Search the Community

Hey guys, I recently moved to a new area, and don't really have any friends with common interests in my area. I know this is a thread for trading but I guess, most friendships start by trading! PM me you questions! I have some interesting plants and hobbies, Im sure we will make great friends:)

I have been reading a great deal lately on the topic of ethnopharmacology and have developed a strong fascination for a few plants (more so for the components thereof). A most intriguing one is Sophora flavescens, which contains an alkaloid by the name of matrine (and also oxymatrine and a bunch of others). Matrine is found to have antinociceptive activities in mice, which is in line with the traditional use of the plant in China as a pain-reliever (I think - I love the herbology of TCM but their explanations and traditions are too un-scientific for me to want to spend the time getting to understand them). I am curious if anybody has any experience with Sophora or, unlikely I know but still I must ask, matrine; or if anybody has any other insights into this plant, and others like it, which I may have overlooked. For instance, it seems to be effective as an analgesic agent in mice, but I can find no evidence that it has ever been studied in humans for this activity. We are constantly bombarded with news of the "opioid epidemic" ravaging North America and the need for less addictive drugs, but it seems to me that the many viable alternatives - "viable" at least so far as testing on mice is concerned, along with its tradition of use - have been paid little to no attention.

Hi folks, looking to diversify seed bank here.. Have excess of a few things I've already sown so lets trade, whatcha got? I am interested in any rare cacti seed (you know ..the good ones..), medicinal herbs, entheogens, multi-purpose food crops, high nutrient food crops of any type, anything that is nice and interesting. I have these to trade.. Cacti seed Trichocereus boliviensis Macrogonus x Juuls Validus x Peru SG Werdermanius Pach 'Lizard King' OP Macrogonus OP Herb seed Aralia cordata Nicotiana rustica Black henbane Mutants Mandrake Brugmansia sanguinea yellow Boneset Bergamot Tulsi Silene Capensis Gymnostemma pentaphyllum Mexican mint - tagates lucida Lobelia inflata White sage Elecampane Skullcap Carob Also have a heap of organic heirloom vege seeds but the herbs should be sufficiently telling of my interests. There are vege seeds there anyway if anyone's interested. Plz pm or enquire as you wish. Trading rep linked at bottom of my posts. Thanks n happy spring to ya'll.

An interesting article titled "Entheogens of Africa" in Issue 2 Volume 3 of the Dragibus magazine lists a number of plant species that are used as "cannabis substitutes" (i.e. mixed with tobacco and smoked). These species and the parts used are: Cineraria aspera (?) Cullen obtusifolia (leaves and stems) Sutherlandia frutescens (seeds and leaves) Nenax microphylla (seed) Apart from the medicinal use of Sutherlandia frutescens (Wikipedia: An infusion made from the leaves is a traditional remedy for fever, chicken pox, flu, rheumatism, hemorrhoids, diarrhea, and stomach and liver problems), there doesn't appear to be much ethnobotanical information online about these plants. Does anyone have any experience with growing or using them? Cheers, ∂an

I am going to set up an intensive little propagation arrangement for Chinese medicinal herbs... Using aquaponics, aeroponics, micropropagation, bioreactor, etc..... Does anyone have any suggestions about which ones are most profitable t grow, and where to sell the, all at once? Interesting things may be possible, for example, what I posted about ginseng before.... "Pilot-scale culture of adventitious roots of ginseng in a bioreactor system Sung Mee Choi, Sung Ho Son, Seung Rho Yun, Oh Woung Kwon, Jeong Hoon Seon, Kee Yoeup Paek Abstract A pilot-scale culture of multiple adventitious roots of ginseng was established using a balloon-type bubble bioreactor. Adventitious roots (2 cm) induced from callus were cultured in plastic Petri dishes having 20 ml of solid Schenk and Hildebrandt (1972) medium containing 3% sucrose, 0.15% gelrite, and 24.6 μM indole-3-butric acid. An average of 29 secondary multiple adventitious roots were produced after 4 weeks of culture. These secondary roots were elongated on the same medium, reaching a length of 5 cm after 6 weeks of culture. A time course study revealed that maximum yields in 5-l and 20-l bioreactors were approximately 500 g and 2.2 kg at day 42 with 60 g and 240 g inoculations, respectively. Cutting twice during the culture increased the total amount of biomass produced. The root biomass in a 20-l balloon-type bubble bioreactor was 2.8 kg at harvest with 240 g of inoculum after 8 weeks of culture. The total saponin content obtained from small-scale and pilot-scale balloon type bubble bioreactors was around 1% based on dry weight. Inoculation of 500 g fresh weight of multiple adventitious roots into a 500 l balloon-type bubble bioreactor with cutting at 4 and 6 weeks after inoculation produced approximately 74.8 kg of multiple roots. The ginsengnoside profiles of these multiple adventitious roots were similar to profiles of field-grown ginseng roots when analyzed by HPLC."