acolon_5 said:
I have yet to see a successful extraction done on Phalaris.
SWIM said this about that : I have been successfully extracting Phalaris A. cv. "Big Medicine" for awhile. Johnny Appleseed tested (GC/MS) many strains of Phalaris from all over the world and found the "Big Medicine" strain to be the highest in DMT while not containing even a trace of Gramine. While testing these different strains he also learned alot more about the variability of alkaloid content. Most important is
do not freeze the plant material. The extraction should be done with freshly harvested material only. Freezing reduces the alkaloid level by up to 80%. Time of day when harvested can make a big difference, early morning or late afternoon being best. Application of stress just prior to harvesting also makes a big difference.
I have used a typical A/B extraction process in the past, de-fatting requires too much solvent. Lately, I have been using the FASA method with great success. The whole process starts the morning before harvesting --
Shade the patch of Phalaris to be harvested, early in the morning. Make sure that the patch is not watered (if possible). In the late afternoon, remove the tips of as many blades as possible, about 10% of the whole blade. I save these tips in water until starting the extraction.
The next morning, just after sun-up, harvest all the blades. Put these in a food processor with just enough water to cover them and chop them as finely as possible.
Proceed with the FASA extraction immediately.
I have an 8' by 8' patch of the Big Medicine strain which grows year-round in my yard. Over the last few years I have arrived at this procedure through alot of trial and error. Johnny Appleseeds work was invaluable to me but now, unfortunately, I can't find his work.
My first few extractions yeilded absolutely nothing due to the fact that I was freezing the Phalaris. Once I started using fresh material, I started getting some spice, but not nearly as much as I get now, using the protocol above.
Just SWIM's experience -- I hope he helped.
***Edit *** Here's from Erowid
Erowid Online Books : "Ayahuasca: alkaloids, plants, and analogs" by Keeper of the Trout
Culvenor noted that while air dry samples of P. tuberosa contain 0.05% to 0.08% total alkaloids, fresh grass may contain twice as much alkaloid than would be present if it was dried. In addition there is a higher proportion of bufotenine and a lower proportion of the uncharacterized indoles of high Rf present in fresh grass.
[Drying has the greatest negative impact on young growth and on high alkaloid strains. The effects on older growth and on poor alkaloid producers is much less.]
Donker et al. 1976 reported that drying Phalaris arundinacea hay reduces alkaloid content by around half (reduced to 59% of original.)
Hovin et al. 1980 determined that when Phalaris arundinacea is used for silage that alkaloid concentration does decrease but remains at a higher level than when air drying as hay. They recovered 93% of the original alkaloid content in ensiled chopped reed canary grass.
[Ghosal noted that in D. gangeticum leaf, the alkaloid content was three times as high when green than if allowed to dry but that dry material had a higher percentage of 5-MeO-DMT.]
Barnes et al. 1971, studying several clones of P. arundinacea, found that the total alkaloid content was 2 to 6 times higher in fresh samples than in stored frozen samples