The current hypothesis going around on the nexus concerning the side effects of bufotenin are that it is caused by bufotenin n oxide.

SWIM has performed both GC-MS and LC-MS analysis of bufotenin purified using the Ott 2001 method in the journal of psychoactive drugs (SWIM thinks thats the source). The method was taken from an earlier work on isolation of bufotenin. The only compound present is bufotenin and a trace amount of dmt. No n oxide at all.

SWIM at first thought that perhaps the n oxide might have degraded in the injection of the GC-MS (set at 280 degrees C). But SWIM was always puzzled by why wouldn't that also happen when you smoke bufotenin? So SWIM decided to do LC-MS analysis using AP-ESI as the ionization mode. This is a softer ionization MS procedure then EI which was used in GC-MS which should increase the intensity of the molecular ion peak. It did. But the molecular ion peak was 205 bufotenin +1 hydrogen. Exactly as expected. Furthermore SWIM doesn't think that the n oxide is degrading in the MS giving a false result for bufotenin because the n oxide would seperate differently in the HPLC column then the parent compound. Its easy to seperate n oxides from their parent compounds by LC.

Therefore SWIM thinks this talk of n oxide bufotenin should be laid to rest. SWIM thinks the reason people experience side effects from bufotenin and preparations there of is because of the bufotenin itself and possibly other impurities in the seeds. SWIMs material however is very pure and SWIM always gets side effects. The only time the side effects go away is if SWIM keeps smoking the material and gets a kind of tolerance to that effect.

SWIM can provide the data if people are not convinced. But unless you know a lot about mass spectrometry you won't be able to interpret it.

Good job burnt and thanks for investigating this further!

the n-oxide was just a hypothesis and was not demonstrated to be the cause of nausea. Sadly people forget the difference between theory and proof, and yes, they start speaking of it as a fact.

this is excellent info of course, thank you very much burnt

but one point here... you are talking about analyzing some bufo extracted ott way... but thats not the bufotenine extraction people complaining about nausea do, is it? So dont you think it simply could be that this specific method you posted results in different alkaloid content than the one people been using with?

and btw, if your friend ever has time, to check for the IPA tek (check the new tek from jorkest or the wow bufotenine success thread from fractal enchantment), and see what are the alkaloid presents using this chromatography/MS tests, would be nice

Perhaps the bufotenin prepared by others is impure and contains other alkaloids inducing nasty side effects. But SWIM gets side effects from the material SWIM has used as well which is nearly pure bufotenin. SWIM gets some positive effects like visuals but needs to smoke quite a bit (15 mg or more) and it hurts for the first minute or so.

SWIM believes that these results imply that people respond differently to pure freebased bufotenin. Some seem more sensitive others not. This could have to do with differences in metabolism blood brain barrier uptake mechanisms who knows.




if SWIM has plant material in future SWIM will check its alkaloid content by other methods.

I think you raise some very interesting points burnt.. Indeed it is quite possible that a lot of 'side-effects' that people try to 'blame' on other alkaloids may be normal reactions from bufotenine itself...

But then again this is not conclusive evidence yet, of course, because appart from SWIY's test with what he knew was pure bufotenine, other people still have a mix of techniques that may contain other alkaloids that create nausea, together with bufo's natural 'side-effects'

In any case once again I must say these kind of straight to earth information is VERY valuable, keep it up, whenever SWIY has time for testing and sharing, its very appreciated

yea this is great!

its just so interesting that toasting does remove a lot of the side effects compared to seeds that have not been treated at all...

and you do get a tolerance to the side effects quickly...which is what is so great about the bufo changa...you can smoke it much slower...and experience MUCH less side effects...and when dmt is combined...it makes it even better...with less side effects(as far as i can tell)

thanks a lot for taking the time to test that burnt! and if you ever get that materials for the IPA toast tek...let us know what you find.

I would be very curious to see if there was a difference in profile between toasted and non toasted seeds. If the compounds are that volatile they should be detectable.

I would like to more about this as well..

I do know for sure from many personal experiments with the same batch of seeds that untoasted seeds have way more side effects..and that toasted but unextracted seeds have more side effects than the extracted resin..

Now the last batch I extracted and made into changa..I used all seeds that I had already extracted from..and some of them were from my first 2 batches i extracted..and I had only toasted those ones once..and not very thoroughly..

Now this batch has alot more side effects than my previous 3 or 4 batches..so either less toasting is leaving more toxins behind..or I am pulling a higher ratio of those toxins compared to bufotenine due to it being a second extraction on the seeds...I think one of those 2.

I know that the extra side effects of this batch is not from simply more bufotenine being extracted..becasue if it was that, than I would be getting a high dose of bufotenine..which I am not..just more side effects prior to the real trip..

I cannot even smoke enough of the toasted and freebased seeds to have real visions becasue of the side effects..but when I toast the seeds thorouhly, 2 or 3 times in the process and pull with iso..I can easily smoke enough and the side effects are minimal..mostly just some constriction at the beginning..no real heavy nausea or headache etc..

I think that there are some side effects from bufotenine..but I think it is from vasoconstriction..I think ron has even said that with his pure bufotenine there is some minor constriction at higher doses..

From what I have gotten from my experiments so far..there is 2 types of side effects that I have felt..the first one is really bad..heavy nausea and mild headache at the beginning..and it sort of lasts through half of the trip as well..thats is with just smoking prepared snuff..

With my extract(taken with harmalas) there is constriction..but it is tolerable and clears up within a few minutes and then the real trip starts to happen. If it was bufotenine causing all of the effects..than I should be getting worse effects with the extract becasue I am getting a much higher dose of bufotenine..enough to have visions..even without harmalas I get much deeper effects with the extract.

Now when I take the extract with coffee..the side effects are even less still..which again makes me think that bufotenine itself is a bit more vasoconstrictive than DMT, psilocybin etc..

Could it be that when freebased bufotenine is smoked..some of it still goes to the body and hits the seratonin receptors throughout the body, since it is so similar to seratonin..causing the physical constriction?

Maybe SWIM has never smoked impure bufotenin then so SWIM doesn't know if SWIM has experienced the kinds of side effects people experience from these extracts. SWIM always assumed that SWIM's stuff wasn't as pure as SWIM thought but SWIM is fairly sure it was. Perhaps SWIM is just experiencing the vasoconstriction and considering that a serious side effect because SWIM doesn't have the frame of reference others do.

Hmmmmm SWIM will have to look more in detail at the extraction methods being used to see what impurities could be present. What are the two most popular? SWIM needs more seeds to solve this problem it might take a while.

id say right now the best...most reliable way is the simple toast:freebase:toast:IPA:toast:IPA:evap

its worked better than any other extraction i have done...ive even told traveler to throw a message up on the WIKI about the d-limo purification tek..saying that it is not recommended..because the toasting tek works light years better...

this is the only tek that i have gotten GOOD if not GREAT results from...40seeds(around 8g) has given me more than enough bufo to play with for a long time..