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Wameron36

Erythrina vespertilio tea

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G'day,

Was just wondering whether anyone has had much experience in trying to make a tea out of this plant? Or at least any further knowledge on doing so?

I've bee having a little trouble sleeping recently and noticed one of these guys only within a few hundred metres of the house, so would be interested in trying a tea from the leaves for the sedative effects.

I've had a search through the internet but can't really find anything on the dose for tea, like how many leaves would be used.

Also read a few notes on people just chewing the leaves for similar effects. Again, what sort of quantity of leaves would be sufficient?

Any information or experiences would be great :)

Thanks

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Iv smoked some of the bark before, and it worked well as a muscle relaxant and made me tired. Im not sure how much I smoked, but it wasnt very much.

As for tea, I havnt tried it, but for E. mulungu, which has similar alkaloids, most things Iv read use between 8g and 25g. Most people simmer it for about 20min. I read somewhere here I think that E. Vespertilio is similar in potency to E. mulungu.

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Would that mass be for bark or leaves?

Does the concentration of the active components vary much between the two?

I think I may collect some material tomorrow.

Thanks mate!

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Bark I think. Not sure how much difference there is between the two.

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Well on the way home from uni yesterday I stopped off at this tree and collected a small section of bark. Took it home and shredded it as much as I could then left to dry out a little.

Spooned about a tablespoon into a small pot with about 1 1/2 cups of water and left to simmer for 25 minutes or so. Cooled down, added a small bit of honey for taste and drank it.

Tasted a little like cinnamon actually, with a slight spice to it. Was fairly pleasant to drink.

The effects were definitely noticeable for me, calming me right down and making myself tired. When I ended up deciding to head to bed, my mind was very clear and without many thoughts, yet full of images like one would get daydreaming. Though, the lack of thoughts sent me off to sleep quite easy, and the daydreams seemed to flow straight into real dreams. The dreams throughout the rest of the night were quite normal ones, but retained much better, and still very clear to remember. Definitely had a nice deep sleep though, and felt fairly great this morning. So I think I'll try this again next time I have trouble sleeping also, as I felt it helped quite nicely.

As for storing the little extra shredded bark I have left, keeping it in air-tight, dark, cool place would be fine? Anyone know how much the potency decreases over time?

Thanks again for the help :wink:

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Thanks for the report =] nice to know. There are a few around my local area too and also around uni (JCU in townsville).

You should get some seeds and grow some - they are fast growing and look pretty awesome. I have two smallish ones, and the one that recieves almost full sun (the other i grew on a windowsill for a few months) has really thick leaves with spines on the leaves - the other is less thorny. They look best as trees though.

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I know I've seen them there, at the uni, but I can't for the life of me remember where abouts on campus they were. That's where I first saw them and decided to see what they were. Or at least I thought it was.

Do they grow fine in pots?

I'm in a rental so can't really do all that much in the way of planting in the yard.

They won't seed until the end of the year will they? Though I guess I could just buy some.

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There is one across from the free parking area near CLT and one near the tech college heading to the hospital. There are also a few along riverway drive in rasmussen.

Mine have been in pots for a few months now and are doing fine. At first they outgrew their pots pretty quickly, but now theyve slowed down. SAB has seeds and E. crista-galli seed too $4 each and Herbalistics also has seed. You could probably even pick them up on ebay. They are easy to germinate if you pour boiling water on them and soak them overnight.

Id say they would flower in spring if you wanted to collect local seed

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Ah sweet. I'll have to have another look.

Yeah I saw those, I might have to grab a few from there. Good chance to buy a few other things also.

Thanks aye

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I've got it in pots here, doesn't like the cold much but will be fine up there. One seed is an effective dose for relaxing effects, my foaf tells me it goes well with hawaiian woodrose :)

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one could aswell infuse alcohol with it, and i think it's very popular in south america used by the stall holders at the witch markets. the people that sell pedro in the streets, they are like in a cosy dream state from that stuff, but snap out of it, for the periode of a trade. but maybe i'm wrong and they all just have a lot of day time naps, hehehe.

i think it's quite cold hardy, but it goes dormant over winter, at least in northern nsw.

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Interesting info - although I think you may be referring to E. mulungu or crista-galli for the south american use (but they all apparently have very similar alkaloids).

I know they lose their leaves in some places over the dry season, but Iv never heard of it growing anywhere cool (not too many people talk about this plant at all really)

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I've got it in pots here, doesn't like the cold much but will be fine up there. One seed is an effective dose for relaxing effects, my foaf tells me it goes well with hawaiian woodrose :)

 

Interesting. What sort of effects did your friend's friend experience with this combination? Was this using seed described like in your post?

Also, I've obtained a couple of seeds that I plan on growing. Would it be an okay option to try germinate them at this time of the year or is there a more suitable time?

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Interesting. What sort of effects did your friend's friend experience with this combination? Was this using seed described like in your post?

Also, I've obtained a couple of seeds that I plan on growing. Would it be an okay option to try germinate them at this time of the year or is there a more suitable time?

 

My foaf tells me the effects of one seed when taken just after the hbw peak increased visual component and gave a nice buzzy mindstate, apparently.

I'd wait until spring to plant them. :)

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Awesome. Will do. By then I should be able to collect a few local seeds also.

Thanks

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In townsville I dont think you will have problems germinating the seeds at any time of the year. Also a bit of a note on consuming the seeds - I dont think thats very safe... they apparently can be pretty variable in their alkaloid content, and may be toxic (moreso than the bark), so care should be taken with that. Id personally stick to the bark - its plenty strong, and I hear the tea actually tastes quite nice.

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Yeah I can't see myself messing with the seeds for that reason.

The tea from the bark has a cinnamon taste to it, I liked it anyway.

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Nice - Iv been meaning to go out and get some bark myself to try out a tea, but I think scraping bark off a roadside tree looks a little sus

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Haha that's true.

It was a shame. We are moving into another place somewhere in the area and one of the houses we looked at had a decent sized stump in the back yard of this, with a bunch of fresh new growth on it. The house was good too, and the rest of the yard would have been great for me. Someone else was accepted though unfortunately.

Leaves would be a bit easier to grab.

I've got a bunch dried out that I've been meaning to try another tea out of. Just with the leaves though, to see how it compares.

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Irie,

I have no experience with Erythrina vespertilio.

But lots of experiences with Erythrina corallodendron, which makes a great tea in conjunction with cinnamon.

Harvested the same as cinnamon...

You could probably put on some workman overalls and trim back the trees to harvest a few branches.??.. B)

I give the Mrs a tea when she starts bitching about PMT...It brings it on quickly after!!!

It thins the blood as far as I understand??

The seeds are poisonous as far as I know!!

But they make cool bead necklaces!! The ones we have are red & black!

Respect,

Z

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Wow that would have been a cool place to move into! Shame your didnt get it. Apparently aborigines used to eat the leaves even though it had a mild sedative effect, so I think they would be considerably less potent than the bark... they would probably taste a fair bit different though.

And thats actually a pretty good idea zaka - ill have to find someone with some high vis clothes that i could borrow :lol: Not sure about the blood thinning, but possibly - a lot of anti-inflammatory things do that. The alkaloids you want are all poisonous to some degree as far as I know, its just the seeds are very potent, and are likely to have toxic effects (I think its a case of the desirable effects kind of have a 'ceiling' where they dont get much stronger, but more negative effects come in). E. vespertilio seeds are red, orange and brown and also used to make necklaces =]

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Irie,

Just try & look official!! Some road cones would complete the look!!!

Some info I found;

For problems of menstruation Erythrina corallodendrum is often used. For pains during period, three yellow leaves are boiled with an inch of cinnamon (Cinnamon verum). To start a period, take a nutmeg (Myristica fragrans) and cut it into three pieces. Add a branch of jiwof glo (Ludwigia octovalvis), three leaves of fonn san (Blechum brownie) and a branch of bouton do (Spilanthes uliginosa). Boil these together. Each day use fresh leaves but the same nutmeg until period starts.

Verna Slane 1987

But I'm sure(?) I read that the leaves are use as fish poison??

Respect,

Z

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Could be - I think Iv heard similar actually. Things that are poisonous to fish often arent poisonous to humans, so its possible.

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I chewed and ate a couple of leaves and they're just a little bitter. Weren't the tastiest, but not horrible or anything.

Couldn't say I noticed any effects from that, although that was only 2 or 3 leaves to see what they tasted like as an edible.

Not the best source of info, but the wiki page on Erythrina herbacea says that the seeds are used as a rat poison, and the bark and leaves used to make fish poison. Though not sure how the alkaloids compare to vespertilio?

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Anyone have details on the alkaloid content of the seeds? Can get 250g for $35 and see how they go...

 

A quote from Torsten:

 

Quote

great muscle relaxant and mild sedative. all erythrinas can be used this was. our native species (E.vespertilio) and even our weed species (E.crista-galli) have very potent seeds that can substitute for the overharvested E.mulungu bark. In fact, some botany texts say that E.mulungu is not a distinct species and should be E.crista-galli.

 

Snu's book details only 0.025% alkaloids in the leaf and stem but hypaphorine and N,N-dimethyltryptophan in E. arborescens, E. lithosperma [along with N,N-dimethyltryptophan methyl ester] and E. variegata. My primary interest is in the erythrina alkaloids..

"Eating 1/4-1/2 a seed of an Erythrina sp. has been claimed to result in a stuporous inebriation. Seeds of Erythrina spp. are generally believed to be highly toxic. However I know of several cases where they have been ground up and taken internally, in doses ranging up to 6 seeds, with no apparent effects other than sedation, and occasionally nausea, with some reporting no effects at all...".

Edited by Alchemica

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