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Consider this a no-reserve auction. Whoever bids highest will receive this splendid Jourdaniana graft (on PC rootstock). All proceeds will be donated to offset the costs of Corroboree website/forum maintenance. Auction is open for bids until the end of next week (April 18). Please indicate below how much you're willing to pay for this fine specimen. * Flower is indicative only, from a comparable grafted specimen. Props to Trip for the mother of all scions!

$150 - For an absolutely awesome cause. It might go up depending on what i can scrounge up 😝 (hope that's OK if I double post..) absolute beauty

Congratulations and thanks to misteek, thanks also to Starward and Trip and everyone else who supported this.

A heavily biomedical psychopharmacologist was once asked what would he say the best antidepressant was and it was "to go out and find someone to help". I'd agree that the multifaceted behavioural activation towards something valued and greater than one's self is a vital ingredient to escape the woe. Doesn't have to be changing the world but just something small and simple that induces the sense that "it was a good day that mattered" is a nice start. I could list ad infinitum potential antidepressants, which you could try and see if they work but in reality that's where I'd start. I find novelty is an important dopamine effluxer so find novel things to do. Exercise, diet as mainstays. Here's a list of potential nutritional etc options https://1drv.ms/x/c/a157359194a53c21/ESE8pZSRNVcggKF-CgAAAAABlsQ51KStyjW4ly8V9_-FlQ?e=IIMmSg&nav=MTVfezAwMDAwMDAwLTAwMDEtMDAwMC0wMDAwLTAwMDAwMDAwMDAwMH0 that could be coupled with such.

$50 - In the spirit of getting the ball rolling.

Abandoned beehive. I kept a thriving productive colony for last 6 years or so, until the hive was abandoned this past summer. My best guess is that removal of neighbouring vegetation exposed the hive to intense afternoon sun which proved too hot for the bees. But I'll never know for sure. My beekeeping supplier told me to clean the boxes and fill it with a new colony. But I'm only a renter with uncertain tenancy. So I'm looking for someone to take over the hive and start anew. These are 8-frame boxes with frames, base and gabled roof with inner lid, queen excluder, beekeeping equipment, everything you need minus the bees. Message me if interested.

There is scientific evidence that exercise can be more effective than SSRIs for certain people. I understand most people live busy lives and work tiring jobs but most people also deny themselves what they are capable of.

I do love the spines on Jourdanianas .

Bump, Bump, and Bump again. Come on boys and girls, someone must be able to put forward a better bid. I have seen single-headed grafts of Jourdaniana go for $75, so this one must be worth more, all in the name of a good cause.

5HTP is not going to cut it as an antidrepssant sub. You can have all the serotonin in your brain that it can take but it's not going to fix issues without reuptake inhibitors or the newer gen tetracyclics or Agomelatine. It's like taking tyrosine - have all the dopamine precursors you want but you brain isn't going to do much with it

P.S I have a psychiast that manges the ADHD and I meet criteria for High Functioning Autism Spectrum especially because my brother's autism is more severe. For over 10 years and he saived my life by treating ADHD with bipolar. I don't live by diagnsosis, I am not just a bunch of labels that I define myself by. But you can find the right treatment... for me it's contiuing the bipolar meds, and dexamphetamine, and buvidal. I have a functioning career in tech and stayed with the same company for 8 years after leaving CSIRO for one of the big 4s.

^Good question! According to this reddit, "Zelly" genetics = hybrids of scopulicola x red grandiflorus, with potential for red, pink or white flowers.

fyzygy gave good advice! a good face to face councelor can make a big difference, don't go on seeing somebody , who doesn't "click" with you. phone counceling services are as well very good at times, call till you "click" with a person. i struggle with all of the above as well, and prescription drugs, had always bad side effects, (i don't even like sceletium). moclobomide has been taken off the psb, but is what was suggested. i have used plant maoi's, instead of moclobomide. as said, sun, excercise and good nutrition make a big difference, as doe's the abilety to end relationships which are not reciprocal beneficial. lagochilus, withania, and sinicuichi, sun opener, could all help too. only when you get older like the 60 's one understands how trauma affects us, in so many different ways.

I bought this T. peruvianus "Matucana spineless" pup off Fyzygy 15 months ago when it was 20cm long. Today, its 1.2meters-tall (5 times its original length) and it has tripled its girth and has three pups of its own. It’s one of my fastest-growing cactus. Its growth has been so rapid that it needed support; it even bent over at one point. I am thinking of cutting it, because it base is so thin and its top 90% is so fat, I fear it will snap catastrophically. In comparison another bridgesii that I got at the same time and was the same size, has only double in length but gained nothing in girth.

Although I don't think coles do trades

What's the diagnosis? SSRIs are only marginally better than placebo for depression, with their own host of depressive complications such as suicidal ideation. But I was on various SSRIs for several years, and once upon a time, an MAOI anti-depressant. I can't vouch for any of them. I ditched SSRIs so that I could pursue psychedelics as a therapy instead. San Pedro is a powerful ally. Omega 3 from plant sources would be preferable to marine sources. Farmed salmon contain very low levels, compared with wild. Contamination (pesticides, PFAS, heavy metals, plastics) is definitely a concern. Apparently the Omega-3 in fish comes from algae, in any case. Maybe something like Spirulina, which has an Omega-6 to Omega-3 ratio of 1.6:1? Walnuts, hemp seed, flax seed, chia seed ... Vitamin D is a useful supplement across the board, including for brain/gut health which is essential to dopamine production. Or make your own Vitamin D, from sun exposure. Good luck finding a vegan Vitamin D supplement (only one local brand that I'm aware of that isn't sourced from lanolin). Some form of counselling is probably advised for survivors of emotional abuse. It's difficult to find a suitable mental healthcare professional. And it's not cheap (even the GP consultation to devise a Medicare-funded mental healthcare plan can be prohibitively costly). But even a free service like Lifeline is pretty good value, in a pinch. And there would be other free services in their local area, but they would have to seek them out.

Seeded from a red-flowering Aloe that caught my eye, growing in a pot at what used to be my parents' place.

The OP never included details of how/what had been harvested -- dead phyllodes from off the ground, in a public-access area of the park? Or potentially much worse ... plenty of Reddit readers voiced their disapproval. But it seems that the story has now been removed: Sorry, this post has been removed by the moderators of r/DMT.

I think mine could be a different variety. They like water, and food, and some shade. It's normal for the leaves to desiccate and brown on the bush. Once a year I'll prune it back, hard. Otherwise it gets pretty lanky.

If the plant material is dry, then the 40% ABV is enough to act as a preservative. If wet, then 70% ABV or higher is better because the water in the plant dilutes the ethanol. 50% ABV alcohol is enough to dissolve flavanoids out of wood. Getting a higher ABV off the still can be achieved by packing the column to increase reflux. OR taking only a small hearts cut you can easy get to 80%. Distilling is not that hard, and there is a strong support community. The best advice I can give you is to run low and slow, and watch your cuts. EDIT Water is also a solvent - certain compounds dissolves in water that does not dissolve in pure alcohol. This is why different distillers age their spirits at different ABV's, because it results in different compounds being extracted from barrel resulting in different flavor profiles in the end product. The same would apply to plant material. However I doubt that it has been studied as systemically as it has in distilling.

Thanks fellas. I'm looking into buying a still. And I will probably work with sugar wash, and if I can get to 70 I'll be happy. I read somewhere 70% is not enough for tincture, but If I use enough I'm sure it's fine.

Please inform yourself of the risks involved with all reagents first. Converting spearmint to the active ingredient in oregano - carvacrol I found obtaining carvacrol quite challenging in Australia. Most of the wild oregano oils are 200mg/mL EO in olive oil. Importing was an option but it's cheap and simple to make your own. Carvacrol is an interesting molecule as besides anti-microbial properties, it has a plethora of beneficial effects: Carvacrol also exerts several actions on the neuronal system including acetylcholinesterase inhibition as well as having anxiolytic and antidepressant properties having the ability to likely modulate mood and cognitive processes. It also modulates central neurotransmitter pathways, such as dopaminergic, serotonergic and GABAergic systems, a terpene rich oregano extract acting as a triple reuptake inhibitor. It also improves aspects of Parkinson's in animal models. It seems to cause a specific increase of DA levels in PFC and "ingested in low concentrations, it might determine feelings of well-being and could possibly have positive reinforcer effects." "Carvacrol is a monoterpenic phenol isolated from aromatic herbs including oregano and thyme. This aromatic phytochemical has anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antiarthritic, antiallergic, anticarcinogenic, antidiabetic, cardioprotective, gastroprotective, hepatoprotective, and neuroprotective properties. This monoterpenoid phenol regulates human ion channels transient receptor potential V3 and A1 causing a sensation of warmth. It is also known that carvacrol can activate PPAR and suppress COX-2 mediated inflammation. Dong et al. demonstrated that enzyme cytochrome P450 2A6 (CYP2A6) is the predominant drug-metabolizing enzyme involved in the metabolism of carvacrol requesting attention when carvacrol is coadministrated with other compounds mainly undergoing CYP2A6-mediated metabolism. Orally administered carvacrol (12.5–50 mg/kg) induces antidepressant effects that seem to be mediated by the dopaminergic brain pathways in mice. Zotti et al. showed that carvacrol administration (12.5 mg/kg, by mouth [PO] for 7 days) can raise 5-HT and dopamine ranges in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex" It's a classical isomerisation, this one is acid catalysed. The classical procedure involves refluxing in sulfuric acid which isn't the nicest [1]. I prefer to use cation exchange resins which are cheap and easily available and bypass the nastiness of boiling acids. The idea is they're a polystyrene resin (macroporous, so lots of surface area) that has sulfonic acid R-SO3- groups on it, in the acidic H+ form. They're solid and not too nasty and can be reused. Purifying spearmint essential oil [2] - optional. Whilst there is some dispute on the formation of a carvacrol-bisulfite adduct, formation has been noted but as a water-soluble solution. I had challenges with it but see how you go. A suitably high concentration of carvone in the spearmint allows direct isomerisation without purification. A classical (old) approach to purifying carbonyl compounds is to form their bisulfite adduct, which is crystalline and can then be converted back to the carbonyl compound with dilute acid. The general procedure is as follows: Formation of bisulphite adduct: A fresh saturated NaHSO3 solution (7.5 g NaHSO3 dissolved in 15 mL of distilled water) was added to 12 mL of ethanol. A minimum of water is use to dissolve the formed crystals. The essential oil (5 mL) was added to the solution of sodium bisulphite. After a vigorous shaking of the solution and storage in ice bath for 30 min, vacuum filtration afforded white solid which were washed with ethanol and dried at room temperature This can then be converted to the pure carbonyl fraction with base. Isomerisation of carvone to carvacrol [3] Dry the cation exchange resin at 120 deg C in an oven overnight. Solid catalyst (15 g macroporous cationic exchange resin, H+ form) was added to carvone (25 mL, 160 mmol) under mechanical stirring. The mixture was heated using an oil bath at 75 deg. C until transformation was complete (greater than 1 min) The reaction can also be done at room temperature with catalytic NaI in acetone but that's more complex [3]. You can follow the reaction with your nose, the spearmint odour being replaced with a pungent spicy oregano smell. Being phenolic, it can be purified by adding NaOH solution to form the phenolate salt which is water soluble, then liberating the phenol with acid. [1] Lab 4 Carvone to Carvacrol Lab 4 Carvone to Carvacrol - Converting Carvone into Carvacrol Introduction: This week’s lab focuses - Studocu [2] Ouédraogo, I. W., S. Sassiémiké, and Y. L. Bonzi-Coulibaly. "Chemical extraction via bisulphite adduct of carbonyl compounds from essential oils." Phys. Chem. News 50 (2009): 104-110. [3] Gozzi, C., Convard, A., & Husset, M. (2009). Heterogeneous acid-catalysed isomerization of carvone to carvacrol. Reaction Kinetics and Catalysis Letters, 97(2), 301–306. doi:10.1007/s11144-009-0030-4 Vanilla to 'ginger' Vanillin is a common phenolic aldehyde. It readily undergoes conversion to dehydrozingerone via a simple base-catalysed aldol reaction with acetone [1]. Dehydrozingerone Curcumin is limited in translatable clinical effectiveness in part due to it's poor pharmacokinetic properties. Dehydrozingerone also known as feruloylmethane, is one such recognised curcumin degradant which is a half structural analog of curcumin. It exists as a natural phenolic compound obtained from rhizomes of Zingiber officinale, which has attracted much attention of medicinal chemists. It is known to have a broad range of biological activities like antioxidant, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-depressant, anti-malarial, antifungal, anti-platelet and many others. First you need to make up a 2.5M solution of NaOH. This means 2.5 mole NaOH in a litre of water. The molecular mass of NaOH is 40 g/mol so 2.5M = 40g x 2.5 = 100g/L . 100mL is plenty, so 10g NaOH (CAUTION) in 100mL water. In a 50 mL round-bottom flask, add 0.5 g (3.3 mmol) of vanillin then 5 mL (67.5 mmol) of acetone with vigorous stirring. After vanillin has dissolved completely (usually very fast) add 2.63 mL NaOH 2.5 M (the concentration of NaOH is important as using more concentrated NaOH will produce a thick paste mixture which extends reaction time and further complicates the precipitation process). Allow to stand overnight and then dropwise add dilute acid (2.5 mL 6M HCl etc). Cool in a freezer and collect the yellow shards of dehydrogzingerone. You could get fancy and form other ginger constituents but that's beyond the scope of this simple introduction. [1] “Crossed Aldol Reactions in Water Using Inexpensive and Easily Available Materials as a Tool for Reaction Optimization Teaching in an Undergraduate Organic Chemistry Laboratory” Kevin A. Ruiz, Marta López, Gottfried Suppan, and Kamil Makowski Journal of Chemical Education 2023 100 (10), 4160-4160 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.3c00902

Here's this from my Chinese Med textbook: Lu Hui (Dried Aloe - Aloe Vera or Aloe Ferox) Properties: Bitter, Cold Channels entered: Liver, Large Intestine Herb category: Moist purgatives Therapuetic actions: 1. Purges downwards, for hot excess-type constipation. Most effective if constipation is accompanied by digestive heat rising to attack the Heart, leading to irritability and insomnia. 2. Clears Liver Fire. Liver fire is characterized by symptoms such as vertex headache, hypochondriac (flank) pain, red eyes, dizziness, irritability, propensity to anger, constipation, hypertension, red complexion. 3. Kills intestinal parasites. Specifically, roundworm and ringworm. Dosage: 0.6 to 1.5 grams in powder, capsules, or pills. Decoction is not recommended, as Lu Hui is extremely bitter and has an unpleasant smell. Cautions/Contraindications: Lu Hui is contraindicated during pregnancy (due to its downbearing purgative action), and in cases of deficiency or cold of the Spleen and Stomach. Caution to avoid injuring the Stomach and Spleen should be taken when using any Cold medicinal for extended periods of time, regardless of constitution. Chemical composition: Alon, aloe-emodin. Pharmacological effects: - Laxative: Alon has a marked laxative effect. - Antibiotic: Water extract of Lu Hui has various degrees of inhibitory action against pathogenic fungi and dermatophytes. - Antineoplastic: Alcohol extract of Lu Hui has demonstrated preliminary ability to inhibit the growth of cancer cells. Herb-drug interactions: Cardiac glycosides: Overuse of Lu Hui may cause potassium depletion, leading to increased toxicity of cardiac glycosides, such as digoxin. Toxicology: No fatalities were reported following intramuscular injection of Lu Hui continuously for 6 months at 10 mg/kg. There was, however, necrosis of tissue at the injection site. there's also associated citations but they are a pain to copy out of a textbook

I feel this. I spent 6months all up inpatient between 15-25. Multiple suicidate attempts and Including Anorexia Nervosa to boot which meant I spend 8 weeks in patient refeeding and learning to consume healty \food intake. I got treated for my ADHD untl 18, which got blocked by diagnosis and treatment for Bipolar Affective Type 1 diagnosed around 20. I currently receive CBT from my drug health doctor, who gives me my script for monthly injections as COVID fucked me and had to start treatment because by 30 I became a proper junkie and I still struggle to stay clean and ended up with an epidural abcess which has me still wetting myself and walking with messed up gait . > ANYONE KNOW A GOOD TRAUMA THERyAPIST? Yeah maybe my wife is seeing someone decent. We had 2 close friends die within a week of each other rcently. Where are you based my God Father is the head of the Doctors union I'm sure I can find something whever you are. w Antidepressants I would recommend insead of SSRIs are Avanza, ore something lighter, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agomelatine