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Auxin

Ashwagandha, the rest of the plant

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So I just harvested my plants and got the nice chewable root bark stripped off and drying, my house smells so good :)

I also harvested all ripe berries for trial as a medicine as per tst et al.

Still I am left with a mountain of herbage. Green berries, leaves, stems, root wood.

What good uses are there for this stuff? :unsure:

Leaf: I know its smokable- but I dont smoke any more, I know its extract is medicinal primarily based on trials of the extracts utility in selectively sensitizing cancer cells to radiation- yet I dont want to distill 4 liters of ethanol nor do I have cancer AFAIK, I previously just ground it up and swallowed it as part of my medicinal regimen when fending off swine flu.. thats when I discovered dosing that way makes for an effective but gentle laxative :blush: And since I dont eat meat/dairy I'm unlikely to need that :lol:

So basically, is there anything else to do with leaf that doesnt involve smoking, solvents, or turning my bowels into yogurt?

Green berries: not sure if there even is a use for Green berries. I'm hesitant to eat green berries from a solanaceous plant, particularly when even the ripe berries are potentially toxic in overdose (alkaloids). Theres some saponins in there I think- hair conditioner? I bet it'd do something or other to hair and I'm likely to try. I know they might coagulate milk but I dont eat cheese, not even plant derived cheeses. Other uses?

I dont expect much pharmacological uses for the stems, might save some to whittle tools from.

Root wood, this is a big question mark for me. In the supplement industry the whole farkin roots are powdered. I'm not so able to powder wood and the root bark has most of the taste and smell and its chewable in chunks so I isolate the root bark and use it but I dont know for sure if I'm throwing out good medicine by not using the root wood? I save it so I can decoct it if I get desperate but so far I've never got desperate and I'm not sure how I'd test to see if theres enough withanolides/sitoindosides/undiscovered immunomodulating polysaccharides, etc in there to bother with.

Is there any known use for tap root wood besides carving trippy little snuff tubes and hippie totems that smell faintly of a potato that was sat on by a horse?

Side note: 3 years ago and this year as well I weighed the dried root bark and dried root wood, the root bark constituted ~45% total root dry weight in both instances.. so if all the goodies are in the root bark its roughly double potency.

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So basically, is there anything else to do with leaf that doesnt involve smoking, solvents, or turning my bowels into yogurt?

 

maybe coldwater extractions? but than, water is a solvent, isn't it?

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haha, you knew what I meant :P

But yeah I figure 'pon saving at least a good arm load of leaf as emergency medicine in the event of any major disease scenario. I could try to make it non-laxative but even if I failed, getting the runs is better than toxic mega-colon or spanish flu or something.

Plants for a future notes that the leaf is insect repellant, possible potential as a mulch for house plants.

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Cheeky bump :blush:

Side note: 3 years ago and this year as well I weighed the dried root bark and dried root wood, the root bark constituted ~45% total root dry weight in both instances.. so if all the goodies are in the root bark its roughly double potency.

 

Auxin, did you ever test the inner root?

I have almost finished seperating all my rootbark and rootwood and wanted to know if it was worth hanging onto the wood?

And also if the rootbark by itself turned out more potent?

Seeds were from you originally come to think of it :wink:

Edited to add: Also, when you trialed the ripe berries as an oneirogen did you discard the seeds? Really want to eat these berries, something about the calyx on these and cape gooseberries is very appealing.

Edited by centipede

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Nope, I never tested the wood as I couldnt figure out a solidly quantifiable method. I sure hope my estimate of the goodies mostly being in the bark was right- wood has to be decocted but the bark I can chew even when dry.

For the berries I just ate them whole, trying to crush the seeds while chewing. The seeds have actives in them and extracts have been found to be sedating/narcotic. Its an unusual mildly bitter taste that kind of made me hungry- something reminiscent of eggplant+chicory.

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My plants are doing great btw. Thx Aux!

Less drought tolerant then I expected....... maybe it will do well on its own in the rainy season.

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I have about 1kg of root material currently, no bark attached by the looks, just root.

Anyways I find I get a nice effect from grinding it up and adding it to smoking blends. this method definitely allows it to add its own level which i can explain as; relaxed, centered, clear thoughts, analytically aware, and once again centering...

i currently have a tincture brewing with some root and 98% alcohol so will update once I've been on this for 1+ months.

but yeh currently ive only every smoked this herb/plant, but i reckon if you have a favorite smoking mix and added some of your material in you would be able to distinguish the plants effects (providing you have a good quality/high yielding part of the plants ie roots)

d00d

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Any special steps you took with the tincture d00d? How long has it been sitting?

Will find out what the ratio on by bottle from the health store is but a dropper full is a good dose.

Smoking leaves is good. Could do with some type of curing though.

Might try using the root bark this way but it smells so bad I can't imagine a smoke would be pleasant.

Edited by centipede

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Only thing I did was grind maybe .5kg roots and put into a glass bottle. Then I filled til just above the herb with a 98% alcohol. I've been sloshing it around each day for 6mths.

I'm in no rush to try it and will probably dip in in 9-12 months. Most tincture that I've made successfully has been left longer than probably neccesery, not sure if this is key though. When I use a strong 98% alcohol I always mix with 50% water (after initial resting period), to make it more palatable in my tea/drink ONCE i get to work. I don't want the alcohol registering incase i get pulled in for a breath test....

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