C. schinoides is a plant commonly found throughout the southwestern coast of South Africa. It is reported to be used by the san and xhosa by chewing the leaves in a manner similar to catha edulis to reduce fatigue, hunger, and thirst. It is closely related to C. edulis but phytochemical analysis revealed no presence of cathinone or any stimulant alkaloids (Tembrock et. al, 2017). Rather, a high abundance of 5 different terpenes were found which are suspected to be the cause of stimulatory effects. It seems the only one they identified was friedanalone of which there is not much info on it's psychoactive effects, although I may be misreading the paper and the other could be listed somewhere.

I have not been able to find much info on the use of this plant. There are only two sources that state it is used for it's stimulant effects.

I am wondering if anyone has tried this plant or has any more info on it. I have tried chewing a very small amount (5 medium sized fresh leaves) but cannot say I felt much of note. I will very slowly scale up the dose.

Please note the leaves of a closely related species, C. peragua, are said to be toxic so proper identification is very important. No reports on the toxicity of C. schinoides is available. It seems that C. peragua differs from C. schinoides in that it has a high sterol content instead of a high terpene content. Perhaps these sterols are responsible for it's toxicity?

"Fried-anal-one"? - it's "friedelanone"

In my view, the Tembrock et al. paper is more interesting in highlighting the presence of PEA in various plants. Have any of these Cassine schinoides terpenoids been assayed for stimulant activity or was this just guesswork? I think that a closer look at the exact means of traditional usage might be instructive - did you succeed in producing any stimulant effects yet, Woolmer?

Hehe oops.

The stimulant activity of the terpenoids is pure guesswork.

There is very little information on traditional use. Only one book reports its use as a stimulant and appetite suppressant.

For this reason and the fact that there is a similar-looking toxic species, I have stopped further experimentation.