a simple hydrolysis of ergotamine to ergine...
(simple water extraction that is let to sit for over 1 hr)....
before filtering and adding the high in acetaldehyde wine
Ergotamine and other ergopeptine alkaloids, the main
constituents of most ergot species, will also hydrolyse to lysergic acid
under these conditions, but under milder conditions these compounds do not
hydrolyse completely. With a weaker base such as potassium carbonate, and
at lower temperatures, ergotamine is partially hydrolysed to ergine. This
reaction, apparently long forgotten by chemists, was first discovered in
the early research on ergot alkaloids in the 1930s.[8] And it is this
process of partial hydrolysis that we propose as the method by which the
kykeon was prepared from ergot, converting the toxic ergopeptine alkaloids
to ergine and its epimer isoergine.
In the ancient world, men and women joined cults known as Mysteries to unite with the deities of the otherworld and achieve eternal life. The most important of the Mysteries existed for two millennia at the village of Eleusis. Its deities were Demeter and Persephone, interchangeable in their...
books.google.com
very good info on studies of the partial hydrolysis