PV has been known to vary in alkaloid content not only as a consequence of genetics, but also significantly due to the time of day it was harvested, soil conditions, etc. with the time of day being the most important factor in the concentration of alkaloids. Previous studies have shown that PV leaves (the study using plants with south american genetics) harvested around dusk and dawn have alkaloid contents approaching 1% of dried mass, whereas the amount of alkaloid content dramatically decreases if harvested around midday/mid-night. I have no clue as to why this is so, but it is (at least AFAIK & IME; I also found out through personal research that the leaves of a Panamanian cultivar of PV which was under-watered for several days prior to harvesting at the butt-crack of dawn--the leaves plucked off the plant amidst tropical storm-force winds--yielded well above 1% alkaloid content; I haven't tested alkaloid content of it since, but these results may further furnish the hypothesis that time of harvest plays a Herculean role in the potency of PV leaf).

While I admit that a more lush, tropical/humid, jungle-like environment coupled with the nutrient-dense soils of Hawaii may play a significant role in alkaloid content, I consider the time of day the leaves were harvested at is the most significant determinant of alkaloid content. Also, PV is not endemic to Hawaii (& most vendors claiming to traffic this supposedly super-potent strain of "Hawaiian PV" seem to be mute when it comes to where in the hell they got their genetics/parent leaf cuttings from); most likely, the hype surrounding the super-potent "Hawaiian" cultivar(s) of PV is mostly due to the time of day the leaves were harvested, with the factors concerning harvesting leaves from stressed-out/under-watered plants (known to increase alkaloid content in many species) as well as soil and environmental conditions the plants were raised in playing second fiddle to this primary determinant of alkaloid content.

Long Story Shart, I think that the hype clouting these ultra-potent Hawaiian-sourced strains of PV is a big bunch of bologna; one can easily manipulate potency based on time of day of harvest as well as richness of soil media alongside stressing plant prior to harvesting AFAIK. Unfortunately, there are only one or two decades'-old studies investigating this hypothesis, alongside one successful experiment backing my claims up regarding increasing the potency of PV via time of date of harvest; more trials/experiments/case-reports concerning the galaxy of variables (e.g. genetics, soil nutrient content and medium and time of day of harvest, etc.) are needed to further validate this hypothesis of alkaloid content being dependent upon the time of date of harvest. If anyone else is in a position to further contribute to this ongoing investigation, please feel free to make magic (& history) happen.

Selah,
-Godsmacker

These 2 old studies and the successful experiment you speak of, can we have some details please? It's always nice to back up claims so people can read along about what you are speaking of.

Found these 2 pics on my hard drive, can't find their context anymore though
Maybe these are exactly the studies you spoke of.

Thank you! These graphs you pulled-up were extrapolated from the EXACT SAME studies I was alluding to; the results from my one successful chacruna A/B extraction yielding ~1% alkaloid content are listed in the following link:

https://www.dmt-nexus.me...aspx?g=posts&t=66834

Please note, however, that I did not bother to re-crystallize the freeze-precipitated extract, nor did I do a de-fat (IMO those things are nothing more than a waste of precious solvent) on the acidic pulls from the chacruna; instead, I simply dried-out the A/B/Naphtha-pulled & freeze-precipitated extract, dissolved it (along with a gram or so of Harmine) in 30ml of acetone, and evaporated it over a blend of caapi & mint leaf, which made for a supercalifragilisticexpialidociously changalicious smoalking blend (perhaps one of the best batches of changa i've ever had the pleasure of crafting in my lifetime; paling only in comparison to a future changa blend which employed plain freshly-harvested & shade-dried salvia and caapi leaf (1:3 ratio) as well as a 2:1 ratio of DMT:harmalas, making for a fun and spunky tool with which to access the ISFW--but that's an entirely different subject of discussion which is further explored in the salvia subforum).

May you please include links to and/or attach files/citations to the studies which produced those graphs? I would like to read-up moar into their extraction methodologies, substance analysis techniques, source/country of parent plants/genetics as well as all the other nitty-gritty info concerning their investigations which led to the creation of those graphs! A major question I would like to know is if they only used one plant for data collection, or a plethora of plants all with different genetics/lineages/phenotypes/etc when collecting that data, as a major challenge of this time-of-day-dependent PV-alkaloid content fluctuation hypothesis resides in separating this single factor from the massive amount of background noise (e.g. weather conditions, nutrient content of soil, sun-exposure, average temperatures and humidity, location/latitude of where they grew, average age of plants etc.) which may have fogged-up the purported results of those studies (& the graphs extrapolated from the data collected).

My single extraction on that home-grown, 19 year-old Panamanian variety of PV, whose leaves were harvested at the butt-crack of dawn yielded ~1% alkaloid content, which would be concurrent with the results of those studies which suggest that peak alkaloid content occurs at dawn and dusk. Unfortunately, I do not have the resources to accumulate moar dried chacruna leaf with different genetics, growing conditions, differing times of harvest, etc. so I must leave it up to the entheobotanical community at large to conduct further analyses on different strains/genotypes of PV harvested at different times of day & night; existence is art; proof of existence is science.

Selah,
-Godsmacker

Lol, the graph pics I prolly got from the ayahuasca forum long time ago, I'm sorry to have no context and I hope someone chimes in to refer the original paper. I'll dig out an old hard disk out maybe it's there...