(slightly edited)
SUMMARY
Acacia confusa is a tree native to South-East Asia and containing large amounts of psychoactive tryptamines in its root bark. Reports of human bioassays are very scarce, but there is a
group in Taiwan conducting ayahuasca sessions using this plant. I have followed their steps brewing Acacia confusa-based ayahuasca (
Formosahuasca), and also discovering to my surprise that the root bark is orally active by itself in larger doses, without any additional sources of MAOI.
Bioassays (more details below):
5tbsp ground acacia root bark brewed ayahuasca-style without any additives: an overwhelmingly strong short (around 30 minutes) trip reminiscent of descriptions of smoked DMT -
EROWID REPORT.
3tbsp ground acacia root bark infusion without any additives: soft psychedelic trance with rich mental imagery.
1.5tbsp ground acacia root bark & 1/2tbsp Syrian rue seeds infusion: a full-blown and rather overwhelming ayahuasca trip -
EROWID REPORT.
<1tbsp ground acacia root bark & <1/2tbsp Syrian rue seeds infusion: a softer ayahuasca trip, with a more intense episode later on triggered by eating a light meal.
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Notes on obtaining the plant material:
1) The tree appears to be very common in Taiwan (its local name is 相思樹, which amusingly translates as `thinking-of-each-other tree').
2) The root bark (相思樹根皮) seems to have some very limited use in traditional medicine, externally and perhaps internally for liver disease (the vendors did not seem confident about that).
3) The bark does not seem to be carried by Chinese medicine stores (中藥店), but it is carried by "herbal medicine stores" (草藥店 or 青草店), though not every store would have it, since the demand is low.
4) There is a huge conglomeration of these herbal shops next to Longshan temple (龍山寺) in Taipei. I didn't have a difficulty buying the bark there, but I had to order 1 day in advance, and they gave me raw root (at 150 Taiwan dollars, roughly $5, for 600g). The bark can be easily separated from the fresh root.
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ARCHIVE
03.05.2010: Acacia confusa root bark orally active without MAOI:
Just posting a very quick note on my bioassay of this
Taiwanese acacia.
There are reports of DMT content in the root bark comparable or higher than Mimosa, and I've stumbled on
this online description of using it in ayahuasca. So, on my recent trip to Taiwan, I obtained a large sample of the root bark. I must mention before describing my trial that I've never succeeded attaining full psychedelia with mimosa-caapi ayahuasca (made from ingredients purchased in Europe), so what I am about to describe is my first full-scale DMT(-like) experience.
Anyway, because the plant has not been researched much, I wanted to test my material without MAOI first to watch for any non-DMT-related adverse effects, without any expectations for psychoactivity. So I brewed a handful of my root bark chips (ground to around 5tbsp of fibrous powder) ayahuasca-style without any additives.
I first consumed about 1/3 of the brew on an empty stomach this morning. There was some nausea, so I lied down. In about an hour, I noticed to my surprise that colors brightened, everything started to look cuter, mild euphoria emerged and the nausea was gone: a typical low-dose tryptamine signature. So, because it felt pretty comfortable, I decided to take the risk and drink the rest of the brew. About 20 minutes later, it hit me like a wall, and it was pretty horrifying (with synesthesia going beyond what words can describe, visions, perceptual distortions of all sorts, thoughts that I have killed myself, limb tremor and impaired motor control). However, the whole thing lasted about 40 minutes and then stopped quite abruptly (and I am actually feeling perfectly well now). This was my first DMT experience (which I believe it has been, because the duration and intensity do match the DMT profile), and it was certainly far less kind to me than psilocybin. In any case, with due care, the plant can probably be used to people's benefit, and it is certainly active orally without additives (at least for my body chemistry; related Mimosa hostilis is also reported to be orally active).
I intend to write a more detailed report for erowid later. And I'll probably do some more experiments, though dosing more conservatively (and I am somewhat scared now of combining it with rue...).
Any comments/advice from ayahuasca shamans and other competent individuals are appreciated! :roll:
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11.05.2010: Direct oral activity of the root bark confirmed with a smaller dose.
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16.05.2010: An acacia-based ayahuasca trial completed. (I call it
FORMOSAHUASCA, after Formosa acacia, one of the names for the tree). Has been a deep experience, but extremely horrifying during the prolonged entry stage.
The brew:
1) around 1/2 tbsp whole Syrian rue seeds, ground into powder and steeped in 3 washes of boiling water (no cooking, no evaporation);
2) around 3 tbsp ground Acacia confusa root bark, also steeped in 3 washes of boiling water (no cooking, no evaporation); ONLY around 1/2 of the acacia brew was consumed (around 1.5 tbsp of the plant material), resulting in an extremely strong experience.
The rue was consumed first, followed 30 minutes later by around 1/3 of the acacia brew, followed 30 more minutes later by a few more gulps of the acacia brew (overall, around 1/2 of the prepared acacia brew was used).
What ensued was a prolonged horrifying entry phase, which felt like dying many times over, not being sure anymore what being alive, sane or human means, or when this experience started, or when it is going to end. After a lot of suffering, and passing through an exquisitely sensuous erotic episode, this cleared into an extremely blissful state of peace and harmony, which gradually descended into the usual consciousness at around 3.5 hour time mark from the first acacia brew ingestion.
A deep experience I would say, but certainly not one I would repeat often. And all of this with only around 1.5 tbsp of the acacia root bark powder. No idea whether my batch of acacia is unusually potent, or I am unusually sensitive. Also, it's quite harsh on me. As I said, I've never really had a difficult experience with psilocybin, mescaline or LSA (all from natural sources), but these acacia voyages bring a lot of horror, among other things. Please stay safe!
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19.05.2010: Some comments I've received from
exactlydivyn, a leader of
this group conducting ayahuasca sessions in Taiwan using Acacia confusa:
I've done well over 100 sessions with myself and others with this [Acacia confusa and Syrian rue] brew. I introduced it to Taiwan after my friend telling me about it while I was living on Orchid Island. We found a tree, scraped off some of the root bark, boiled it for a couple of hours with some Syrian Rue and a few kiwis. That's how it began. The second time I took it, I was told to move to Tainan on the west coast of Taiwan and start using it as therapy to help people change their lives.
Here are the questions you asked me:
> How many people have you administered it to?
> Has anyone experienced adverse physical or psychological effects?
I've administered it to about 70 to 80 people. Most do it once or twice. Some seem to have the calling, destiny or something, as I did. Really catch onto it. Some are very afraid of it. I'm still afraid of it after 30~40 sessions, but the benefit, the change and growth that occurs with continuous use pushes me beyond my fear. I've had 1 person that I would consider adverse psychological effect at the time, although long term effect seems to be very beneficial. Absolutely NO physical adverse effect, short term or long term (although I did experience hypertensive crisis and had to be rushed to the hospital. I took 15 LSA seeds at night after doing aya in the morning. Didn't know it was on the restricted MAOI list).
> R. seemed to imply that he was using stem bark and not root bark,
> though he wasn't sure. Could you comment on that?
I've taken rootbark from live trees, and the bark from the herb shops, which I used most of the time. I've asked the shop if it was rootbark and she said it was, although sometimes it looks as if it is treebark. I'll ask again next time I buy. I've had no experience with death on the live bark (only three experiences though), but I've had much deeper experiences with the herb shop bark (done it lots more?? Don't know yet).
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05.06.2010: One more bioassay: this time less than 1tbsp of ground Acacia confusa root bark and less than 1/2tbsp of Syrian rue seeds. The simplest preparation possible: the rue seeds ground and combined with the bark, steeped in 3 washes of boiling water, filtered, the residual plant material discarded. The liquid slowly consumed over the course of an hour, resulting in a distinctive two-part trip.
For the first 1.5 hours, a relatively soft trance with all the senses heightened, in particular, strong inner visualizations of muscular postures, combined with spontaneous investigative body movements (trying to feel my body better). Very refreshing.
Then I felt pretty much back to baseline and somewhat hungry. So I ate a bowl of fava bean soup. This resulted in a sharp surge of intoxication, and for the subsequent half-hour, I was propelled into the psychedelic realm familiar from my previous higher-dose acacia trips. This time, it was much more under control, since the dose was smaller and I was more familiar with the effects. In particular, I could maintain my identity throughout and could ground myself firmly for a few seconds every now and then, before returning to the visionary realm. Still, some aspects of the acacia-induced trance are quite overwhelming, even in smaller doses: there was a feeling of being controlled, or connected to something larger than "myself", a sense of myriads of tentacles probing my shoulders, etc. Bright hyper-kinetic "high-tech" colorful geometric visions (equalizer bands and the likes). There was a feeling of strong alertness after returning to the ordinary consciousness. I then took a walk in a park, cooling off.
There have been anecdotal reports that a light meal in the course of ayahuasca trips can provoke a surge in trip intensity. My experience seems to conform with this observation.
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28.09.2010: Acacia confusa seeds available to share. PM me if interested.
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