Arenaria serpyllifolia (Thymeleaved sandwort)

[Loveall]

Getting ready to try to grow Arenaria serpyllifolia. It is considered a medicinal plant in some parts for the world. Infundibulum introduced this plant to the Nexus (here and here). In his words,

SWIM had posted some papers in another thread, the link to the post in question is here. It basically involved making salvinorin A orally active by using plants that inhibit the carboxylesterases (CE) in the body.

According to the papers the most promising plants are Arenaria serpyllifolia, Thapsia garganica and Rhamnus alaternus. All three are plants that have been used for medicinal purposes in Arabian countries.

According to the papers the "best" is A.serpyllifolia extracts that can inhibit both rat intestinal and porcine liver CEs, with T. garganica extracts coming second best and R. alaternus being third best and only capable of inhibiting only rat intestinal CEs. Of course rat and pig carboxylesterases are not 100% same as humans' neither the metabolism of these substances is the same. These results however indicate that A.serpyllifolia and T. garganica can also inhibit human CEs and possibly make salvinorin A orally active.

Unfortunately not much information can be found in the web about these plants...

So far I've got the seeds and I'm going to try germination (seeds are tiny, picture below). Does anyone have experience or tips on this plant spirit? Thank you.

 

[downwardsfromzero]

Interestingly, perhaps, Shulgin lists Arenaria kansuensis as containing harmine - without anything quantitative, I might add.

 

[Loveall]

Sowed late 9/19 without a pre-soak (I just guessed and went with Mel's mix). Showing signs of life!

They look so vulnerable. Hope they make it...

Picture is from this morning. Also checked before going to bed so they must have sprouted over night. So they sprouted after only 60 hours.

I'm being conservative and keeping them in 50% sun until they are stronger, then I'll gradually move them to 90% sun.

They are also close to the salvia plant in case they want to communicate in their spiritual/chemical plant language.

 

[Loveall]

9/25 Update:

While the 50% sun seeds sprouted first they did not do very well even though the soil was not allowed to completely dry out. Most died.

Other seeds where sown in 90% sun (all dead) and 90% shade. While the seeds in shade sprouted later they are doing very well (see image below).

This is supposed to be a sun loving plant, but it seems thant in my case shade is preferred during the seedling stage. The surviving 50% sun sprouts have been moved to the shade.

 

[Loveall]

10/7: Secondary leaves showed up a couple days ago. So far so good.

 

[Loveall]

4 week update: Multiple leaves showing up. Baby plants seem happy in mild early fall weather. I moved the surviving 50% sprouts back to 50% sun since they look stronger now and this is supposed to be a sun loving plant. Other pot remains in 90% shade.

 

[Loveall]

After 38 days so far so good. Plants starting to cover the pot which should be their thing (ground cover). Moved second pot to 50% sun based on results so far. Sun only negatively affected exposed brand new seedlings.

 

[Loveall]

At 3 months plants are looking happy. Growth has slowed during the winter and the plant has survived temps down to the mid 20s (F) without issues.

I don't think there is enough to make a tea to combine with salvia yet, but I have no idea of the dose. Any advice? Currently planning to wait for the increased growth in the spring unless someone can provide insight into this plant/project.

 

[Loveall]

Here is an update. I've learned that the plant can survive light frost but does not like harder frosts (<25F and it starts to wilt).

Thinking I'll have enough in the spring to start testing how/if this medicinal herb combines with salvia.

 

[Loveall]

After a year of growing this medicinal I've learned that it does not like the intense heat and sun of the summer. The plant that was in full sun died. The plant in partial shade is doing OK and a second generation is sprouting beneath it.

I have enough to make a few teas. Will be trying it alone, and eventually with what we think is HPBCD complexed salvinorin. This will be drank as a tea to test for what we could call a sallyhuasca drink if it works.

 

[Loveall]

The plant died over the winter and is now coming back in early spring. Looks like it reseeded itself :thumb_up:

 

[grollum]

And did you try to make a tea @Loveall?

 

[Loveall]

No I didn't make a tea the whole of last year.

All hobby time was spent on mushroom extractions.

Will shoot for doing it this year and report back on any synergy with Salvia.

 

[grollum]

Would be interesting if this synergy with dimitri as well.

 

[Loveall]

If taken with DMT, auxin-like stuff may stay in the blood longer (I think auxin can form during the breakdown of DMT in the 1 -> 5 step in the image below, but not sure).

I don't think auxin has any major effects (other than a possible anti tumor effect, and also shown to affect rat fetuses negatively at large doses of 500mg/kg).

The interesting thing about taking this plant with Salvia (as you may already know) is that it could delay the breakdown of the R1 = -OCOCH3 bond (second image) and delay the rapid metabolism of Salvinorin A to the inactive Salvinorin B.

 

[downwardsfromzero]

I'll just chuck this link in here:

Redirecting

"Flavonoids as human carboxylesterase 2 inhibitors: Inhibition potentials and molecular docking simulations."

and this:

Redirecting

"Inhibition of porcine liver carboxylesterase by a new flavone glucoside isolated from Deverra scoparia."

This one is also relevant:
J Enzyme Inhib Med Chem. 2006; 21(6):719-26 (ISSN: 1475-6366)
"Phenolic extracts from various Algerian plants as strong inhibitors of porcine liver carboxylesterase."
but seems a bit hard to track down.

 

[Loveall]

This one is also relevant:
J Enzyme Inhib Med Chem. 2006; 21(6):719-26 (ISSN: 1475-6366)
"Phenolic extracts from various Algerian plants as strong inhibitors of porcine liver carboxylesterase."

Attached

Edit: By the way, the paper DWFZ found lists "Pyganum Harmala" seed phenolic extract as a CE inhibitor. Isn't this simply our beloved rue?

Has anyone tried ground rue seeds with Salvia? The answer must be yes, someone must have. Time to strap on our boots and go on an archeological dig down the nexus...

 

[Loveall]

Yep, hats off to Lumps for pointing this out already here.

Looks like some nexians did some interpid experiments already. I don't think it's only the harmalas in general that will help with CE inhibition, but the flavonols from rue seeds - so using a clean Harmala extract or other harmala plant may not be ideal for Salvia.

 

[downwardsfromzero]

Thanks for posting that paper. Cleome is a nice plant and the best of the CE inhibitors they tested. I got some Cleomes for my garden once because they look and smell like ganja - except for the long, purple flowers on long stalks.

Do we know what the inhibitor compounds in A. serpyllifolia are? I reckon some other members of the Caryophyllaceae might do a reasonable job of inhibiting CE as well; I once noticed an interesting mental effect after chewing a handful of chickweed (Stellaria media), which is in the same family, FWIW.

 

[Loveall]

The paper notes a possible correlation between flavonol content and CE inhibition, however the specifics beyond that are unkown (other compounds could also matter, etc). I plan to go through papers that have referenced this one to see if anybody studied this in more detail.