LLB said:
very helpful ron... im envious you have manuels book.. hes a great guy.
would it be OK to snuff the Sodium Carbonate? yah think? never worked with it... but that sounds a hell of a lot better then snuffing the calcium hydroxide to be honest or ammonia... snuffing ammonia is like snuffing used kitty litter lol.
Well SWIM is thinking that this may be a matter of smoking methodology... then...
Alkaloids absorb best when the nose pH is at or higher than the pKa of the alkaloid. For bufotenine, that’s a pH close to 9.6 or above. They also absorb best if the nose is slightly burned by a strong base. The lesions caused by the strong base allow the alkaloid better access into the blood stream.
I hate to say it, but calcium hydroxide is the best for use with snuff made from seeds. That’s why the shamans use it. The burn from it helps the alkaloids absorb better by causing very small lesions in the tissues in the nose. It’s used for betel nut for the same reason. It both freebases and causes lesions. It’s water solubility is very low so it stays in the nose for a long time without dissolving, keeping the nose pH alkaline for a long time giving the alkaloids more time to dissolve as freebase. That’s one of it’s big advantages.
Don’t use sodium carbonate. SWIM tried using sodium carbonate and put a little too much. Although it’s a little weaker of a base than calcium hydroxide (lime), it burns like crazy because it’s much more water soluble and dissolves right into your nose really fast. You’ll have a sore nose for a few days if you put a little too much. Calcium hydroxide is a stronger base but because it’s far less water soluble, it takes a long time to dissolve and so the pain is much less than that felt from sodium carbonate. Also because the sodium carbonate dissolves so rapidly, it doesn’t keep the nose pH alkaline for very long, meaning the alkaloids have less time to dissolve as freebase. Once all the base is gone, the remaining alkaloids start forming salts right in the nose. That’s not good. The salt forms don’t absorb well at all and have more side effects because of it.
Sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) is a different compound from sodium carbonate. It’s a much weaker base and not very effective for snuff. It doesn’t cause any lesions and doesn’t freebase enough of the bufotenine. It’s also too water soluble so it quickly dissolves in the nose, meaning the freebased alkaloids have much less time to dissolve as freebase and start forming salts in the nose.
Ammonia can freebase all the bufotenine easily. It won’t work well for snuff because it evaporates away and doesn’t cause lesions in the nose. Because it evaporates away, it doesn’t keep the nose alkaline long enough for all the alkaloids to absorb as freebase, so much of them start forming salts in the nose. However, ammonia is great for producing a smokeable snuff because it all evaporates; and when smoking the alkaloids, you don’t need to worry about keeping the lungs alkaline because the freebase alkaloids absorb really fast into the blood stream via the lungs.
Calcium carbonate (not to be confused with calcium hydroxide or sodium carbonate) might work pretty well without burning your nose. Like calcium hydroxide (lime) it’s water solubility is very low so it stays in the nose for a long time without dissolving, keeping the nose pH at about 9.8 for a long time allowing all the alkaloids to eventually freebase and get absorbed as freebase. But it doesn’t cause lesions like calcium hydroxide does, and so it will take longer for the alkaloids to absorb. This should slow down the trip’s onset and also make the effects a little weaker. So it’s a trade off. But because all the alkaloids will absorb as freebase, the effects should be virtually the same as if one used calcium hydroxide, only a little weaker with a slower onset.
When snuffing pure freebase bufotenine, using a base like calcium hydroxide helps it absorb faster and prevents it from salting in the nose. But its not that necessary as it is with whole seed snuff because the amount of material is so small that it absorbs at a much faster rate than whole seed snuff does. But it still makes a noticeable difference. If you mix the bufotenine with a little calcium hydroxide, it will absorb faster, be a little more visual, and have less side effects. SWIM has tried snorting pure bufotenine with calcium carbonate instead of calcium hydroxide. It is nearly as effective and doesn’t burn much. Bufotenine itself burns the nose a little tiny bit but calcium carbonate doesn’t. The mix of calcium carbonate and bufotenine actually burns less than pure bufotenine does. I’m not sure why. But the effects are identical to those felt from mixing calcium hydroxide with the pure bufotenine, only the onset is a little shorter, and the effects are a little weaker, but not much.
