It’s possible that nutmeg oil is less toxic than whole nutmeg. It’s probably easier to digest, and definitely a far smaller quantity is needed so using it should be more pleasant. I think you might be able to encapsulate the oil in gelatin capsules and use it that way to avoid the strong taste most users complain about. That works for Elemi oil, but is a little inconsistent in effects, or so it seems. Putting it in honey seems to work better.
So if one were to use nutmeg oil, what would be a safe starting dose free of side effects?
Yes, some people report good effects from it. But it’s usually a mixed bag like what you said. I think nutmeg probably varies a lot in terms of its active principles. It contains pinene, sabinene, camphene (60-80%), dipentene (8%), myristicin (4%), elemicin (2%), safrole (0.6%), eugenol, methyl eugenol, methoxyeugenol, methylisoeugenol, isoeugenol (1%).
It differs a lot from Elemi oil. It’s main constituent is camphene, while Elemi oil is mostly limonene. Limonene is a normal part of a healthy diet, found in citrus fruit. Camphene is used as a flavoring, but I know very little about its health effects. It appears naturally in a lot of food people eat.
Nutmeg oil contains about 1/2 to 1/10 as much elemicin as Elemi oil, and it contains the psychoactives myristicin and safrole which are not found in Elemi oil. So I expect the effects are going to be different.
SWIM is very curious about myristicin. Safrole is mostly just a sedative. It’s effects can be felt from using sassafras tea.
I’m willing to bet that sometimes nutmeg oil is high is safrole, other times it’s high is elemicin, but most of the time it’s high in myristicin. That would account for a lot of the variation in effects people seem to have with nutmeg.
That’s probably caused by the elemicin content. Without having experienced nutmeg, SWIM can’t really say that for sure though. Elemicin is probably active at a much lower dose than myristicin, and is probably responsible for the good LSD-style trips some people report having with nutmeg. Judging by the doses needed for elemi oil, I would say elemicin it’s probably 10 times more potent than myristicin.
I personally have no experience with nutmeg other than using it as a spice. Most of the reports of nutmeg use I’ve read have been bad reports, so I think most people will be reluctant to try nutmeg. Even SWIM is hesitant, but still very curious about it.
One of the biggest worries of nutmeg use is that nutmeg powder and whole nuts are notoriously wide ranging in potency. One thing for sure, by using nutmeg oil instead, you avoid the worry of the nutmeg being old and impotent, and you have a far more consistent potency. One bottle of nutmeg oil should have the same potency every time you use it, whereas the whole nutmegs or nutmeg powder will vary a lot in potency from piece to piece. So I would think that using the oil would be the better way to go as far as potency goes.
I’ve seen old nutmeg powder and fresh nutmeg powder. The fresh powder is a little oily, the oil powder is not. The stuff making the fresh powder oily is the essential oil. If you distill the nutmeg, supposedly you’re getting all the psychoactive materials out of the nutmeg. I’ve read that nutmeg is not psychoactive after the essential oils are removed from it. But maybe it’s still somewhat toxic.
I would tend to believe that the oil would be less toxic, and easier on the digestive system. The nutmegs themselves probably contain a whole bunch of water soluble toxins not present in the oil. This is my guess.
I can’t really find any user report comparing nutmeg to nutmeg oil.
Here’s something you might like to read. This guy has used several of these oils. This is the quote that first got me interested in Elemi oil. This is a quote from bluelight:
