The solanaceae

[Amomynous]

We're all adults here, and we all recognize the ambiguity and potential probmes of the solanaceae, not to mention the pragmatic issues of accurately doseing. But I was wondering....

How many people here can count this family amongst there personal experiences, and hown many would rate those experiences as positive? These plants are infrequently discussed, and while I know that Raver had a taste for them at one time, most people are reticient about sharing thwir experiences.

I , for one, have no personal experience.

[byrooon]

I have had no experience with the plants... but I have ingested scopolomine, which is found in the plants, on 2 occassions long ago, if that helps... If you want to hear about it I will expound. But I'll just say the experience I had is consistant with trip reports about the plants. Raver is about the only person I know who had a fondness for the plants. There was a guy who used to post to the boards years ago who used to do it--Pan--He has a place in history in being the first person busted in Nevada after they made jimsonweed illegal for giving some to some chick and spent a year or two in prison. After release he moved to Florida.

Here's something interesting I just read today in The Creation of Psychopharmacology by David Healy. 2002.

After the isolation of morphine many other alkaloids were isolated from plants during the mid-nineteenth century. The most important of these were hyoscine and hyocyamine, which were extracted from henbane. Not until almost a century later did scientists establish that hyoscine and mandragora from the mandrake root, which had been used for a millenia for the management of "nerves," are anticholinergics, drugs that block the action of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter...Henbane the plant from which hyoscine comes, had achieved perhaps its greatest fame as an ingrediant in a witches's brew. It could supposedly cause a flight of the soul. It is now clear that in low doses anticholinergics can be euphoriants while in higher doses they can cause out-of-body experiences and hallucinations and at very high doses delirium.
     Hyoscine was initially used alone or in combinations with CAMPHOR and LUPULLINE in hospitals. Then later it was used in hospitals, along with MORPHINE and ATROPINE in a cocktail called Hyoscine Co A. In primary care and office practice in the first half of the twentieth century, it was used in combinations with BROMIDES and BARBITURATES. The ready availability of these agents also made them widely used by people who were medicating themselves.
     A series of twentieth-century studies have PROVEN that anticholinergic agents have antinervousness and antidepressant properties. These studies make it reasonably certain that when nineteenth century clinicians claimed they saw beneficial effects from hyoscine they were almost surely CORRECT. And quite apart of clinical trial evidence, hyoscine was PLEASANT, sometimes bordering on EUPHORIANT, and at the same time CALMING--characteristics that clearly would help in the management of nervous problems

David Healy is a Reader in Psychological Medicine at the University of Wales College of Medicine and is also a well-respected historian of pharmacology. (where can I get a job as a reader?)

--byron[/i]

[senorsalvia]

Yeah, I also have done scoplamine...  Years ago 6 or maybe 8 times...  It will surely 'alter ' ones reality, but like Byroon states..  Most are aware of the published reports as to effects, and those of us that have done the drug, usually reccomend against its usage.... Sure, its strong and all, but not really fun or rewarding........   Personally, I'd have to give huffing a nod over using 'scope'---------- senorsal

[byrooon]

I don't know the differences or similarities between scopolomine and hyoscine, but I know that I purposefully took scopolamine in a large enough dose (4.5 mg, I believe) to hallucinate. I would not reccomend that.

But it seems to have beneficial effects taken in smaller amounts (0.5 mg?). Belladonna alkaloids are still found in some prescription meds today. Considering how long they have been used--150 years, that speaks of a notable safety record--when used in the proper dosages. Of course that's hard to do using unassayed, unstandardized plant parts. Apparently Raver knew how to do a therapeutic dose.

by

[JRL]

Allies is now touting brugmansia flowers as a smoking admixture. Has any one tried this?

[Amomynous]

Thanks for the input everyone -- haven't been here for a few days.

(In case anyone is wondering, I have no plans on trying this ally. Just curious, as it were.)

[senorsalvia]

Tried smoking as a joint (not admixture)...  Horribly harsh...I was only able to inhale approximately 1/10th the normal amount of smoke as opposed to, say, commercial MJ.....  Effects were moderate...  slight euphoria, minimally decresed inhibitions, no effect on music appreciation...considered 'a bust'.................  senorsal

[Doc007]

Thanks for the input everyone -- haven't been here for a few days.

(In case anyone is wondering, I have no plans on trying this ally. Just curious, as it were.)

Curiosity is a bitch.  :twisted:

Been too long my friend.

[Jacko]

Smoked some Brugmansia flowers years ago, a rather large spliff followed by some bongs and a walk in the woods in the dark.  Got a little lost and didnt' know which way to go when a little wisper in my mind told me which path to take, I took it without thinking and found my way to my destination before realizing I'd taken the advice of a voice in my head without questioning ... spooky.  No real observed phenomena or effects aside from the subtle wisper.

Henbane is reported to be a little easier (not so drying as scop. and atropine, more slobbering ala fly agaric) according to some fans.  Once foilage is dried and jar cured it will gain a very nice, rich flavor and smoke over time ... like tobac, if you rush dry it and smoke it even the finest leaf will taste like crap.  A bowl or regular joint of henbane leaf isnt' going to flip you, though I've found that it will add some sparkle and depth to an otherwise active hallucinatory brew with a MAOI component ... certainly tread with great care until you know your own (which is likely very different from my) sensitivity to all compounds involved.

[Veracohr]

I haven't tried it, and won't. The reports sound far too unpleasant to me. You've got two unpleasant things going on, from what I've read: negative psychological happenings, and what sounds like a (potentially) very painful drying of the mucus membranes.

But I must admit that for some reason these plants intrigue me. I continued to read many trip reports long after I decided not to try it myself. Perhaps it was a sort of morbid curiosity regarding what percentage of use is unpleasant. I even got myself a wonderful little angel's trumpet plant, which I'm trying to coax back after leaving it out in below freezing temperatures too many times. But I certainly won't be ingesting my little friend. It has really pretty and aromatic flowers.

[byrooon]

The reports are bad because ppl took too much. We need standardized dosages... where's Raver?

bp

[JRL]

Any of you remember Asmadore(sp)? It was a belladona preperation sold OTC. It came either as cigarettes or in a tin like Nestles.

People would eat it and have strong experiences. True hallucinations and delerium were the main effects. I took it maybe twice. I didn't particularly like it, and the hangover lasted a long time, but I guess I kept the dose resonable.

Some weren't so lucky. My homey B. Cakes took it at school. He was nodding in class so they sent him to the office. He asked the principal for an ashtray and put out his thumb. Ended up at the hospital then Juvinile Hall.

[byrooon]

I remember reading about asthmador. Amazing not too long ago you could buy them over the market. I have asthma... perhaps I should try smoking the dried stuff to see if it gives me any relief. After I read about Asthmador I walked in a pharmacy and asked for it. The old pharmacist glared at me and said, "It's been taken of the market because there has been too much abuse."

bp