downwardsfromzero
Boundary condition
IMPORTANT SAFETY NOTICE
DO NOT ATTEMPT TO EMULATE ANY OF THIS
The effects of Eschscholzia californica, the Californian poppy, are well enough known. It is a plant that is easy to grow and obtain in sufficient quantities for worthwhile scientific experimentation.
After having tried smoking pretty much all parts of the plant - petals, stamens, leaves, stems, roots, seed pods (but not the seeds as they are too useful) - as well as ingesting proprietary gelcaps of the herb, I decided to attempt a crude alkaloid extraction as follows:
Seed pods were collected from the plants whenever they were approaching a state of ripeness. This is the point where they begin to lose their green colour a little and start to dry out, but before the pods have burst open. When ready, they detach from their stems with a gentle twist.
The pods were then placed in a paper bag and allowed to dry out in a warm, well-ventilated place. The top of the bag was left open a little in order to prevent mould formation. On sunny days, the pods would pop open from time to time, causing surprise and amusement.
At some point, the paper bag was sufficiently filled with now dried and popped pods. The pods were separated from any remaining seeds and ground to a fine powder in a coffee grinder (rotating blade type). This was achieved by repeatedly sifting out larger pieces and regrinding them. The final sift was through a very fine nylon mesh of the sort sometimes used for infusing tea or coffee.
This process furnished a very fine khaki- to tan-coloured powder, with a curious bleachy-alkaloidal smell, with malty and vanilla tones. The powder made a fairly acceptable snuff which clearly had an appreciable content of active compounds, thus it was used as a material for a (triumphant orchestral chord!) simple extraction process.
A heaped teaspoonful of the Cali-poppy-pod-powder was mixed with a similar amount of sodium bicarbonate powder (pharmaceutical grade) and intimately mixed in a small plastic ziplock baggie. (The actual intention here was to investigate the effect on the powder as a snuff. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it made it eye-wateringly painful, hence the progression to the next ingenious step.)
About a quarter-teaspoonful of the bicarbonate-blended powder (i.e. using not more than 500mg of plant material) was placed in a normal metal teaspoon. Sufficient boiled and cooled (fairly soft) tap water was carefully added to nearly fill the teaspoon.
The teaspoon was then heated over a candle flame and the liquid simmered. Some effervescence was observed which is to be expected when heating sodium bicarbonate solutions alone. The liquid was allowed to evaporate not quite to dryness, then removed from the flame. The remaining heat in the spoon finished off the drying process.
On examining the spoon, a tan waxy substance was seen to have collected around the edge. A small amount of this substance was subjected to a vaporization test using a pipe and lighter. It apparently vaporized leaving very little trace.
The vapour was very mild to inhale and produced a pleasant mood elevation, although a noticeable amount of alcohol had also been consumed by this point. Nonetheless, the described effect was greater than that of the alcohol alone. Further amounts of the product were smoked in a pipe to appreciable effect. The total amount smoked will have been (much) less than 75mg.
...and that is where the experiment currently stands, more or less.
Probably it would be fun to add a solvent extraction on after the boil, and of course to use a larger, measured quantity.
The other thing I would mention is that the product smelt very much like sponge cake
:yummy: and had lost the bleachy tang of the starting material.
SOME NOTES ON SAFETY
Oh, yes, also - this describes playing with toxic alkaloids so handling of larger quantities should only be approached with due caution by persons of sufficient skills and experience, if at all.
Some of the activities described above may be dangerous, particularly the smoking of uncharacterised herbal extracts of unknown potency without weighing.
The safety parameter here was in the preparation using only an amount of substance which was known to be tolerated by the subject, plus E. californica's established properties as a recognized herbal medication.
(I weigh 60kg and have a fairly fast metabolism.)
The experiment took place in a safe, domestic, culinary setting.
If we're super lucky, photo's may follow...
DO NOT ATTEMPT TO EMULATE ANY OF THIS
The effects of Eschscholzia californica, the Californian poppy, are well enough known. It is a plant that is easy to grow and obtain in sufficient quantities for worthwhile scientific experimentation.
After having tried smoking pretty much all parts of the plant - petals, stamens, leaves, stems, roots, seed pods (but not the seeds as they are too useful) - as well as ingesting proprietary gelcaps of the herb, I decided to attempt a crude alkaloid extraction as follows:
Seed pods were collected from the plants whenever they were approaching a state of ripeness. This is the point where they begin to lose their green colour a little and start to dry out, but before the pods have burst open. When ready, they detach from their stems with a gentle twist.
The pods were then placed in a paper bag and allowed to dry out in a warm, well-ventilated place. The top of the bag was left open a little in order to prevent mould formation. On sunny days, the pods would pop open from time to time, causing surprise and amusement.
At some point, the paper bag was sufficiently filled with now dried and popped pods. The pods were separated from any remaining seeds and ground to a fine powder in a coffee grinder (rotating blade type). This was achieved by repeatedly sifting out larger pieces and regrinding them. The final sift was through a very fine nylon mesh of the sort sometimes used for infusing tea or coffee.
This process furnished a very fine khaki- to tan-coloured powder, with a curious bleachy-alkaloidal smell, with malty and vanilla tones. The powder made a fairly acceptable snuff which clearly had an appreciable content of active compounds, thus it was used as a material for a (triumphant orchestral chord!) simple extraction process.
A heaped teaspoonful of the Cali-poppy-pod-powder was mixed with a similar amount of sodium bicarbonate powder (pharmaceutical grade) and intimately mixed in a small plastic ziplock baggie. (The actual intention here was to investigate the effect on the powder as a snuff. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it made it eye-wateringly painful, hence the progression to the next ingenious step.)
About a quarter-teaspoonful of the bicarbonate-blended powder (i.e. using not more than 500mg of plant material) was placed in a normal metal teaspoon. Sufficient boiled and cooled (fairly soft) tap water was carefully added to nearly fill the teaspoon.
The teaspoon was then heated over a candle flame and the liquid simmered. Some effervescence was observed which is to be expected when heating sodium bicarbonate solutions alone. The liquid was allowed to evaporate not quite to dryness, then removed from the flame. The remaining heat in the spoon finished off the drying process.
On examining the spoon, a tan waxy substance was seen to have collected around the edge. A small amount of this substance was subjected to a vaporization test using a pipe and lighter. It apparently vaporized leaving very little trace.
The vapour was very mild to inhale and produced a pleasant mood elevation, although a noticeable amount of alcohol had also been consumed by this point. Nonetheless, the described effect was greater than that of the alcohol alone. Further amounts of the product were smoked in a pipe to appreciable effect. The total amount smoked will have been (much) less than 75mg.
...and that is where the experiment currently stands, more or less.
Probably it would be fun to add a solvent extraction on after the boil, and of course to use a larger, measured quantity.
The other thing I would mention is that the product smelt very much like sponge cake
:yummy: and had lost the bleachy tang of the starting material.SOME NOTES ON SAFETY
Oh, yes, also - this describes playing with toxic alkaloids so handling of larger quantities should only be approached with due caution by persons of sufficient skills and experience, if at all.
Some of the activities described above may be dangerous, particularly the smoking of uncharacterised herbal extracts of unknown potency without weighing.
The safety parameter here was in the preparation using only an amount of substance which was known to be tolerated by the subject, plus E. californica's established properties as a recognized herbal medication.
(I weigh 60kg and have a fairly fast metabolism.)
The experiment took place in a safe, domestic, culinary setting.
If we're super lucky, photo's may follow...
)
- albeit not in connection with a smokeable extract.
