17 replies to this topic

[kadakuda]

Last trip you guys came through with flying colors and made our vacation a real treat. I really thank you guys for that.

So now looks like we may swing down to Indonesia for 2-5 weeks. one of my top 3 things to do in life is see the kimodo dragons in person (i love Varanus species). So we fly into Bali and hten we are set free to do whatever.

Any must see things, or good plants to be on the look out for?

[amanito]

Kratom is the only thing I can think off.

[woof woof woof]

Lucky you. I wish I could go there for some surf. I live too far away and dont earn nearly enough right now.

[kadakuda]

kratom is on the list, hope to find some. As well as fungi.

Everywhere else in asia i go there are some pretty cool gingers, i suspect there will be the same. start digging into books tomorrow.

[amanito]

We have been saving for more than a year already to go Indonesia/Malysia, by next June we'll have over 3000 euro. More than enough for two plane tickets and traveling there two month low budget. I just let some money automatically be transferred montly to my account over a period of a few years, woof woof woof, otherwise it's impossible to pay.

After that I'll start saving to go Siberia/Mongolia. I think I'll need more cash.

[planthelper]

hmm, i can c a pattern emerging, ethno holidays combined with, physical risk taking, me like a lot.
ohh, we called that, an adventure holiday in the 80's, hehe.

[kadakuda]

I have to say it is MUCH cheaper to travel to these places when you live in the region we pay about $150-300 USD return pretty much anywhere in se asia. When we travel we do so pretty cheap. we end up splurging on private rooms if we dont camp cause its more comfy and easier to clean fruit and seeds etc.

any must see nature type spots? we will east of bali towards flores, so anywhere in between if you have been there. also, if any of you know when mushroom season usually is, that'd be swell

[kadakuda]

OK guys, getting serious now. i have worked out the palces we want to go based on lovely topo maps form us miltary via a texas university. they have all kidns of old maps if peopel are interested in that sort of thing. i cant find anything newer except a few colorful new renditions adn google earth type photos.

Anyone here know of interesting plants? I really hope we get into some smaller villages and get talking to some local plant folk.

some of the plants on our list include:

Durio species, wild ones.
MItragyna species, any.
Psychotria species, any. Still looking these up but an article stated that P. malayana tested postiive for alks. so we will swing bya known location for that and hoepfully score some seed.
Piper species, almost any.
Voacanga foetida has anyone read about this one?


some snippets and links etc for others interested in the region.

From: Initial Studies on Alkaloids from Lombok Medicinal Plants

Psychotria malayana Jack. This small tree, locally known as ‘lolon jarum’, and which grows to a
height of 1-4 m, is largely distributed in the west Indonesia archipelago. In Java, there have been no
reports indicating local uses [14], however, people in Lombok have utilised this plant (aqueous extracts
of either leaves or bark) for protecting skin from infection from open wounds and for other skin
diseases. The alkaloids are concentrated in the leaves and bark. Further separation of the crude alkaloid
extract from the leaves (0.9% based on air dried material, 100 g) by the use of preparative TLC (silica
gel; solvent system CH2Cl2: CH3OH: NH4OH/ 90 : 15 : 1) showed at least four alkaloids to be present;
hodgkinsine 1 (Rf 0.56), a trimeric Nb-methyltryptamine alkaloid, was the major constituent. It was
readily identified by electron impact mass spectrometry (EIMS) with three principal peaks at m/z 172,
344, and 518 for the trimeric structure (Chemical Ionisation HRMS m/z 519.3200, calc 519.3236 for
C33H38N6+H). The other minor alkaloid found was chimonanthine 2 (Rf 0.63), a dimeric Nbmethyltryptamine,
having two main fragments at m/z 172 and 130 (Chemical Ionisation HRMS m/z
347.2224, calc 347.2235 for C22H26N4+H) in the EI mass spectrum. Polymeric tryptamines are
commonly found in Psychotria species [15-18]. Two other constituents with molecular weights of 186
(Chemical Ionisation HRMS m/z 187.1230, calc 187.1235 for C12H14N2+H) and 574 are currently
under investigation and will be reported separately. Alkaloids with these molecular weights have not
been reported from Psychotria previously.

Some books tha tcan be foudn free archived as pdfs here: archive.org/
A Flora of Manilla, E. Merrill
An enumeration of Philippine flowering plants, E. Merrill
BibliographicEnumeration od Bornean Plants, E. Merrill

David Fairchild books are also packed with great stories and you actually get some decent info that would otherwise be passed by in more scientific texts.

Iff anyone knows of other good FLora texts, i would really apprecaite getting them. I have downladed a lot, but not looked at any others, so will come back to this and update as thigns progress.

Also interested in tree cutting technique in teh field, all my methods have proven poor the last 2 weeks i have been trying here at home to prepare. i have setup 3 addresses to ship seeds back this time, so i dont need to chance customs at teh airport. so all seed will be sent clean to either a friend or a family member who will keep/care for them until we get back. cuttings will be trickier as we will be carrying htem for 1-2 weeks once we get out of the mad rush.

[opiumfreak]

Hey can you get me some kava seeds when you go there?

[kadakuda]

does kava grow there? or have seeds?

kava is always on my list, but i didnt think it grew where we were going, now im intrigued.

[opiumfreak]

no its not grown from seeds

Methods of Propagation

Piper methysticum is not grown from seed as its flowering parts are usually sterile. The most common means of propagation is division of the root-mass, or removal of offsets from the root-ball of the plant. To perform a division, remove the plant from its container, remove excess soil and split the root-ball up in appropriate looking places. Removing offsets is a little simpler as obvious looking offsets need only be pulled off the edge of the root-ball.

[Zen Peddler BlueGreenie]

There has been some strange mushrooms reported from Irian Jaya that make people have orgies.

There is also that tribe that smoke some weird shit - starts with m. sorry very tired and cant recall name.

[kadakuda]

i am just going to assume those iwll be pretty much anywhere. But, so are jails.

just looking for legal fun and collecting of seed.

EDIT: had to cancel trip, so no luck this time.

Edited by kadakuda, 12 July 2012 - 12:34 AM.

[whitewind]

Shame you had to cancel, Kada.

This is interesting:

From: Initial Studies on Alkaloids from Lombok Medicinal Plants

Psychotria malayana Jack. This small tree, locally known as ‘lolon jarum’, and which grows to a
height of 1-4 m, is largely distributed in the west Indonesia archipelago. In Java, there have been no
reports indicating local uses [14], however, people in Lombok have utilised this plant (aqueous extracts
of either leaves or bark) for protecting skin from infection from open wounds and for other skin
diseases. The alkaloids are concentrated in the leaves and bark. Further separation of the crude alkaloid
extract from the leaves (0.9% based on air dried material, 100 g) by the use of preparative TLC (silica
gel; solvent system CH2Cl2: CH3OH: NH4OH/ 90 : 15 : 1) showed at least four alkaloids to be present;
hodgkinsine 1 (Rf 0.56), a trimeric Nb-methyltryptamine alkaloid, was the major constituent. It was
readily identified by electron impact mass spectrometry (EIMS) with three principal peaks at m/z 172,
344, and 518 for the trimeric structure (Chemical Ionisation HRMS m/z 519.3200, calc 519.3236 for
C33H38N6+H). The other minor alkaloid found was chimonanthine 2 (Rf 0.63), a dimeric Nbmethyltryptamine,
having two main fragments at m/z 172 and 130 (Chemical Ionisation HRMS m/z
347.2224, calc 347.2235 for C22H26N4+H) in the EI mass spectrum. Polymeric tryptamines are
commonly found in Psychotria species [15-18]. Two other constituents with molecular weights of 186
(Chemical Ionisation HRMS m/z 187.1230, calc 187.1235 for C12H14N2+H) and 574 are currently
under investigation and will be reported separately. Alkaloids with these molecular weights have not
been reported from Psychotria previously.

The only other plant I know of that contains this is Hodgkinsonia frutescens, which looks superficially like a Psychotria, from Northern Australia. Don't know if anyone has bio-assayed it yet.

[dionysus]

wiki tells psychotria colorata and a few others also contain this hodgkinsine, apparently active as a mu-opiod agonist and NMDA antagonist, which makes it seem to me as if it would be a pretty good analgesic (and reportedly is). potentialy used traditionaly for this effect, again as far as wikipedia tells me.

http://en.wikipedia....iki/Hodgkinsine

these psychotrias are making pretty cool structures with the indole skeleton, http://en.wikipedia....i/Psychotridine


i wouldn't mind growing psychotria colorata now if anyone has some seed / a cutting to take

[_e_]

message me if you re-schedule your trip, as i have some very interesting leads and connections to share.


hope everything is ok/ no drama


plant lov.e

[poisonshroom]

That hodgkinsonia sounds interesting. Im sure i saw some of these in cape tribulation (along with hairy psychotria), but there was so much else to look at around there, so I didnt bother trying find out what they actually were (I was on a plant identification course for uni). If anyone further north (im in Townsville) can find some of either Id be interested getting some specimens. As for Indo ethnos the person to talk to is Juicemonkey on the other forum (EA) - He regularly travels between here and there and has plenty of local knowledge from both countries or should be able to track down more info.

[kadakuda]

very cool thanks poison. Also interested to hear if yuou have success.

-e- messaged. this trip i have been planning since i was 6 years old. It has been a dream of mine, the only other palce i must see liek here is madagascar. So we will be replanning ASAP. no drama just very very sick, mostly better now though. So i am going to be redoing it probably in Feb next year, if not then...summer 2013. I may make smaller more numerous trips to specific spots in the area as well.