Swim was wondering what shelf life psychotria viridis leaves and B.Caapi roots are expected to have. Swim was able to obtain these amazing components from a trusted source but has not had the opportunity to make a certain holistic/spiritual brew. Both have remained sealed in plastic and been sitting undisturbed for the past 6 months. Just wondering when I am able to find a suitable tripping partner, if my product will still be suitably psychoactive. Thanks for any help!

I'm under the impression plant material has a fairly long shelf life..

I'd like to revive this question. Someone has a small bunch of whole dried leaves that have been sitting around for at least 5 years. They were wondering if anyone has any solid information on what happens to these dried leaves over time? Do they just lose potency or do any of the alkaloids degrade into anything unpleasant?
I'm thinking this is more of a question about the shelf life of DMT itself. But is there anything else in the plant that would turn harmful or does DMT behave differently over time when held in original plant matter?

dmt left laying around for a while will oxidize into dmt n-oxide which is still active. Chances are most of the dmt in your leaves was dmt n-oxide anyway. Check the wiki for more information on differences.

Don't know about five years and I'm not a chemist, but (to those that might know) where would the dmt n-oxide go?

Options for being finding out:
1. Do a full spectrum extraction.
2. Sample the product as though it were freshly dried, and if it's not as strong then increase the dose by a little.


Whatever happens, please post the results so we can have an anecdote about 5 year old leaves' potency

Bumping this to save making a new thread. Does anyone know the shelf life of caapi vine? I've had some sitting for over 4 months in a sealed baggie in a drawer, it's not whole, very roughly chopped. Is it likely to be losing potency sitting there or is it pretty stable? I'm kinda guessing that it is fairly stable, but I don't really know so thought I'd ask, would hate to think it is going to waste.

Harmalas last for a long time without showing signs of degradation, afaik. As harmalas are the actives in caapi, you should be fine. To be safe you can always store in an airtight container somewhere dark, cool and dry.

Thanks man

An airtight container with some oxygen absorbers,left in a cool/dry spot and it should retain its full potency for years.

Oxygen is the biggest problem for long term storage because of the oxidation, therefore you can either use oxygen absorbers which are kind of cheap or if you have the means to ,get some argon gas and flush the oxygen out.

Is there any evidence of harmalas oxidizing? I haven't heard of it. I.d assume they certainly can't hurt, but oxygen absorbers/inert gas seems like overkill, imo.

I read a report or maybe study in which some very old (more than a century) botanical specimen of B. caapi was tested and found to still contain normal amounts of alkaloids. I think the b-carbolines are pretty stable. I couldn't really say about chacruna, but I know I've had jurema in hot cars and various places for more than a year and was still potent as a brew (I extracted from this rootbark and got maybe .5-.6 % DMT via q21q21's tek...) I think it will be fine.