I tested ammonium acetate on the beads that had been treated with NaOH. More stuff eluted out.

So we can say that we are not eluting everything in the beads yet. This may explain the poor bioassay results so far. Focus now is on making sure everything is eluted and then doing more biassays.

Next tests will be using arginine. Unlike ammonium acetate one can safely bioassay this eluting "helper". Plan to use an arginine base + organic acid to adjust the pH and have a buffered eluting solution that is safe to bioassay. For example arganine and vinegar together, or arganine and vitamin C.

Below are the charges vs. pH for arginine (1) and psilocin (2). Arginine will be more positive and could be a good agent to displace psilocin. Alcohol may help elute psilocin too since it would increase psiclocin solubility into the eulte and decrease arginine solubility pushing it onto the resin (I believe, this is just speculation on my part).

I'm getting the protein supplements from the health store and will do more tests in the future.