I'm writing this experiment here, even though this is supposed to be a question-only subforum, because I'm only able to post to the NURSERY. It should be moved to the Cacti section if possible.
Abstract:
Dopamine has been reported to be a precursor of mescaline. Tyrosine breaks down to become tyramine and dopa. These then recombine to form dopamine which is converted to nor-mescaline and finally to mescaline.[1] It has been hypothesized that this method does not work.[2] How do dopamine injections affect the production of mescaline in a cactus? How do injections themselves affect the cactus physically?
Materials:
* 200mg dopamine HCl ampoule.
* 10ml syringe.
* 1ml insulin syringe.
* Sterilized water.
* T. Cuzcoensis, identified here: Identification of presumed T. Peruvianus - Welcome discussion - Welcome to the DMT-Nexus.
Experiment:
The reason why a T. Cuzcoensis was used was to perform an experiment on a less valued specimen (not a T. Pachanoi). If there's no tissue damage and everything goes well, there may be another experiment with a T. Pachanoi.
Filtered tap water was boiled and left to cool as sterilization. Enough of that water was used to dilute the 200mg dopamine HCl ampoule to 0.045M. The resulting solution was stored in a clean container. The 10ml syringe was unable to inject the solution into the cactus, no matter how hard the plunger was pressed. The 1ml worked just fine. Several 0.5ml or 1ml injections (depending on where it was applied) were applied right under the skin and 4cm apart. The injection was done slowly to minimize the amount of solution wasted and to avoid creating a blister. The noodle was kept afterwards in its place for several seconds to prevent the solution from leaking.
It was possible to see how the water ran under the skin of the cactus coloring it with a darker green. The water spread at a speed of ~2mm/s and slowed as it moved away. Despite the efforts to inject slowly, a large fraction of the solution was lost and ended up on the soil. It's not believed that the roots will absorb dopamine.
A week after, several yellow/orange spots were seen just where the injections were applied:
On a horizontal section one can appreciate how deep the tissue was affected:
The cactus had to be cut to prevent further infection/damage. It was left to heal and stored. It is obvious that there was, indeed, tissue damage. It is interesting how only the white part was affected (see 3rd image), and not the green part. It is not known if the damage seen on the 4th image was caused by an infection or if it's just necrotized tissue.
Conclusion:
Tissue damage is evident. It developed from nothing to what was depicted, in just 7 days. It is still not known how dopamine affected the concentration of mescaline in the cactus, nor how the cactus responded biologically to the sudden rise of dopamine concentration. A chemical extraction could be carried on in the future to determine the concentration of alkaloids (for educational and scientific purpose). It is thought that Crystalito was right when he said that the solution may not enter the vascular system.
References:
[1] http://www.erowid.org/plants/peyote/peyote_cactus_guide.shtml#SEC8
[2] Boosting mescaline content with dopamine/l-dopa - Generic - Welcome to the DMT-Nexus
Abstract:
Dopamine has been reported to be a precursor of mescaline. Tyrosine breaks down to become tyramine and dopa. These then recombine to form dopamine which is converted to nor-mescaline and finally to mescaline.[1] It has been hypothesized that this method does not work.[2] How do dopamine injections affect the production of mescaline in a cactus? How do injections themselves affect the cactus physically?
Materials:
* 200mg dopamine HCl ampoule.
* 10ml syringe.
* 1ml insulin syringe.
* Sterilized water.
* T. Cuzcoensis, identified here: Identification of presumed T. Peruvianus - Welcome discussion - Welcome to the DMT-Nexus.
Experiment:
The reason why a T. Cuzcoensis was used was to perform an experiment on a less valued specimen (not a T. Pachanoi). If there's no tissue damage and everything goes well, there may be another experiment with a T. Pachanoi.
Filtered tap water was boiled and left to cool as sterilization. Enough of that water was used to dilute the 200mg dopamine HCl ampoule to 0.045M. The resulting solution was stored in a clean container. The 10ml syringe was unable to inject the solution into the cactus, no matter how hard the plunger was pressed. The 1ml worked just fine. Several 0.5ml or 1ml injections (depending on where it was applied) were applied right under the skin and 4cm apart. The injection was done slowly to minimize the amount of solution wasted and to avoid creating a blister. The noodle was kept afterwards in its place for several seconds to prevent the solution from leaking.
It was possible to see how the water ran under the skin of the cactus coloring it with a darker green. The water spread at a speed of ~2mm/s and slowed as it moved away. Despite the efforts to inject slowly, a large fraction of the solution was lost and ended up on the soil. It's not believed that the roots will absorb dopamine.
A week after, several yellow/orange spots were seen just where the injections were applied:
On a horizontal section one can appreciate how deep the tissue was affected:
The cactus had to be cut to prevent further infection/damage. It was left to heal and stored. It is obvious that there was, indeed, tissue damage. It is interesting how only the white part was affected (see 3rd image), and not the green part. It is not known if the damage seen on the 4th image was caused by an infection or if it's just necrotized tissue.
Conclusion:
Tissue damage is evident. It developed from nothing to what was depicted, in just 7 days. It is still not known how dopamine affected the concentration of mescaline in the cactus, nor how the cactus responded biologically to the sudden rise of dopamine concentration. A chemical extraction could be carried on in the future to determine the concentration of alkaloids (for educational and scientific purpose). It is thought that Crystalito was right when he said that the solution may not enter the vascular system.
References:
[1] http://www.erowid.org/plants/peyote/peyote_cactus_guide.shtml#SEC8
[2] Boosting mescaline content with dopamine/l-dopa - Generic - Welcome to the DMT-Nexus
