Fractalhead

Hi ppl. Have LOTS of viable broadlead khat seeds available for trade. fRACTAL

Hmmm... i wonder if buying sodium silicate ('water glass') from pottery suppliers would be an efficient shortcut to making some kind of silica gel.

Flowering occurs in wet season and seed production peaks in the dry season.

Thanks guys! I found a cool book on the topic: Shargool, P.D. and Ngo, T.T., 1994, Current Topics in Plant Molecular Biology -Biotechnological Applications of Plant Cultures, Here are a few of my favourite quotes so far: "The mixing, sampling and aeration ratio in a bioreactor becomes a significant factor of growth and secondary product formation. Because of this, careful planning in scale-up is required" That ginseng suspension culture in the scales of a 2-ton and 20-ton tank bioreactors could be successfully achieved was demonstrated in 1982 and 1985. The productivity [of plant material] was more than 500mg/l/d as dry material. The saponin ginsenosides content and the composition of the products were almost the same as that of cultivated ginseng." Re: variability in secondary metabolite production The mechanisms behind this variability are exactly what i want to study but first, i just want to learn the basics of how to get things to grow.

I took a non-flowering cutting from a flowering/ seeding vine and stuck it in the ground up in north qld. It put out vegetative growth until it covered a few square meters of fence and then set seed (about 1.5-2 years). I've got others grown from seed in pots and they haven't set seed yet despite being about 3yrs old. This may be because they haven't been allowed to grow to full size in the ground. Certainly in the ground i would expect seeds within 3yrs in qld. not sure in perth as most of the vines in perth a less than 3 yrs old or in pots.

I guess i might be able to build a shaker. Basically you just want a swirling rack inside a big esky full of clean water (large thermal mass) fitted with a tight thermostat and a few light bulbs at the top right oh yeah and a supply of clean temperature controlled air flow.

This is really interesting. Smogs, I'd love to a copy of the full article. I still don't have a full grasp on what these people did but might get it if i read the full article. Once I understand the chemistry, I might be able to design a little silica extraction plant to meet everyones needs

Here's the abstract of article i found on the topic. Unfortunately, our library stopped subscribing to this journal over twenty years ago. Does anyone else have access to the full text article? Published: Journal of Chromatographic Science, Volume 36, Number 10, October 1998, pp. 499-504. Modification of Perlite for Use as a Thin-Layer Chromatographic Adsorbent R. Karakas and U. Yukse The SiO2 content (70–75%) of mineral perlite is converted to soluble silicates with Na2CO3. The acidification of soluble silicates in perlite forms hydrogels which become xerogels upon drying. The parameters (particle size, specific surface area, pore size and volume, and surface hydroxyl group density) are investigated for perlite modified by Na2CO3 before use as a thin-layer chromatography adsorbent. The modified perlite is mixed with CaSO4 (a binder) and Na4SiO4 in order to adjust the pH of its 10% suspension in water before its application to the glass surface. The modified perlite (having CaSO4 and Na4SiO4) is called “Perlite IIG7”. Layers prepared with Perlite IIG7 are successfully used for the separation of the dye component in commercially available inks, amino acids, carboxylic acids, mono- and disaccarides, and halide ions. Thanks for the advice Auxin! Tests are still underway... [ 02. February 2004, 13:19: Message edited by: Fractalhead ]

Well it wasn't interested in the cricket i fed it. Someone else told me maggots were good.

Well I might have to take my UV light for a walk in the bush because i found my little fella dead this morning. Seems this one didn't eat redback spiders but at least no i know that redbacks eat scorpions They don't eat daddy long legs either. The scorpion ate the first spider no worries and a slater.

Yeah, and I've still got to get a decent prism or a diffraction grating to see if i can split up the harmine blue and harmaline green of the emergent light or more interesting still, see if i can make a more or less monochromatic beam of UV light with variable wavelength...

That's a good question electro, and one that can really only be tested by experiment which, unfortunately, will have to be left to someone who can legally do it somewhere in another time and/or place. My guess is that if the powdered material is immediately put away in a vacuum sealed container away from light and moisture, it would be stable about as long as the seeds are normally.

I had a look at some crushed, moistened caapi leaves under a blacklight and saw no fluorescence coming from the actual tissue in between the major veins. This indicates that there is very little (if any) harmaline/harmine in that part of the leaf. HOWEVER, amongst the crushed up dry caapi leaf powder were some hard chunky bits that may have either been bits of bark or bits of leaf xylum tissue (major veins). I couldn't tell which with certainty because i got the dried leaves from a bag that had lots of tiny bits of bark in it. Anyway, these bits fluoresced brightly like caapi bark or harmala seeds do. If the leaf veins or petioles are as loaded as the bark (and this seems to be more than likely) this could account for the positive indications. If you want to check for b-carbolines in any plant tissues, just wet it a little bit and shine a blacklight onto it. Harmine glows a sky blue colour and harmaline glows a bright aqua/lime green colour. Most/all the other minor b-carboline constituents also glow similar tones of blue and green. I'd check a whole leaf myself except that my caapi plant is not with me at the moment. BTW, I found a pet scorpion the other day and it was a pleasant surprise to find that it shines a nice harmine blue ;-)

A correction to my last post: i actually read that aqueous solutions of LSA salt fluoresce blue-grey under a blacklight.

Every time an Acacia sustainability thread appears around the place I bring up Acacia nilotica... so I'll do it again. Acacia nilotica is one of the biggest weeds in australia and has apparently been tested positively for DMT (see SAB info page). The bark and roots have a history of psychoactive use in africa (see Medicinal and Poisonous Plants of Southern and Eastern Africa -2nd Edition, 1962). Considering these facts, it seems amazing that the sub-species growing in north western qld hasn't been specifically tested and its exploitation been discussed. If it turns out to be a decent source, this would probably be the most environmentally sound source in the world. I posted about this in more detail over at the Ethnobotany Australia forums in the 'Ethnobotany- Lets Get Real' thread in the general ethnobotany section.

Hmmmmm

I haven't read any of the primary evidence for the existence of a 'Soma' so I don't know what the pieces to the story really are, but one possible drug that i can think of that would easily rival mushrooms for its ability to form a strong network of devout followers would be a Peganum / Acacia brew? Not sure of the geography of Soma but I know that Acacia nilotica (which supposedly contains DMT) has supposedly been used for psychoactive purposes (at least in africa - it grows also in india and other parts of the african and asian continents) and i believe that Peganum is regularly used in a possibly overlapping geographic range. All it would take is one person to take both at the same time and BOOM... revolution time

LOL

Please forgive me for my laziness right now but what species is the yellow flowered water lilly? I found some growing in a pond a tourist stopover in SW WA the other day and picked a flower. It smelled a bit like bubblegum (definitely different to the blue lotus smell) but after the smell diff. i wan't game to eat the flower. What's the go? Anyone tried these?

Yeah that's what i forgot to point out, theo. Himbacine is only one of 30-50 alkaloids in the genus. That's what is so mind blowing about the primitive plant. Still, its amazing how many natural products turn out to be experimental artifacts. Who cares anyway if we know how to make them from the plant... I can see we'll be needing the 2D TLC for this one! Maybe we could make a 3D cube of silica for a 3D TLC ? Can't wait to get some...

[This was misinformation] [ 27. January 2004, 15:10: Message edited by: Fractalhead ]

The way to check if a light source is suitable is to get spectroscope (don't worry, u can get really cheap ones) from a science education shop and look at the light source thru it to determine whether there is any light in the 'danger zone' frequency range. If you know the safe frequencies (ie. the frequencies at which the absorption spectrum of LSA is at a trough - check the original literature by Hoffmann - its in german - Experientia i think but the UV/VIS absorbance spectrum should be legible). If your light source only emits light in the low absorbance regions then you are safe. This would be a nice little research project and you'll be making a nice contribution to kitchen chem if you manage to identify safe light sources readily available. A bit of fun and well worth the few bucks it'll cost to do it... oh yeah... and totally legal since you are only reading journal articles and looking at lights thru spectroscopes ;-). [ 09. January 2004, 06:14: Message edited by: Fractalhead ]

Thanks heaps man! Will write soon. This makes me very happy :-) There's no need to express it, I'm just glad its safe. The shot of our little posse at the pub turned out nicely but i haven't scanned it yet. I'll get onto it in the next couple of days and send my address with the photo. Cheers, Fractal [ 07. January 2004, 22:09: Message edited by: Fractalhead ]

Hi everyone, Has anyone wound up with my walkman in their backpack or something after getting home from EB because I didn't come home with it. The last time I remember seeing it, Robin, Adrian and Bean were listening to it in the car on the way to the beach that day so i think i either left it in the car (CS) or left it in someone's lap etc. If anyone has it, I will reward them if they send it to me so please email me at: [email protected] or reply here and i will get back to you. Cheers, Fractal

Not sure if SAB sells this one, but my wife and I have recently got into smoking blue water lilly flowers. We just roll fat ones and smoke em with a cup of tea and lay in the hammock for half an hour (which is about how long it lasts). Its another one of those weak but definitely active and pleasant smokes that you can have without wiping yourself out for the day... like a little psychoactive power-snooze This one combines nicely with a beer, glass of wine or a number of other herbs but i guess you'll just have to experiment to find your fave combo ;-) [ 07. January 2004, 11:58: Message edited by: Fractalhead ]