Re: MAPS: mescaline: how much is 500 mg.

["Bob Greer" <greers_maps@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

My understanding is that the mescaline content of cacti changes throughout
the growing season.  As I recall, it is reportedly highest at the end of the
summer and lowest at the end of the winter.   The variation can be as much
as 100%.

For this reason, as well as soil characteristics and weather conditions and,
of course, the drying and storage technique, an assay is essential for
scientific work.  (At the very least, the picking and handling methods of
the source should be known.)

Otherwise it's a shot in the dark, I believe, to calculate potency from dry
weight.  Since mescaline is slightly toxic at higher doses, this calculation
is important.

If there are different strains of peyote, then that might be important too.

Incidentally, there is a column cactus, quite tall and star-shaped in
cross-section, that is reported to be as potent (in mescaline) by weight
than the (more famous) peyote.  It is "Trichocereus peruvianus", and it is
related to the milder "T. pachanoi" that is used in greenhouses in the USA
for grafting purposes.

This alternative cactus is worth considering because extensive harvesting of
wild peyote has endangered peyote in many areas in the southwestern USA, and
in Mexico.  The enormous size of "T. peruvianus" (growing 6 meters in height
or more) makes it an excellent alternative for research (for purely
ecological reasons).  Peyote is remarkable for it's slow growth rate
(requiring about thirteen years to grow from seed to it's first bloom);
while Trichoceri cacti reach a height of several meters within the same
time.  (T. pachanoi is used as root-stock in greenhouses because it's rapid
growth rate forces rapid growth in ornamental cacti that are grafted to it.
T. peruvianus shares this quality.)

Of course the proportion of other alkaloids to mescaline in T. peruvianus
will differ from peyote so that must be considered the design of any
experiment that uses it.  If the relative proportion of alkaloids and soaps
in "T. pachanoi" is indication of the proportion in "T. peruvianus" then the
latter will be less bitter, and less soapy, then peyote.

I knew someone who told me that he occasionally ate T. pachanoi as one
ingredient of a fruit salad (after removing the spines and woody core, and
very carefully pealing it - the mescaline concentration is highest close to
the skin).  He said it was quite tasty that way.  I suspect that peyote
would probably not be palatable that way, despite it's greater potency.

There is a reference to "T. peruvianus" in Peter Stafford's "Psychedelics
Encyclopedia" (publisher J.P. Archer Inc.); see the index.

Sincerely,

Bob Greer



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