Petunia violacea?

[Agamemnon]

Does anybody know where you can obtain Petunia violacea seed (otherwise known as shanin) in Australia?

Looks like it could make an interesting tea.

[Rev]

might as well try the cultivars in the shops

i believe one of their ancestors is P violacea

[psycho0]

is that the one in 'plants of the gods'?

[Agamemnon]

Yep, that's the one

[teonanacatl]

wat effects does it hav????

[psycho0]

from memory i think it makes u feel like you're flying cant remember the other effects as this f#*! stole my latest copy of plants of the gods :mad:

[Stonehenge]

I heard it was mostly placebo effect. People swear they get off on it and the next time they try it they don't get off. Has anyone here used it to good effect? Did you try it again?

[hoodoo]

I just smoked one half of a hand-rolled cigarette composed of some leaf of Petunia violacea purchased from a vender in Chicago. The enclosed packaging states it was grown in Argentina. I do not like to smoke anything much these days I must add. I can feel some effects, certainly not placebo, although I am a light weight with all of these things. Many mild herbs effect me far more the first time and less so in trials afterward. Somehow, as if my body and the herb's medicines are studying one another.

These effects are not stimulating, a little hazy, a slight sedative. The taste is mild, the smoke not harsh and familiar from somewhere way past. I'd say the taste has that gentleness to it, might be reminiscent to smoking the green leaves of a solanacea, like jimson weed or bella donna. It has been 8 or ten years since I have smoked jimson or bella though, and half the time I can't find my car keys or I ask myself "what did I come in to this upstairs room for?" So I can't really be sure. I do not smoke tobacco but I used to smoke daily for many years and this is not a nicotine buzz. I will make a 10X and see if anything more significant happens, puffing it mildly of course, rather than orally consuming it as I prefer to smoke potential poisons so they will wear off more quickly if toxic (most of the time).

I see that a vender in Europe has a 10X seed extract, so maybe the leaf matter isn't where the heart of this "Shanin" lies.

Not a whole lot out on this plant, must be some more attempts at consuming it though as this batch from Argentina is sold by a handful of venders.

[Tomer Corymbosa]

the "heart" of shanin is in the flowers.

try the flowers...

[hoodoo]

Unfortunately this 120 grams of dried Argentinian "shanin" that I recently bought contains just five or six dried purple flowers, it is otherwise nearly entirely green leaves and a few stems. Since the leaves smoked had nearly no worthwhile effect and two capsules full of the powdered leaves taken orally was still nearly unnoticeable, so I made an ethanol extract and dried it onto some powdered leaves and spent a few days testing that. I smoked it at first and didn't notice anything worth mentioning other than the smoke was harsh. Eventually I worked up to eating two full capsules of the enhanced leaf. I won't go any further than that. It is clearly sedative, colors seem richer, but there is no particular euphoria nor is it anything wonderous in any way. Never the less, I can see it's allure to some, as it is clearly stoning, and if one were in the habit of smoking cannabis and ran out, I can see they might use this to replace it in a pinch. I can imagine that larger doses might also be considerably sedative and stoning, and maybe that is where the shamanic interest lies, but there is something uncomfortable about the somatic effects even at a low oral dose. It made me decide I will pursue it no further. I will have to assume the flowers and maybe a seed extract entertaining. It may also be that a comparison could be drwan with Kamchatka, where prior to the arrival of numerous Russians, Amanita muscaria was popular with the indigenous peoples, but it's popularity quickly declined as more convenient alcoholic beverages could be aquired from the newcomers.

In my own studies of ethnobotanical plants I admittedly step out ignorantly or should I say, foolishly, into testing plants that have little track record beyond vague tales of the plants use in books like Shultes. I think that the vagueness is half the fun of it as it is like solving a mystery! Other times driven by the fact that all the other inebriants available to me, like alcohol and so on bored me, I have smoked or orally consumed solanacea in relatively small amounts such as bella donna, thornapple, tobacco, brugmansia, and brunfelsia. Smoking a small amount of brugmansia in a cigarette with an assortment of herbs can be interesting in the latter hours of a mushroom event. I never went for a full out of mind experience with any of them nor do I intend to. In fact, in general, I think they are best for most people to avoid such an experience completely. Of course I do know one person who prefers more than any, that infamous, powerful hallucinogenic experiences that some solanacea cause.

If any comparison between the Petunia leaf extract and the other solanaceae could be drawn at all, I'd have to say the effects were not at all like small amounts of the powerful hallucinogens mentioned above, but maybe a little like brunfelsia uniflora. I'll add that I'd prefer brunfelsia over this Petunia by far, if I had to choose one or the other. Maybe I could say the "stoning" aspect of the two overlaps somewhat. I will add that Brazilian brunfelsia uniflora they call "Manaca," and it can be purchased cheaply in bulk from the "Raintree" company as an herb. Their webpage states that brunfelsia is used as a pain releiver, promotes sweating, reduces swelling and is used as a moderate CNS sedative. I am certainly taking this topic adrift as there is small likelihood that brunfelsia and Petunias contain closely similar chemicals.

Agamemnon,

Would you describe dosage or effects from the petals? Can they be smoked in small amounts for much affect? It is possible that the same chemicals that exist in the petals might also be in the leaves to some degree but of course the proportions or even subtle chemical variations could make my extract and your petal experience totally different subjectively.

[ 01. August 2005, 15:20: Message edited by: hoodoo ]