Preliminary Matrine Results
Hey friends,

I recently acquired a small amount of matrine, and have performed a couple of introductory tests to find out more about this super interesting compound.

For those who don't know, Matrine is an agonist of the kappa and mu opioid receptors, as well as having anti-tumor activity. It's an active alkaloid in the herb Sophora flavescens, which has a history of use in traditional Chinese medicine. The kappa agonism is particularly interesting, as this is the suspected mechanism of the atypical dissociative Salvia. Mu agonism is usually associated with euphoria. Both can produce analgesia.

Prior to my trials, I could only find a single other report of usage, from /u/kpinner in a since deleted post, where they claimed to consume a full gram at once. They reported long lasting effects and visual distortions, especially CEVs.

I decided to be a bit more cautious with my trials, since I have only a minor opioid tolerance, from using kratom 3 times a week, and very little is known about the safety profile of this compound.

First Trial

Started with an allergy test. About an hour later, at 2:05pm, I mixed 100mg into a shot of pickle juice and downed it. The pickle juice was to neutralize matrine, because I was advised the freebase form could cause mucosal damage on its own.

My stomach was a bit upset before taking it (acid reflux) but this actually went away after use, despite drinking pickle juice. I believe this speaks to the pH of the freebase.

First alerts were noticed about 40 minutes later. Minor euphoria, mood boost, felt a bit more emotional as well. Not sedating, and even seemed somewhat stimulating, although lacking character. These effects persisted throughout the experience and didn't seem to develop into anything deeper at this level. Potentiated the effects of cannabis, but was not particularly synergistic, like with kratom. No visual effects were noted at this time, neither open nor closed.

At around 7:15pm, five hours into the experience and feeling like it wasn't going to develop into anything more, I decided to take 4gs of kratom. This combination potentiated the kratom much more than expected, felt like an 8 gram dose at least. Very powerful body euphoria, and I felt a bit warmer than normal. This lasted until I fell asleep at around 12:45am.

Second Trial

4 days later, at 9pm.

I mixed 250mg in with pickle juice again, although of a much better quality than last time. This stuff is fairly bitter, but easy to wash down if you chase it with water.

Similar effects to the previous experiment developed, slightly more potent, although I wouldnt say doubly so. Took a walk outside and noticed some minor visual distortions, very occasionally. It was very slight bending of things, similar to with some dissociatives. Later on, when I was back inside, I had some very persistent afterimages. After looking at the lights on my ceiling for no more than a second or two, I had remaining afterimages of them where I looked, both with eyes open and closed. They moved a tiny bit, and faded after a couple minutes. No other visual effects were noticed.

Another thing that I should note is that I was having some back pain earlier on in the day. It wasnt at its worst when I took the matrine, but it did disappear for the rest of the night after I took it, so it may have so efficacy for muscle pain relief. I went to sleep around 1 with little trouble.

this did not seem to be similar to the visuals produced by psychs at all. In general it was just minor bending of surfaces, and the brief afterimage thing I mentioned. Although, i'm sure it will develop into more at a higher dosage.

Even if this compound doesn't have much to offer on its own, it did potentiate both kratom and cannabis quite well so I'd probably get some more for that. It's cheap enough.

I didn’t notice much. It was anxiolytic and I think I went up to a gram without side effects. I was using it mostly for Lyme disease.

Have you tried matrine yet? It's a really weird chemical. I never went above 250mg with it, but it had a very light opioid buzz and some truly bizarre CEVs, unlike anything else i've tried. Like everything was black except for a small spotlight, and i could make any object or person appear in the spotlight by thinking about them. Very underrated chemical, especially for disso lovers.

Also it synergizes very well with kratom, potentiates it a lot.

I suppose you could become dependent, as i think it's a partial opioid antagonist, but I wouldn't be as concerned as with other opis.

Oh yeah, I've tested this one and never updated fully with a post about my experiences further.

Imo matrine is the most underrated chemical in the entire scene. I'm too much of a scaredycat to keep researching it with like no info available, but here's what i remember from one of my trials:

300mg freebase dissolved in pickle juice (to neutralize)

Light opioid feeling, generally positive and more empathetic, very slight feeling of dissociation. Went on a walk at night, very minor visual distortions on trees, slight bending inwards, almost like a fisheye lens. Feel floaty as i walk, perhaps a bit more bloom to lights.

Return home and lay down to sleep, expecting not much else from the chemical. After closing my eyes for a few moments, a spotlight opens projecting downwards, as if I'm looking at a vignette in a blackbox theater. An object (i cant remember what) appears in the spotlight. It is static and lifelike, until it changes into another object, and then to a person. Eventually i realized i could control the shifting of objects, but not what the subject actually was. I was purely an observer, unable to interact besides changing the channel. But it was an amazing experience. I've never lucid dreamed but I imagine it must be somewhat similar to this. However, i could even open my eyes, look around and see everything completely normal, and then close my eyes and return to this state. This went on for perhaps an hour until I fell asleep.

Another user, in a since deleted report, claimed to have consumed 1g at once and had lasting visuals throughout the next day.

Matrine is a kappa opioid agonist (like salvia) as well as a mu opioid agonist (like most recreational opis). My speculation is that the combination of these two may prevent overly negative experiences. Now that it's available in HCl form, it's an even better purchase. Unless you wanna vape it, but I wouldn't do that without more testing.

The only opioid I have experience with is kratom. I found matrine to be weaker than kratom, but a combination of the two was potentiated to more than the sum of their parts.

Yeah the euphoria was very muted and the only real activity I got was in CEVs.

I have experience with it and it is pleasant.

Mu and kappa opioid agonist. Like a long form gentle salvia with no dysphoria. Closed eyes are where it shines, and it seems like OP didn't experiment with that.

You've got to close your eyes. That's where the hallucinations are. Open eyes you'll be mostly sober the whole time, with maybe some minor visual distortions or bending, especially if you're outside at night. But with closed eyes it becomes a really unique substance.

Also be aware that coffee contains a potent mu opioid antagonist known as 4-CQL. It may also have effects on kappa opioid receptors, but I don't think that has been documented yet.

There are also some conflicting studies ircc that show a lack of activity for matrine at the kappa-opioid receptor

Abstract
Objectives: Evaluation of the Sophora alopecuroides var. alopecuroides seed effects on morphine withdrawal syndrome in mice and determination of the alkaloid composition of the seed total extract.

Materials and methods: The effects of the seed total extract, alkaloid fraction and major compound matrine on the mice morphine withdrawal syndrome were compared to saline and methadone. Mice were made dependent on morphine by morphine sulfate injection 3 times a day for 3 days. The withdrawal jumping and diarrhea were induced by administration of naloxone 2 hr after the 10th injection of morphine sulfate on the day 4. The total extract (100, 200, 300 mg/kg), alkaloid fraction (5, 10, 20 mg/kg), matrine (5, 15, 30 mg/kg), methadone (10 mg/kg) or saline were injected 30 min before naloxone. All drugs were administered by subcutaneous injection. The total extract alkaloid composition was also determined by gas chromatography (GC) and GC-MS analysis.

Results: All doses of the total extract, alkaloid fraction and matrine as well as methadone decreased jumping and diarrhea significantly compared to the saline. The effects of the total extract and alkaloid fraction were not significantly different from methadone. But, there were significant differences between the effects of matrine and methadone. Matrine, cytisine, sophoridine, n-methyl cytisine, sophocarpine and sophoramine were the major alkaloids. There was no nicotine in the total extract.

Conclusion: S. alopecuroides var. alopecuroides suppresses opioid withdrawal with efficacy comparable to methadone. Matrine may be one of the alkaloids responsible for the effect of the plant.

Matrine is not an aporphine alkaloid!! (Nor are the other Sophora flavescens alkaloids.)

Two flavonoids isolated from Sophora flavescens Ait. (Fabaceae) exhibited monoamine oxidase inhibitory activity: formononetin an isoflavone with IC 50 values of 21 μM (MAO-A) and 11 μM for MAO-B and the flavanone kushenol F with IC 50 values of 104 μM (MAO-A) and 63 μM for MAO-B.