Fractalhead

gorgeousI reccommend checking the local public or university library for a copy of a medical dictionary on CDROM. You can borrow them "as many times as you like" ;-) I found one at my uni library. Most university libraries will allow you to become a public borrower for a fee that is well worth it usually. You can score all kinds of cool cdroms from uni libraries especially, like neuroscience, pharmacology, biochemistry, botany, horticulture, toxicology, medicine, surgery, you name it. Unis are gold mines for cheap info. In terms of finding online medical definitions, I find the google search engine pretty good for searching for scientific stuff of a general nature. For specifics, PubMed is very good and has a powerful search engine. I can type in all kinds of jargon and get useful results in either method. good luck, fractal [This message has been edited by Fractalhead (edited 08 July 2002).]

Torsten, I need to talk to you urgently about the HBWR seeds if you can check your email... Cheers, Fractal

Hi Torsten, This key is useful for the determination of CONVOLVULACEAE genera that occur in Queensland. It was transcribed from the book: Clifford, H.T., Ludlow H.T., 1978. Keys to the Families and Genera of Queensland Flowering Plants (Magnoliophyta) – 2nd Edition, University of Queensland Press, Queensland CONVOLVULACEAE Flowers bisexual, actinomorphic; calyx persistent, usually divided into 5 sepals; corolla usually 5-angled and folded in bud; stamens 5, inserted in corolla-tube, alternating with lobes; ovary superior, usually 2-or-more locular; ovules few; styles 1-2; fruit capsule; seeds scarcely endospermic; mostly climbing or creeping herbs; leaves alternate, simple, exstipulate. 1. Leafless, yellowish twining parasite Cuscuta Leafy plants, climbing, prostrate or erect 2 2. No style, stigma subsessile Ericybe Styles 1-2 3 3. Style 1 undivided 4 Styles 2, free or connate towards the base 14 4. Stigma capitate or 2-lobed 5 Stigma with 4-8 linear lobes Polymeria 5. Stigmatic lobes nearly globular or stigma capitate 6 Stigmatic lobes elongated 12 6. Fruit indehiscent, fleshy or leathery Argyreia Fruit dehiscent (usually 2-4 valved capsule) 7 7. Capsule circumscissile, upper part of epicarp separating Operculina from lower part and from endocarp 8 8. Pollen spiny 9 Pollen smooth 11 9. Staminal filaments linear or dilated at base; C. tubular10 Staminal filaments dilated at base into 5 concave scales Lepistemon arching over ovary; C. urceolate 10. K. in fruit much enlarged, completely enclosing ripe Stictocardia fruit; lvs. with oil glands beneath K. not enclosing ripe fruit; lvs. without oil glands Ipomoea Outer K. in fruit much enlarged, completely enclosing ripe fruit 11. Outer K. much longer and broader than inner ones Aniseia Outer K. not both distinctly longer and broader than inner Merremia ones 12. Stigmatic lobes ovate or oblong Jacquemontia Stigmatic lobes linear-filiform to subulate 13 13. Bracteoles minute, remote from K.; capsule 2-locular Convolvulus Bracteoles 2, enlarged and enclosing K.; capsule 1-locular Calystegia or incompletely 2-locular 14. Styles more or less connate toward base Bonamia Styles quite free 15 15. Styles entire, with capitate stigmas 16 Styles 2-branches, with linear stigmas Evolvulus 16. Lvs. on long petioles, orbicular or reniform Dichondra Lvs. sessile or on short petioles, ovate-lanceolate Cressia I found another book which gives some fairly good descriptions of the various Convolvulaceae genera (thankfully including Rivea/Turbina) and points out some of the important distinguishing characters: Menninger, E.A., 1970. Flowering Vines of the World – An Encyclopaedia of Climbing Plants, Hearthside Press Incorporated, New York It isn’t too bad, apart from the black and white photos and its claim that Ipomoea tricolor became notorious because of its containing small amounts of LSD. In case you can’t find it, I’ll transcribe some of the relevant bits… Argyreia nervosa [syn. Argyreia speciosa] The woolly morning-glory is a coarse, very heavy Indian climber… The smooth, ovate to heart shaped dark green leaves are densely covered beneath with silky white hairs. They measure 3-12 inches wide and they overlap on the vine so as to provide solid shade. The same soft, silvery tomentum covers the branches, the leaf stalks, the flower stems and calyx, and even the twining tips of new growth. The funnelform flowers 2 to 3 inches long, borne in clusters on 6-inch stems are rosy-purple inside and white-hairy outside. Merremia This rather large genus containing 80 species occurs throughout the tropics of both hemispheres. It is admittedly very close to Ipomoea from which it differs essentially in having smooth pollen grains; those of Ipomoea are spiny, as can easily be seen under an ordinary hand lens. The flowers of Merremia species are more often yellow or white, where as only a few Ipomoea such as I. obscura …have truly yellow flowers. Another Book I found had a description of Merremia peltata as follows: A comparatively slender-stemmed but vigorous vine. The lower parts of the stems are woody whilst the upper sections are green and fairly soft. The stems contain a lot of fibre and this makes them strong, supple and not easily broken. It is a species that grows rapidly and extremely luxuriantly. The illustration demonstrates these qualities and such a sight is commonplace. Vigorous growth is assisted as the habitat receives an extremely high annual rainfall……the leaves of the plant may be ±30cm in diameter. The flowers are large ephemeral and are produced in profusion over a fairly long period…. Williams, K.A.W., 1988. Native Plants of Queenland – Volume 2., Oh well the text isn’t much use, but it has a photo of a bona fide Merremia peltata that reveals that it only looks vaguely similar to Argyreia nervosa from a distance. You can tell between Argyreia and Merremia fairly easily from appearance of the leaves top or bottom, aswell as the upper parts of the stem. Argyreia nervosa has very woolly undersides that are like felt, aswell as woolly, whitish, hairy stems. Merremia peltata has much less hair on the underside of the leaves and has green, smooth stems. Also, the venation looks kind of different, and the way Merremia peltata leaves have a more prominent ‘crease’ down the center. If you can check out the flowers or the fruit, its even easier to tell them apart. Argyreia have smooth, indehiscent fruit whereas Merremia have lines of dehiscence on the capsule. You’ve got to watch some botanists who jump to too many conclusions and aren’t ready for the unpredicted. My guess is that the vine you were looking at was indeed HBWR, and the botanist just assumed that his/her guess was better than yours. Argyreia nervosa doesn’t appear in any of the local plant books, so a lot of conservative or inexperienced botanists wouldn’t know what one was or looked like, let alone what the seeds could be used for. Torsten I sent this message with more detail to your email. Cya Fractal [This message has been edited by Fractalhead (edited 07 July 2002).]

Its true that it is hard to find viable seed for this species in most parts of Australia. They are usually available in Far North Queensland though. Torsten, if you want some more stock, I'll have a look at the markets this weekend. They are usually around 50 cents to 1 dollar AU each and generally fresh (though you have to make sure they haven't been frozen. Some people will lie to you about this so you have to use your instincts.) I think Gem knows the whereabouts of a mature plant that was dropping the nuts all over the place. I've been told that germination of Areca spp. is accellerated by removal of the husk and that a simple method for doing this is to ferment the husks off in a tub of water. I tried doing this, but it was taking ages and ages for the husk to come off. I'd have to agree that they'll remain viable for at least as long as it takes for the husk to break down. Otherwise, how would the seedling escape the fruit with a fully intact husk surrounding it? Hmmmm... yeah i'm also not sure how long they'll remain viable if they dry out. [This message has been edited by Fractalhead (edited 07 July 2002).]

Perth people: they have cat thyme (and cat grass) and cat mint and catnip down at the fremantle community gardens (also still got those nice pedro cuttlings)

This is only remotely relevent to the specific topic, but since we are talking about conflicts with educators, and choosing courses i would like to relate to you my experience of uni so far... While part of me used to think that uni sucked, now i think uni's great sice i've found the right uni and course... See, i used to have the philosophical dilemma of trying to integrate the scientific concepts of biology i was being spoon-fed at uni (including the chemistry/biology of the brain and the 'scientific' explanations for the action of hallucinogenic compounds)into my understanding of my human experience. The problem lay in the fact that whilst i was 'on the other side' (which happened to be a fair bit of the time), the very textbooks attempting to teach me the laws of consensus reality would no longer exist in their 'normal' sense, and along with them, dissolved the scientific concepts that were described in them. Living a double life (one in consensus reality and one outside consensus reality) became too difficult as i found myself isolated from "The Straight People" (who included most of my loved ones) and led partly to my decision to go and try something more 'arty' (ie. ephemeral) in landscape architecture - where i thought it would be easier to dissolve what seemed to be the line between the world described at uni (the 'real' world) and the rest of the universe. At the same time i made the change, i ceased my habit of imbibing entheogens (in the hope of taking a closer look at the so-called 'consensus reality' that all these scientists seemed to be blabbing about). This seemed like a good idea seeing as how i vaguely remembered that i used to live quite comfortably in that world as a person who had never experienced 'other places'... But then, the vague and ambiguous concepts that were being hinted at in landscape architecture lectures seemed to be as much 'constructs' as the 'laws' of science that i had come to avoid being exposed to. So, as i became re-acquainted with consensus reality, i decided that it was time to try and navigate through the 'real world' by playing by the apparent rules and only trying to integrate into myself the scientific concepts taught to me at uni as far as they ought to be (ie. as much as you integrate the rules of a board game) - whilst trying to maintain respect for the 'potential' of the human experience. I'm now comfortable in this relationship with science, and am feeling more and more enthusiastic and excited about hearing the next line of the big, hilarious, joke that is a science degree. I look forward to seeing (through scientific research) what fun we can make of what will always, in time, become our 'primitive understanding' of the world we are experiencing. I look forward to using science against dogma (not to say that all scientists are dogmatic, of course). BTW, I should stress the valuable role of Shaman Australis, these forums, and all you beautiful people in these past few exciting, yet confusing years of personal growth and development - as a sanctuary where i could find people that i knew were 'experienced' and could offer meaningful opinions and useful advice (even if the advice did come to me indirectly). Big thanks to all you adventurous people!! I love you all. Alien, as you know, if you don't like cutting up animals, you can still be a scientist. any botanist will tell you plants rule the earth since Plants were here first. I think you can even do an ethnobotany type degree here at UWA if you like. must go study

I'm not sure if it got lost in the Great Server Fiasco, but there was an old thread on my bolete experience and there was mention of a Cortinarius experience also but the focus was kept on the bolete. I'd rather hear an unbiased description of effects than tell someone what i experienced before they try it because if what i experienced wasn't just placebo then it was kind of subtle and might be easy to describe in a biased way. When i hear what happens to our friend Saucer, i will tell about my experience. Hopefully we'll find some sort of correlation. I came to the conclusion that the bolete was active 'before' i'd ever heard of Boletus manicus or any other psychoactive Boletales. I really want to find out more about these strange fungi and their effects because for some reason i feel they have a special significance to a series of events and places in my life that seem to be linked together... its hard to explain, but i'd rather wait and hear what saucer has to say...

Why don't you try an australian-only web search and see what you find out about these salvias? You know Salvia officinalis is the common culinary sage you can buy at coles for cooking? Some of them (like S. guaranitica might contain neoclerodane diterpenes similar in structure to salvinorin. When I was looking for a supplier of some of the less common salvias in australia, i found a place called Perennials Unlimited, who apparently has one of the biggest Salvia collections in australia and do mail orders. I didn't look specifically for all the ones in your list but they had some of the others i was looking for. Maybe have a look there. Good luck Fractal

I've had som very weird experiences with a different blue-staining bolete in SW WA. I'd try eating a tiny (say 1cm cube or smaller), fresh, bit and wait for about a week. If you don't get any adverse reactions, maybe up the dose by half and wait again. This way you should be able to pick up any bad vibes without getting killed (or worse). I had subtle yet very weird effects from about 2 cubic centimetres of the bolete i ate. Might have been placebo... but i'd like to hear other peoples descriptions of bolete experiences before i put my words in their head.

After finding out that isosafrole is present in Ylang Ylang (Cananga odorata) essential oil the other day, I began to examine the structure and try to figure out whether or not the enzymes that probably metabolise myristicin and safrole into active aminated forms would also convert isosafrole to a similarly aminated form. The only problem i could see was the fact that the pi-bond on the 3 membered chain was in the middle of the group rather than right at the end as is the case with myristicin and safrole. Just off the top of my head, I'm wondering if the metabolic product (if there is one) might not be primary amine. Actually, it seems more likely to be a primary amine than anything else. Hmmm anyway... I haven't yet put in serious investigation... i just wanted to put it out to anyone who has an idea of what might happen to isosafrole in the body. Especially since Ylang Ylang oil smells so good, is a good aphrodisiac (in my opinion), and is readily available in well prepared form at the chemist. mmmmmm ylang ylang.... [This message has been edited by Fractalhead (edited 30 May 2002).]

I've read this in a toxic plants book. There was even a picture of some poor sheep under the influence. It had its head tilted RIGHT BACK as though it was looking straight up into the sky. Never seen a sheep do 'that' before. [This message has been edited by Fractalhead (edited 06 June 2002).]

A betel nut or two made the bus ride home from cairns to the northern beaches a lot more bearable (went a lot quicker) i remember...

yes. good old rusty's. you can still always find the gummy old islander ladies selling and chewing their betel nuts, betel pepper and lime. I bought a pile of nice viable looking nuts from there to propagate for torsten but left cairns before i finished fermenting the husks off so i could plant them. I'm in perth now waterdragon.

actually, come to think of it, i found TLC protocols for mda, mmda, opiates, and more. Better get a photocopyin'

I suppose i'd better go and start trying to convince my chemistry unit co-ordinator to let me run some of my friends' urine through the HPLC system. Hmmmm... i wouldn't want to let them see the chromatogram... BTW, Rev, the other day i acquired details on TLC protocols for simple indole derivatives (for the phalaris analyses) aswell as protocols for ergot alkaloid analysis. If i can get the right solvents, TLC plates, and locating reagents i can use the given retention times to work out what's present in the relevent plant/fungal materials. Need a quick field test for tryptamine content in Acacias? TLC is all we need. Cya

Yeah, i thought it was a bit dodgey that Harborne didn't give any reference to support the cananga thing or many other things at all...

Ok, the book that says isosafrole is found in Cananga odorata is: Harborne, J.B. 1999. Phytochemical Dictionary - A Handbook of Bioactive Compounds from Plants - 2nd Edition, Taylor Francis It says that isosafrole is 'moderately toxic' to humans like safrole and that it is a cytochrome p450 enzyme inductor - presumably the enzymes partly or wholey responsible for the biotransformation of safrole into active metabolites. More info soon

The book, i think, was called Phytochemical Products or something like that... I'll post it later when i get a proper reference to the cananga thing. I couldn't find any link between cananga and isosafrole in the great Encyclopaedia of Natural Products, but that doesn't mean its not in there. I will strive to find out the % content reported. I just read that apparently, in a dog, safrole and isosafrole are 'both' metabolised, somewhere along the line, to 3,4-methylenedioxybenzoic acid and then this forms an ester glucuronide and a glycine conjugate. Apparently this glycine conjugate has been isolated from human urine. I've also found some leads to myristicin and safrole metabolism which will have to wait till i finish an assignment. i can't afford to go and rub a whole $20 bottle of ylang ylang essential oil all over myself anyway... [This message has been edited by Fractalhead (edited 30 May 2002).]

Does anyone have this species? I'm keen to start collecting the neo-clerodane diterpene containing plants such as this one. A search of the net in australia came up with perennials unlimited for a few of the well documented salvias in this category, but not for S. lineata. I can't find much on lineata at all... except that it contains the interesting compound 'Linearifolin'. Anyone tried S. gesneraefolia? or melissodora or lineata? Torsten I know you've tried quite a few salvias. Do you have notes easily accessible? Perhaps we can start to compile a draught for a new book: Terpenoids We Have Known And Loved TWHKAL (try pronouncing that ). Cheers, Fractal

Hi guys, I know the feeling assassin. When we moved out of our house in cairns it was a traumatic experience leaving some of our more deeply rooted loved-ones. Meg [hi meg!!] will tell you about what lengths we went to to keep our babies 'in the family'. Still i'm curious to go back and see how the plants we left in the ground at our old house are getting on after six months. I wonder whether the new tenants even know what is right under their noses. I'd say the brugs would be the first to get hacked back. ;(. BTW, Yeah i'm at uni in perth learning all about chemistry, biology, drugs and all things in between. I always have my eyes peeled for interesting ethnobotany-related facts, and have been picking up little topics of interest that i will have to share with you in the near future once i can make some conclusions myself... Have been so focussed on doing my best that i have been very busy. Too busy to even garden as much as i would like... but... I'm hoping to get some work experience at the end of the year doing some plant cell/tissue culture etc. BTW Big Thanks to Meg and Rev for their 'horticultural hospitality'. I will be in contact soon, Meg, about our July cairns visit.

What do you mean goodbye? Nice photo BTW Reminds me of my home in the tropics... i miss the tropics already [This message has been edited by Fractalhead (edited 17 May 2002).]

Gomaos, that site looks fantastic!! Well done, Coin. I love the use of colour. Basic HTML isn't complicated. Gomaos, It would be easy for you to change the prices of things and it won't take you long to learn the more advanced stuff. good luck Fractal

ahhhh the horrid nutmeg burp. I almost threw up after taking a big wiff of nutmeg the other day. I've had some awesome visuals with the ground supermarket stuff in my younger days. never again.

Hi Andrew, Ummm... I've had a look through my email inbox and i can't find anything from you. Have you been using: [email protected] ? If not, that's why. Otherwise I don't know why i wouldn't get your emails because I've been getting heaps of crap from acid music promotions and STA travel etc. You might need to refresh my memory what is going on because it has been so long and i don't have my records with me. I think you're the catha man aren't you. What did you want to trade again? We are gradually getting settled in (moved state). Cheers man, Adam.

Yes, i found an abundance of Alstonia scholaris (and muelerii) seeds in the cairns area but they are seasonal. Last year they didn't come on until late in the year (around nov-dec i think) I collected quite a few but they are in cairns at the moment and i'm in perth. We're getting them sent over soon so if you need some, let me know. Probably only enough for propogation purposes (plant propogation that is... not human ) Fractal