San Pedro Gurus Come Forth

[panchovilla]

Was their a time of the year when indigenous peoples searched for san pedro?

[Mezza]

If the Cacti are starved for water for about 30 days before harvest they are supposed to be more potent. I suppose during any dry season they would have an increased alkaloid content.


Preparation? There was a thread on here a while ago that had a full pictoral run-down on alkaloid extraction. THAT would be the best way. Other than that, cook it down with a pressure cooker, then pour the syrup into the 'fruit leather' trays of a food dehydrator. Let it run for a couple days and you'll have brittle sheets of cacti sludge. Grind them into a powder with a coffee grinder and cap it up. Test for potency by estimating ~100mg dose before taking the full ride.


Other than the above, you can try making a tea or eating the cacti. But it tastes really, really, REALLY bad


Mezza

[BrugmansiaBrujo]

There is this way, it involves cooking, but no extraction:

http://www.erowid.org/plants/cacti/c...paration5.shtm l



There is the easy no cook way I use:



BrugmansiaBrujo does not cook it at all. Peel and
de-spine
the cactus, saving only the green fleshy area just below the skin. Or
even easier, just de-spine it and don't peel it. Toss
the woody core and the white flesh near the woody core (alkaloids are
concentrated just below the skin in the green area). Cut up the
green flesh into pieces that will not stop the motor on your blender
(about 1/2-inch chunks or so). Put prepared fresh cactus in a plastic
bag and freeze solid. Then thaw, and place in blender with just a small
amount of water (the more water you add, the more volume you'll have to
later drink) and freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice. Whiz on high
until it is a thick, frothy green slime that is impossible to drink
without gagging on. Then place that thick slime in a large pitcher and
place it in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. In that time, all the liquid
will separate to the bottom of the pitcher, and the top 1-3 inches of
the pitcher will have floating on top all the undrinkable sludge that
made the original product fresh from the blender so thick and
disgusting. OK, now you can use a large kitchen spoon to remove
carefully all that sludge floating on the top. Now you are left with a
smooth green liquid that's not too slimy or bitter at all and quite
drinkable as-is. Or you can mix that green gold with orange juice 50/50
(only hand stir the mixture - DO NOT reblend) and guzzle it down.



This method seems most satisfactory, and much less time consuming than boiling, dehydrating, etc. The lazy man's way.



Harvest should be done at the hottest time of day during the hottest
time of year if grown outdoors. Water starving for a while if
grown indoors can simulate this, but really the best pedro is grown
outdoors in full sun and high heat. I grow mine outdoors in the
ground. I have thought about what makes it better than
greenhouse, and I believe it the high concentration of UV rays in the
sunlight. Perhaps you greenhouse or basement growers could irradiate
your cactus with a high-power blacklight. If you try it, do so a
little bit at a time, cacti can get sunburn if suddenly exposed to high
levels of UV light. Slowly introduce the cactus to more and more
hours of UV light over time, just before harvest.



I have seen estimates on the internet of using a 6" long piece of
cactus as a dose. This is rediculous IMHO, either that or I like to
trip too hard. Much more realistic is a piece somewhere between 18 and
24 inches long per person.

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Edited by: BrugmansiaBrujo

[Softrat]

When I lived in Cali I drank alot of San Pedro tea as the cactus was cheap and common. I have also heard about water starving the cactus to increase alkaloid content and think this is probably true. I have had times where I made tea from a cactus after it had ben watered heavily and it did seem to have lost much potentcy.

[jaguarangel]

I agree. Sitting for a month in the hot time of the year seems to bring favorable results.

[Ninja Master]

yes if you stress the plant properly it will be very potent. its
said to respond the most to water stressing. its also said that
peek summer heat is the time to harvest for potency. i dont know
i just grow and love.