Calamus contains a lot of asarone which is a horribly toxic feeling compound. It’s not at all responsible for the alleged psychedelic effect of calamus. Pure asarone causes severe nausea, sedation, and is barely at all psychoactive. So in this test SWIM attempts to remove most of the sedating, nauseating asarone from the calamus root using d-limonene. After washing with d-limonene, the root should have a good portion of its asarone removed. The calamus is then extracted with cold water. Hopfully this extraction attempt will produce the mildly stimulating psychedelic effects calamus is alleged to produce, without the asarone messing up the experience. Here is the test SWIM is performing:


69Ron's No Nausea Calamus Tech
* 100 grams of calamus root was ground to powder. EDIT: ONLY 12 GRAMS WERE USED. NOT 100 GRAMS! WHAT A TYPO!
* This was mixed with 100 ml of d-limonene for 2 hours. The d-limonene was then removed by vacuum filtration.
* The powder was dried completely in a food dehydrator at set to 145 F. It took 2 hours to dry completely.
* The powder was then diluted to 200 ml with cold water, mixed, and then placed in the refrigerator overnight.
* The water was decanted. The powder was then diluted to 200 ml with more cold water for 4 hours, and then decanted.
* The decanted water was filtered, and then the powder was filtered. 300 ml of filtered water was recovered.

A vacuum filtration system with a 101 filter was used for all filtering.


Activity test
T+0:00, the 300 ml of water was taken orally

T+0:05, a tingling sensation is felt along with very mild stimulation.

T+0:10, the effects are very obvious. It’s stronger, but sill mildly stimulating
with a tingling sensation. No sedation is felt at all so far.

T+0:30, there's some mescaline style euphoria now felt. It's very nice. The tingling is much stronger now.

T+1:40, it seems to have already peaked. It’s hard to say for sure. There is some mild color enhancement present. The effect is pretty mild. A cup of coffee is drunk to see if there's any synergy. Note that this is about the time the nausea would normally kick in if this was not washed with d-limonene. So it very effectively removed the asarone.

Activity test continues with mescaline added
T+3:30, it's hard to even notice any effects at all now. SWIM took 50 mg of impure mescaline HCl to see if there's any potentiation or synergy present.

T+6:00, the mescaline is very noticeable now, but feels almost nothing like mescaline. It's more LSD-like, more edgy, more crisp, and doesn’t seem to have the empathogenic effects of mescaline. It feels like a totally different psychedelic, the soft feeling of mescaline is completely absent. So even though the effects of the calamus extract were barely noticeable at T+3:30, they were still strong enough to almost completely change the effects of the mescaline at T+6:00. SWIM cannot tell at all that he’s on mescaline. It is that different. It’s not stronger or weaker, just very different.

Wonderful to hear! I am more or less certain that the active is gamma-asarone (2,4,5-trimethoxyallylbenzene), given the similarities to the definitive active elemicin (3,4,5-trimethoxyallylbenzene). There's no reason the 2,4,5-pattern shouldn't be active when the 3,4,5-pattern is.

In actuality, it should be significantly more potent, given the potency of the corresponding amphetamines. TMA-2 (2,4,5-trimethoxyamphetamine) is about five times as potent as TMA (3,4,5-trimethoxyamphetamine). This hint of higher potency applies no matter if the amination of allylbenzenes theory is correct or not.

I believe SWIM’s calamus contains high amounts of beta-asarone, very little alpha-asarone and gamma-asarone. Beta-asarone is extremely nauseating, a sedative, and is not at all psychedelic. Alpha-asarone is also a sedative, not nauseating like beta-asarone, but even in massive doses, it produces no psychedelic effects. Gamma-asarone is not well known. I don’t know of anyone self testing gamma-asarone. I have read that it too is also not at all psychoactive. It would be nice to confirm that with a self test though.

SWIM’s extraction method above will remove most of the beta-asarone, alpha-asarone and gamma-asarone. They all have an XLogP3 of 3 to 3.1 and that should make them all highly soluble in d-limonene (XLogP3-AA=3.4). Most things with an XLogP3 of 2.5 and up are highly soluble in d-limonene.

My theory is that none of the asarones are responsible for the rare LSD-like psychedelic effects sometimes reported from calamus use. I believe the compound responsible for these effects is something more polar, something currently unknown.

Whatever it is, it’s a stimulant, not a sedative. It’s mild, and seems to be psychedelic, but it’s hard to say. It did feel like a psychedelic. SWIM needs to up the dosage. Next time he’ll use maybe 20 grams instead of 12. 12 grams was enough to radically alter the effects of mescaline though, but it didn’t do much on its own.

ALSO, THE FLAVOR OF THE FINAL DRINK WAS NOT BAD AT ALL! The orange flavor from the traces of d-limonene impurities left in the final product made it pretty decent tasting. The strong camalus flavor and odor was pretty much gone (the d-limonene extracted most of it).

Evening Glory, you might find this interesting.

I was doing some research and I came across a report of a batch of calamus oil form Hubei, China that tested as having the following:

42.7-72.7 % elemicin
25.7-37.3 % beta-asarone
01.6-02.4 % alpha-asarone

Their calamus contains elemicin and a hell of a lot of it! Apparently quite a few Asian strains of calamus contain elemicin. 10 drops of that oil would be super potent! You’d need to remove the beta-asarone though, or you’ll be sorry you ingested it.

That data is from page 57 of: Handbook of herbs and spices, Volume 2 By K. V. Peter

This is great 69ron. You've paved the way for the psychedelic community to be able to have acces to a whole new array of plants.

I already suspected that it would make the mescaline more LSD-like, since this is what it also does to LSH in quantities too low to be realy spectacular on their own. It especially seems to increase the visuals.
I bet that in larger quantities it DOES make the mescaline stronger as well.

In my experience with LSH and calamus, the addition of datura seeds realy made the whole experience a lot smoother and warmer. I think that this compound would regain a lot of mescaline's qualities, when combined with datura.

It also seems mescaline is a substance that has cameleontic qualities, in that it changes it's appearance to the substances it's combined with, even if they come in tiny amounts.

I realy love mescaline, but the only thing where i find it a bit lacking, is in how colourfull it's visuals are. Datura does help, but i realy would like it if there would be something that had all the qualities of mescaline, but with visuals as colourfull as mushroom, ayahuasca or bufo-visuals. Maybe a very, very small dose of shrooms could do that as long as the dose is low enough to not completely take-over the mescaline.

Yes that definitely seems to be the case. Mescaline with LSA/LSH mostly takes on the character or LSA/LSH. This is also true with elemicin, and this mystery compound in calamus as well.

The elemicin + mescaline combo was fantastic.

The LSA/LSH + mescaline combo was not so great. It was so much like LSA/LSH that you might as well have just taken LSA/LSH alone.

The calamus mystery compound + mescaline was very interesting. SWIM is going to need to try this again with a higher dose of calamus. It’s hard to really say how it modified the mescaline. It seems like the mescaline took on the character of the mystery compound, but it’s hard to say without really knowing the full character of the mystery compound.

Look at this substance found in calamus. It's an INDOLE like molecule! This could explain the Psilocybe azurescens like feeling of this extract at 20 grams of calamus (refering to the report below this post).

This molecule pictured below is Phenyl indane. It's got an XLogP3-AA of 4.2. It's pretty non-polar and should be removed by the d-limonene wash. The presence of this indicates that there might be other indoles present in calamus.

I added an image of the indole psilocin for comparison purposes. Very interesting. This really makes me wonder what exactly is in calamus. We have these stories of LSD-like effects from some strains of calamus. SWIM having pretty much perfected this extract, is able to take high doses without any nausea and it is showing Psilocybe azurescens like effects. Still not visual at this dose, but very similar to Psilocybe azurescens.

SWIM tried this tech again. This time increasing the amount to 20 grams of calamus.

T+0:00, the tea is drunk. The taste is about the same as before.

T+0:15, mild stimulation is felt.

T+0:30, some euphoria is felt.

T+1:00, the effects are very noticeable now. There’s a slight feeling in the lungs that SWIM doesn’t like, it’s sort of similar to DXM, sort of a thick feeling in the lungs. There’s a lot of bodily euphoria similar to elemicin and mescaline. There’s a soft feeling to it unlike elemicin and more like mescaline. The tingling sensations are pretty strong and very pleasant, sort of electric like LSD.

T+1:15, it seems like it already peaked. SWIM has a cup of coffee.

T+2:00, SWIM is not sure it peaked, it seems maybe a little stronger, at this point it feels quite a bit like Psilocybe azurescens. There are still no visuals, but the body effect is more like Psilocybe azurescens then anything else. It's not like Psilocybe cyanescens or Psilocybe cubensis, but like Psilocybe azurescens specifically. Why?

T+4:00, the effects are still about the same and haven't really subsided. After taking a walk in the park SWIM noticed definite visual effects. Something about nature always seems to help bring visual effects out in things like this.

T+4:15, SWIM took 0.5 ml of elemi oil with the toxins removed using the TripleE tech.

T+7:00, the elemicin from the elemi oil totally took over the show. It seemed weaker than it should have been. I think there is cross tolerance between this mystery calamus compound and elemicin. There was no boost, no real synergy, the elemicin just overpowered it and was weaker. Elemicin seems to be a rather dominant psychedelic. It was also able to overpower mescaline real easily.

After this I'd say it is definitely PSYCHEDELIC, just mild.

The effects are unmistakable at 20 grams. There are no side effects other than the thick feeling in the lungs. Perhaps it has expectorant effects on the lungs?

The overall feeling is a bit complex to describe exactly. It’s not enough like anything else SWIM knows of. There’s sort of a Psilocybe azurescens feel to it, in that SWIM feels a little “thick”. I don’t know how to better describe that.

I’m at a loss to be able to say it’s really like anything else. It has the general feel of a psychedelic, that’s for sure. It seems the most like Psilocybe azurescens once the peak hits.

This pretty much sums up the effects:
* pleasant tingling sensations throughout the body, sort of like mescaline or elemicin or LSD.
* mild LSD-like stimulation is present.
* euphoria similar to mescaline or elemicin is present.
* a thick DXM like feeling is present in the lungs, indicating possible expectorant action.
* there seems to be mild visual effects, some color enhancement
* no unpleasant effects are felt
* no sedative effects are felt
* it feels very different from whole calamus
* once it peaks it seems to feel somewhat like Psilocybe azurescens, with similar but very mild visuals.

Clearly something is present in calamus other than the asarones (which are removed by d-limonene) is active, is a stimulant, euphoriant, and a possible expectorant.

This is a pleasant experience, one worth repeating.

The appearance in calamus of phenyl indane, an indole like molecule is very curious. For sure this would be removed by the d-limonene wash. But maybe there’s a similar compound present that’s more polar? Maybe that’s the psychedelic SWIM experienced from calamus? That could explain the similarities felt between it and Psilocybe azurescens. Once the peak hits, the trip is more like Psilocybe azurescens than anything else. It doesn’t have the typical phenethylamine feel. It definitely has an indole characteristic feel.