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apothecary

Coleus blumei

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Hello!

Time to (re?)drum up some interest in this plant.

I've discovered a C. blumei green/purple plant growing in a crack of concrete in some persons driveway near my home.

I'm planning a rescue mission.

Anyone have any good advice on taking cuttings of this plant? I've never cared for a rainforest plant before.

Also, while we're at it...I know some people on this forum have had hallucinogenic experiences with Coleus, like this post from theobromos ...anyone have any positive experiences from this plant?

We should make an attempt to settle this once and for all. Possible starting points include finding a "pure bred" plant, or growing this thing to the crap until a psychoactive chemotype is found (if the psychoactivity is only in specific chemotypes).

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i had great success with planting the seeds and some success with propogating in normal potting mix

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O.K there's no way I'm letting this thread die you bastards.

Thanks for the tip psycho0, the rescue mission will probably take place tonight or sometime Sunday.

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good luck mate i bought just a store packet of seeds and about 100, give or take a few) came up i was wrapped :D i think they just propogate like sally!

just cut a good few nodes length of stem cut the lower leaves of and as the leaves r quite large it may b a good idea to trim the top leaves almost in half so the growth goes mainly into root development, and leave this in a jar of water with at least the bottom nodes in the water(of course u know to cut just below the nodes right!) roots should form very quickly

u can then pot these up

or i had not as much success but u can just plant cuttings into soil!

i never actually tried it but am intrigued to learn more about the effects, if any!

aaron

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:D

apothecary - i think the problem is in the hybrid

strains!

it is very difficult to find pure strain of c.blumei

every nursery sells hybrids...

you need to check only the pure strains...

and i remember that only fresh leaves can be active. afer couple of hours threr is no much left for effects...

anyway good luck...

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any updates?

anyone found a pure strain of c.blumei?

and how to tell the pure strains from the hybrids? distinguishing features?

i was quite surprised to read that this is a possibly active species, as i see coleus growing everywhere around here... :lol:

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i cant find the theo report

wasnt it clarified that coleus is NOT traditionally used, but was in fact brought home by the shamans daughter from afar and planted cos it looked pretty?

it would certainly not be had to confuse the 2

check this out.

post-11-1152873315_thumb.jpg

post-11-1152873758_thumb.jpg

no shit hey :huh:

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Picture_099.jpg

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Picture_099.jpg

Edited by Rev

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theobromos report:

http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/inde...?showtopic=1077

Rev, personally I don't feel that one quote from the shaman saying his daughter only brought it home 'cos it was pretty is enough to disprove Coleus psychoactivity...in fact I think the quote has been raised before and many possible factors were given as the reason behind the answer...

Maybe the shaman didn't want the questioners (wasn't it Wasson?) to know about the psychoactivity...maybe the shaman himself didn't know? It was only one shaman ANYWAY, I believe the same one that claimed the Argyeria sp. growing on the side of his house caused insanity when pressed about how come they didn't use it instead of Ipomoea...

Anyway, I think the only people outright disregarding the psychoactivity of the genus are just nay-sayers.

wira made a pretty cool old post on a possibility that the psychoactivity may be because of forskolin:

http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/inde...?showtopic=1452

So check out this abstract

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.f...p;dopt=Abstract

A preliminary study of possible psychoactive effects of intravenous forskolin in depressed and schizophrenic patients.

Bersudsky Y, Kotler M, Shifrin M, Belmaker RH.

Ministry of Health Mental Health Center, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beersheva, Israel.

Forskolin is a unique activator of adenylate cyclase that bypasses membrane receptors and directly raised levels of the second messenger cyclic AMP. Depressed patients and schizophrenic patients with negative symptoms have been reported to have reduced cyclic AMP levels. In the first study of forskolin in psychiatry, we gave iv forskolin in a 75 minute infusion to four depressed and five schizophrenic patients. All four depressed patients showed a transient mood elevation or stimulation, as did two of the five schizophrenic patients.

And lastly, I've stated this before (along with the disclaimer that it is pure conjecture):

Salvia divinorum seems to be potentiated by the presence of other terpenes upon ingestion.

psycho0 said he knew some people doing research into the possibility of use of S. divinorum with Campsis radicans...

Torsten used to sell S. divinorum for ingestion (when it was legal!) along with some S. splendens to "soften the hardheads"...

And so on. So it seems at least some terpenes have a potentiating effect.

The post colonisation naming of the C. blumei/C.pumilus varieties and S. divinorum also seems to indicate the Mazatec shamen were at least aware of a "family" relationship between these plants.

So maybe the whole use of Coleus species by the Mazatecs centers around its potentiating relationship when ingested with S. divinorum?

Who knows. I had plans to do experiments in this regard but do not have access to enough good S. divinorum to do a series of comprehensive tests (oral ingestion, not smoked).

--end conjecture--

Lastly, here is the plant mentioned in the first post, about two weeks after rescuing. At this point it has roots and not much else.

Look at it today

A very beautiful plant to grow, it is just reshooting now after my neglect over the exam period.

Edited by apothecary

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hmm, i spotted a coleus which looks just like "our beloved lady" in the rocky rbg, will take cuttings, now that you aroused my interrest.

i remeber a report of a member stating activety after keeping around 40 leaves in the mouth for an extanded periode, some how i think it was wira, but i'm proly wrong about the member name...

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P.S:

Anyone who has access to seed for Coleus forskohlii ...let me know :D

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P.S: I think there was also a paper somewhere stating that salvinorin C potentiates salvinorin A (i.e. another terpene that potentiates salvinorin A) ...will try and find it tomorrow...

EDIT: Damn...looks like I just made that up..disregard!

Edited by apothecary

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Smoking salvia an coleus together, i've read (or heard maybe) increases the sally effect.

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Hi. I suspect the coloured leave coleus in apothecary's photos isn't the original Coleus blumei. Countless hybrids exist. I suggested some things about Coleus in this thread

http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/inde...mp;#entry161778

Edited by mutant

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surely constant selective breeding would be able to revert genetics back to its parent form? its short time to flowering and growing speed would make it very easy to try...maybe later :rolleyes:

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You are right. :) The plant literally makes flowers all the time. Some third or half it is seed. I already store seeds for the spring.

Edited by mutant

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Hello!

Time to (re?)drum up some interest in this plant.

I've discovered a C. blumei green/purple plant growing in a crack of concrete in some persons driveway near my home.

I'm planning a rescue mission.

Anyone have any good advice on taking cuttings of this plant? I've never cared for a rainforest plant before.

Also, while we're at it...I know some people on this forum have had hallucinogenic experiences with Coleus, like this post from theobromos ...anyone have any positive experiences from this plant?

We should make an attempt to settle this once and for all. Possible starting points include finding a "pure bred" plant, or growing this thing to the crap until a psychoactive chemotype is found (if the psychoactivity is only in specific chemotypes).

i've had a successful experience with it. It's very mild in comparrison to other plants but it was interesting and nice. I chewed 10 leaves over the space of 20-30mins. It started to work after 30mins and it lasted for about 2 hrs. Depth perception wasn't present. My friend was standing about 2 metres away from me and he looked like he was about the height of a 10 year old. It was accompanied with a kind of stoned feeling without the confusion and paranoia that may occur after smoking MJ.

I would've liked to try a higher dose but the taste of the leaves was quite unpleasant. I may look into again in the future.

It's very easy to grow. Plant a cutting (without roots) straight into the ground and water it. It'll start to shoot within a week or 2.

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wasnt it clarified that coleus is NOT traditionally used, but was in fact brought home by the shamans daughter from afar and planted cos it looked pretty?

YES. YES it was... people seem to forget this!

It isn't even from the Americas!!! It is from ASIA!

Check this out!

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YES. YES it was... people seem to forget this!

It isn't even from the Americas!!! It is from ASIA!

Check this out!

Personally, i do not think you are of any authority to say whether it is psychoactive or not. Simply because it is not native to the americas doesn't mean it isn't psychoactive. I think it is a plant worthy of further study, until someone actually does a serious chemical analysis of it (and further analysis of the chemicals isolated) i will remain neutral.

But know, it is just as stupid to make skeptical assumptions on uneducated guesses as it is to be fooled by the placebo effect.

Now the question is, have you ever had a serious attempt at a bioassay with Coleus before dismissing it so completely?

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Tst what would amaranth's effects be?

IMO , Coleus is definately active, albeit mild. I haven't had time and zest and haven't been in the mood to eat a lot of it to check. But there's something active definately there and foafs report notable synergy with a bit leaf and the herb... Some people report on its dream calalyst efects too...

Teotz is sure not known for his objectivity or credibility, but many people in the 'community' claim that coleus activity is a myth. people need to test the big, erect bright coloured clone which is propably closer to the original plant 'plant of the gods' describes and talks about...

I have answered all these here...

http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/inde...mp;#entry161778

and elsewhere

I can provide cuttings or seeds to those seriously interested in bioessaying my clone....

Edited by mutant

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I regard coleus a minor to mild stimulant/euphoric/psychedelic and propably dream enhancer... not sedative... if that helps...

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