The following post was taken from Shroomery and was made by Wiccan Seeker.
This is not an installment of "Drugs are just BAD m'kay?" but NUTMEG CONSTITUTES A GRAVE HEALTH HAZARD if used to get high.
30gr of nutmeg can be LIFE THREATENING!
Let me now write
THE MOTHER OF ALL NUTMEG POSTS
In this post I will do the search, supply the info, scientifically kick Shulgin's ass on his nutmeg hypothesis and show you why Nutmeg is BAD m'kay?
First of all let us consider Nutmeg itself:
Quote:
Title: Myristica
Additional Names: Nutmeg; nux moschata; nuces (semen) nucistae
Constituents: 25-35% fixed oil and 5-15% volatile oils.
CAUTION: Ingestion of large quantities causes drowsiness, stupor, death.
"The Stuff" that condenses to the glass wall if the nutmeg concoction cools is Nutmeg Butter
Quote:
Title: Oil of Nutmeg, Expressed
Additional Names: Nutmeg butter; oil of mace
Literature References: Oil expressed from nutmeg (Myristica fragrans Houtt., Myristicaceae). Constit. Chiefly trimyristin; some volatile oil.
Properties: Orange-red to reddish-brown, soft solid. mp 45-51?. Odor and taste of nutmeg. d 0.990-0.995.
Melting point: mp 45-51?
Toxicity data: LD50 orally in rats: 3640 mg/kg, P. M. Jenner et al., Food Cosmet. Toxicol. 2, 327 (1964)
CAUTION: Symptoms similar to Oil of Nutmeg, Volatile.
Now nutmeg butter is the combination of both the fatty and volatile oils of nutmeg, so there will be a LOT of it, 30-50% of the used nutmeg, to be precise.
The Nutmeg Butter holds the psychoactive components. Since the fat is just a vegetable oil this leaves the volatile oil to our scrutiny:
Quote:
Title: Oil of Nutmeg, Volatile
Additional Names: Oil of myristica
Literature References: Steam-distilled oil from dried kernels of ripe seeds of nutmeg (Myristica fragrans Houtt., Myristicaceae). Constit. 60-80% d-Camphene, ~8% d-pinene; dipentene, d-borneol, l-terpineol, ~6% geraniol, safrol, ~4% myristicin. The myristicin fraction together with its more than 25% content of elemicin is supposed to be responsible for the purported hallucinogenic properties of nutmeg seed: Shulgin, Nature 197, 4865 (1963); Weil, Econ. Botany 19, 194-217 (1965).
Properties: Colorless or pale yellow liquid; odor and taste of nutmeg.
Toxicity data: LD50 orally in rats: 2620 mg/kg (Jenner)
CAUTION: Ingestion of large quantities produces narcosis, delirium, death.
This, for once, is where the good dr. Shulgin and I part.
Safrole (3,4-methylenedioxyallylbenzene)
Myristicin (5-MeO-Safrole)
Elemicin (3,4,5-trimethoxy-allylbenzene)
Now these are excellent starting materials to make MDA, MMDA and TMA respectively, but they are not known to be desirably psychoactive. They are known to cause CANCER though. And they are very hard on the liver.
Speaking of hard on the liver, how about Camphene, the major constituent of the oil? It is a camphorlike substance that is smuggled into your body and gives your liver a TON of work to metabolize it into camphorlike substances.
Now let's look at camphor, shall we?
Quote:
Additional Names: (1S)-(-)-Camphor
CAUTION: Potential symptoms of overexposure to synthetic camphor are irritation of eyes, skin, mucous membranes; nausea, vomiting, diarrhea; headache, dizziness, confusion, vertigo, excitement, restlessness, delerium, hallucinations; epileptic convulsions; CNS depression, coma.
Hold da phone.. what was that again?
Quote:
NUTMEG: Ingestion of large quantities causes drowsiness, stupor, death.
NUTMEG VOLATILE OIL: Ingestion of large quantities produces narcosis, delirium, death.
CAMPHOR: irritation of eyes, skin, mucous membranes; nausea, vomiting, diarrhea; headache, dizziness, confusion, vertigo, excitement, restlessness, delerium, hallucinations; epileptic convulsions; CNS depression, coma.
Sooo.. Camphor is a Central Nervous System Depressant ("sedative"
that causes Delirium which features hallucinations, confusion, excitement & restlessness which are pretty standard as toxic deliria go. (Looks alot like DT, Delirium Tremens)
All of this is reflected in the Nutmeg data, and Camphor is the well-studied analog of the more obscure Camphene thats up to 80% of volatile nutmeg oil.
Now let's look at the NATURAL HIGHS FAQ at Erowid:
Quote:
Effects:
Possible nausea during first hour; may cause vomiting or diarrhea in isolated cases. Takes anywhere from one to five hours for effects to set in. Then expect severe cottonmouth, flushing of skin, severely bloodshot eyes, dilated pupils. Personally I compare it to a very, very heavy hash buzz. "Intense sedation". Impaired speech and motor functions. Hallucinations uncommon in average (5-10 gm) doses. Generally followed by long, deep, almost coma-like sleep (expect 16 hours of sleep afterward) and feelings of lethargy after sleep. May cause constipation, water retention. Safrole is carcinogenic and toxic to the liver.
HELLO! There we got the missing link! Here you got the Nausea, the Vomiting and Diarroea that we missed from the Camphor poisoning description. And Camphor externally irritates skin while Nutmeg causes flushed (irritated) skin when taken internally.
And prominent CNS Depressant effects on top of that too!
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So there you have it then: d-Camphene constitutes 60-80% of Nutmeg Volatile Oil, it is a close relative to Camphor and the toxicology data shows considerable similarity.
Since both descriptions speak of profound CNS DEPRESSANT "sedative" and DELIRIANT "poisoning hallucinations" effects we may conclude that there's a strong link between Camphor toxicity and the Camphene in Nutmeg Volatile Oil.
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Now let's look at what those 30 grams of nutmeg contain:
9-15gr Nutmeg Butter which contains
1.5-4.5gr Nutmeg Volatile Oil which contains
0.9-3.6gr Camphene (narcotic liver poison, the lethal range for Camphor)
~100-500mg Safrole/Myristicin/Elemicin (carcinogen liver poisons)
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The bottom line: DON'T DO IT IT IS SELF-POISONING
Just like salt isn't meant to be eaten by the spoonful some things are just suitable for use as a high. Their poisoning symptoms may seem desirable, but the bottom line is that they are POISONING SYMPTOMS and not resultant of specific drug action.
Nutmeg Eating might not seem it at first glance, but upon toxicological scrutiny it is comparable in dangerousness and fucked-up desperation to glue sniffing, where I want to add the distinction that I'd rather poison myself with some very specific brands of huffed glue rather then with Nutmeg. Let's compare it to paint thinner & gasoline huffing.
At C10H16 Camphene is quite comparable to a gasoline fraction anyway, except it has a specific structure. It's more like DRINKING gasoline, even MORE dangerous.
Nutmeg Oil's Camphene is a classic alkyl anaesthetic, supplied in sedative-hypnotic doses, except it is molecularly too BIG to be one and as such it causes epilepsy-like convulsions. Orally it cannot be dosed properly so that means that an ineffective dose now may kill you next time around.
The LEGAL HIGHS FAQ says:
Generally followed by long, deep, almost coma-like sleep
Think for a minute: Do you want to yield yourself to unrousable unconsciousness which might proceed into epileptic convulsions and death? Do you want your girlfriend to find you ridin' the bed like you were in the Exorcist?
Or just silently stop breathing, or awakening after severe apnoea with oxygen deprivation braindamage?
How about liver damage?
Cancer, anyone?
The bottom line: Nutmeg is VERY dangerous to abuse, because it's high is a poisoning. Want to hallucinate? Grow mushrooms from the free spores of the 1/8oz shrooms-baggie you bought.
Want to get Low? Do it properly and use BEER!
Because that's the bottom line: You can compare Nutmeg to a highly dangerous and very poisonous substitute for liquor.
Now how desperate is that?
Ok, cancer - poisoning - lasting organ damage, got nutmeg?
That said isopropanol would be a poor solvent, acetone would be much better. But you don't actually need an organic solvent. If you heat a mixture of water and ground nutmeg then the crud will sink to the bottom and nutmeg butter will float on top. Nutmeg butter, like said, constitutes of unhealthy fatty acids (myristic acid is super bad for the heart) and the volatile oils, which are the active principle.
cancer - poisoning - lasting organ damage