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Well you could experiment with some cold water extractions. The traditional prep for Mimosa hostilis bark is to pound/macerate it in cold water, with no acid or anything added. Supposedly it works all on its own with no MAOI, but hardly anyone since Jonathon Ott has put it to the test and reported back.

Cold water extracted syrian rue supposedly works pretty well, too.

For any CWE you probably want to grind the plant material (more surface area), and instead of using heat rely on repeated shaking and agitation of the solution to aid extraction. Leave it sit for a good day or so and strain it off. You could even do three day-long extractions with cold water, then try concentrating the liquid using a dehydrator (if you're a raw foodist, I'm guessing you must have one).

If you don't mind my asking, I'm curious on your motivation for following a raw food diet? I've looked into raw food quite a bit, and do a lot of soaking/sprouting/fermentation of my own, so I know some of the benefits it can have. However, I've always thought that refusing to boil or cook certain plant materials (for food or medicine) was taking things too far, because they can actually be more nutritious (or you can extract more medicine) using hot water. I'll say right now, I'm not attacking you or the raw food diet, I'm just curious about your process and thoughts on it.

As an example, eating a bunch of raw cabbage or kale can be pretty gnarly. You mentioned getting tired, not surprising as the digestion works overtime on some raw veggies! We just don't have the enzymes to break down plant cell walls. But you throw it in a steamer for a couple minutes, and the slight wilting helps break down the cell walls. Sure, you loose some nutrients in the cooking process, but what is left is more available and easy to absorb.

Adding salt/lemon or fermentation are ways to work around this without using heat (the salt, acid or bacteria help break down the cell walls for you). But certain plant foods (especially wild ones) really need to be boiled to become edible (eg plants containing inulin, an indigestible sugar that reduces to digestible sugars with long steam cooking, or something like bitter manioc that gets boiled as part of the process to extract the poisonous compounds from it). And many medicinal plants extract way better with boiling water than cold water extraction. How strict of a raw foodist are you? Would you consider making an exception for Ayahuasca, and brew it the way it is traditionally done?

<blockquote data-quote="Ilex" data-source="post: 3613962" data-attributes="member: 19456">Well you could experiment with some cold water extractions. The traditional prep for Mimosa hostilis bark is to pound/macerate it in cold water, with no acid or anything added. Supposedly it works all on its own with no MAOI, but hardly anyone since Jonathon Ott has put it to the test and reported back.Cold water extracted syrian rue supposedly works pretty well, too.For any CWE you probably want to grind the plant material (more surface area), and instead of using heat rely on repeated shaking and agitation of the solution to aid extraction. Leave it sit for a good day or so and strain it off. You could even do three day-long extractions with cold water, then try concentrating the liquid using a dehydrator (if you&#039;re a raw foodist, I&#039;m guessing you must have one).If you don&#039;t mind my asking, I&#039;m curious on your motivation for following a raw food diet? I&#039;ve looked into raw food quite a bit, and do a lot of soaking/sprouting/fermentation of my own, so I know some of the benefits it can have. However, I&#039;ve always thought that refusing to boil or cook certain plant materials (for food or medicine) was taking things too far, because they can actually be more nutritious (or you can extract more medicine) using hot water. I&#039;ll say right now, I&#039;m not attacking you or the raw food diet, I&#039;m just curious about your process and thoughts on it.As an example, eating a bunch of raw cabbage or kale can be pretty gnarly. You mentioned getting tired, not surprising as the digestion works overtime on some raw veggies! We just don&#039;t have the enzymes to break down plant cell walls. But you throw it in a steamer for a couple minutes, and the slight wilting helps break down the cell walls. Sure, you loose some nutrients in the cooking process, but what is left is more available and easy to absorb. Adding salt/lemon or fermentation are ways to work around this without using heat (the salt, acid or bacteria help break down the cell walls for you). But certain plant foods (especially wild ones) really need to be boiled to become edible (eg plants containing inulin, an indigestible sugar that reduces to digestible sugars with long steam cooking, or something like bitter manioc that gets boiled as part of the process to extract the poisonous compounds from it). And many medicinal plants extract way better with boiling water than cold water extraction. How strict of a raw foodist are you? Would you consider making an exception for Ayahuasca, and brew it the way it is traditionally done?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ilex, post: 3613962, member: 19456"] Well you could experiment with some cold water extractions. The traditional prep for Mimosa hostilis bark is to pound/macerate it in cold water, with no acid or anything added. Supposedly it works all on its own with no MAOI, but hardly anyone since Jonathon Ott has put it to the test and reported back. Cold water extracted syrian rue supposedly works pretty well, too. For any CWE you probably want to grind the plant material (more surface area), and instead of using heat rely on repeated shaking and agitation of the solution to aid extraction. Leave it sit for a good day or so and strain it off. You could even do three day-long extractions with cold water, then try concentrating the liquid using a dehydrator (if you're a raw foodist, I'm guessing you must have one). If you don't mind my asking, I'm curious on your motivation for following a raw food diet? I've looked into raw food quite a bit, and do a lot of soaking/sprouting/fermentation of my own, so I know some of the benefits it can have. However, I've always thought that refusing to boil or cook certain plant materials (for food or medicine) was taking things too far, because they can actually be more nutritious (or you can extract more medicine) using hot water. I'll say right now, I'm not attacking you or the raw food diet, I'm just curious about your process and thoughts on it. As an example, eating a bunch of raw cabbage or kale can be pretty gnarly. You mentioned getting tired, not surprising as the digestion works overtime on some raw veggies! We just don't have the enzymes to break down plant cell walls. But you throw it in a steamer for a couple minutes, and the slight wilting helps break down the cell walls. Sure, you loose some nutrients in the cooking process, but what is left is more available and easy to absorb. Adding salt/lemon or fermentation are ways to work around this without using heat (the salt, acid or bacteria help break down the cell walls for you). But certain plant foods (especially wild ones) really need to be boiled to become edible (eg plants containing inulin, an indigestible sugar that reduces to digestible sugars with long steam cooking, or something like bitter manioc that gets boiled as part of the process to extract the poisonous compounds from it). And many medicinal plants extract way better with boiling water than cold water extraction. How strict of a raw foodist are you? Would you consider making an exception for Ayahuasca, and brew it the way it is traditionally done? [/QUOTE]