I love cacti for many reasons, and have never actually sampled any of those I grow. My less law-abiding friend, who shares my general interest in cactus cultivation, has performed a few extractions on purchased dried material and is additionally interested in ultimately having a sustainable (and affordable!) source of mescailne for the future. So she was wondering, for those of you who grow your own: what's your preferred cactus for extractions, and why? In addition to particular clones or just general species, she's interested in hearing why - whether it be simply high mescaline content, relative dearth of other alkaloids, rate of growth, qualitative difference in experience, ease of preparation, reluctance to blend up heirloom plants, or whatever else might factor into your decision. Pictures of your plants would also be cool, if you are so inclined.

Note: if this is not an appropriate topic, I hope the mods will edit or delete as they see fit. My friend is just curious how you all choose what to chop.

Trichocereus bridgesii. Most definitely. It seems to be the most reliable and consistent as far as mescaline content goes. The alkaloid content of pachanoi and peruvianus fluctuates tremendously from specimen to specimen, and this seems to be less drastic for bridgesii. That being said, if you come across a cultivar or clone of pachanoi/peruvianus/etc. with a particularly high mescaline content, then by all means feel free to propagate the heck out of it and use it as your go-to for extractions.

Seconded. Bridgesii all the way, for the reasons that Entheogenerator mentioned. A strong mescaline experience is such a powerful, timeless and sacred experience, and I haven't gotten to that place with the pachanoi or peruvians I've tried, but have consistently with bridgesii.

Thanks, that's good to hear. She has more bridgesii than anything else in her collection (2 unnamed cuts, "eileen", and the monstrose clumping form). However, she's also got some other potentially interesting plants too, including a huancabamba non-pc pachanoi and a nice blue peruvianus. She hasn't tried any of them, as she doesn't care for tea or tar. You've had good results not just from consuming bridgesii but from extracting it? I ask because I'd read conflicting things about bridgesii: some people think that much of bridgesii's potency might be due to synergistic effects with other alkaloids that don't get pulled in a good extraction, as bridgesii has consistently tested well below good non-PC pachanoi and some peruvianus for mescaline in published reports. The published analyses are notoriously unreliable though.

Well the alkaloid content is going to vary to some extent in any species. It is true that there have been specimens of pachanoi and peruvianus that have shown higher mescaline content than that of the most potent analyzed bridgesii. But this does not represent the potency of the average pachanoi or peruvianus, only the specific clones/strains that were analyzed. There may be some clones of pachanoi and peruvianus that have a higher mescaline content than the average bridgesii, but there are also so many that have an almost negligible mescaline content that one can never gauge the potency of a pachanoi or peruvianus unless that particular clone has been analyzed. Bridgesii on the other hand seems to have a more consistent and fairly reliable mescaline content.

Hence this statement:

I'll clarify that I've made resin, not extracted mine, so my experience is with the full spectrum. Didn't mean to mislead.

I find bridgesii to be easier to work with than the others. Easier to despine, easier to peel, and less slimy.

Im with nicechrisman, Oh how I love bridgesii! She never lets you down and creates nice clean results. Pachanoi on the other hand is extremely variable in potency and the results tend to be much more dirty requiring cleaning and purification. I would choose bridgesii over pachanoi any day of the week. Even material from South America SWIM has seen is consistently 0.6-1.0%, where bridgesii is around 1.0-1.5%. Im sure there is pachanoi with much higher potency, though it must be rare. Have never worked with torch but would like to soon.

Bridgesii all the way. Monstrose bridgesii is amazing as well!!!

The people have spoken! Achuma or bust... thanks again all for sharing your insights, I'm sure my friend will find them most useful.

Hostilis, do you find the tbm grows more slowly than regular bridgesii? If so, does the strength advantage make up for this?

Kash, it's interesting that you find bridgesii gives cleaner results. This seems to contradict the general lore about bridgesii. However, given the amounts of even a strong MAOI that would be required to potentiate mescaline to a good degree (it'd probably have to be like 1:1 harmine to mesc, for example) I've long suspected that reports of bridgesii's "wildness" are mostly due to it actually containing higher concentrations of mesc than people are used to getting otherwise. Your experience would possibly seem to confirm that to some degree.

Continuum, thanks for your input anyway. I completely agree with you about the "timeless" character of the experience. I'd be interested, if you ever do an extraction, to hear how you feel it compares to the full-spectrum extract - I may be completely wrong about the relative unimportance of secondary alkaloids outside of body load / sedation (which can certainly still color a trip).

agree that, on average, T. b takes the cake....
on the other hand: there is nothing like a GOOD pachanoi!

True words