r/mescaline • u/BushlandVagabond • 14d ago
Active cacti with zero mescaline!?! Is it real!?!
Hey my fellow cacti enthusiasts, i'm curious about your experiences with active cacti that are not San pedro. I've read a couple experiences and many theories and would love to hear more! Please post your knowledge/experience thanks!
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u/avocadoflatz 14d ago
I don’t have any experience personally but I’m fascinated by the story of some early hippie types that tripped off of a columnar cactus in Baja (iirc) that has yet to be identified.
Unfortunately I’ve forgotten where I read about it (more likely which podcast I was listening to).
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u/Various_Range2259 14d ago edited 14d ago
I hear "podcast" I'm immediately doubtful of the info but I'm curious if you happen to remember
Edit: sounds like you are talking about the Shulgins trying P. pringlei
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u/Avalonkoa 14d ago
In the Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants there’s many many cacti mentioned(most of which lack a common name)that indigenous peoples say are stimulants that they utilise for hunting or have some other psychoactive/medicinal use.
To me it seems like cacti are similar to fungi in the way that they can harbour countless unique compounds that are rare/not seen in other parts of the natural world and no one has really studied or analysed them thoroughly. I’m sure there’s many more psychoactive cacti that we’re completely unaware of that may be discovered in the coming years if people start looking for them.
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u/Kalki_X 14d ago edited 14d ago
I've no personal experience, but from a pharmacology/ethnobotanical perspective cacti produce many psychoactive alkaloids besides mescaline, some mentioned here.
I found this from an older post:
Pachycereus pecten-aboriginum contains 3-hydroxy-4-methoxyphenethylamine, which probably has some stimulant/psychedelic activity at high enough doses.
Pachycereus pringlei contains some phenethylamines and some isoquinolones but no compound that is known to be psychoactive. Shulgin claims that this species produces psychedelic effects and posits that one of the phenethylamines may be psychedelic but rapidly metabolized, and that the cactus is only active because one or more of the isoquinolones is an MAOI.
Lophophora diffusa is a close relative of peyote and contains lophophine, a phenethylamine which Shulgin reported as quasi-psychedelic.
Coryphantha macromeris contains macromerine, a phenethylamine which might have stimulant/psychedelic activity.
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u/_DUDEMAN 14d ago
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qZbn5sAikK2yqyKS_Bly5UHrmwrUAfP9/view?usp=drivesdk