a couple russian olive extracts (bark and leaf) ready to go right now that I would be quite interested in seeing quantified.

The extraction process is documented here.

Any chance I could get these looked at?

Thanks for clarifying, just making sure I minimise my workload! Will follow up with secondary processing as suggested.

Yes dreamoar lets def get them tested