I am going to be ordering 28 grams of dried powder. I am also wondering what a good dose would be. I know that there is great variation in potency but I would like a ballpark estimate of what a strong dose dose would be. I greatly appreciate your time.

i don't know about the potency of the skins you're getting but i'm planning on a little over 100 grams when i go through icaros next. as a 100g goo from RSB was a slightly more than threshold dose

What is your prep method going to be.

i powder (if not already powdered) and save one chunk to taste for bitterness (when it's not bitter you can stop washing) and then do like 5 washes and strain, combine, and simmer down to a goo.

I plan on just eating the raw powder, so would that effect dosage size?

Everyone is different, but I have never taken that low of a dose, and don't think I would get very profound effects from it.

That said, I've never worked with powder, only dried chips from a VERY reputable source. I use about the same prep as the above poster. Last time I used 75 grams and had a blast, but could have gone much further. Going for 120 this time.

I have lots of experience with LSD and mushrooms though, so I may be a little more daring in these realms than some.

what's your reputable vendor nicechrisman?

Icaros.

We'll have to compare notes when we bioassay. I don't powder mine. I was taught to just do multiple pulls of the dried chunks. This time I tried freezing in between pulls. I added some lemon juice to one of the pulls. Did 4 pulls total (maybe 5?). Got it a little hotter than I intended once or twice, but I'm sure it will be fine. I'm in the process of scraping it off my pyrex dish right now. It's gonna be a big ass ball of goo. I can't wait to try it!

ingest all of it, even with 5% alkaloid content ive eaten more than that, i doubt this vendor is supplying you with even half that potency.

a quick run down on the math...

if its 1% 28g = 280 mg mesc alkaloids = mild/threshold
if its 2% 28g = 560 mg mesc alkaloids = moderate
if its 3% 28g = 840 mg mesc alkaloids = strong
if its 4% 28g = 1120 mg mesc alkaloids = heavy
if its 5% 28g = 1400 mg mesc alkaloids = breakthrough threshold

its is most likely that your powder will be 1.5% +- .5% giving you an expected range of 280-540 mgs

an easy way to eat powder is to add a bit of water and make globs that you can chase, this prevents the powder from adhering to your mouth/throat. eating powder is best after a day of fasting with 0 calories and hydrating all day minus 2 hours through 6 hours into the experience. this prevents nausea, as well as laying on your back for a few hours. i strongly reccommend you do this at sunset and break your fast (breakfast) with some fruit at sunrise

you could always do 2-3 ethanol pulls with 151 rum, evaporate and scrape up for full spectrum resin, however expect to lose 10% of your alkaloids even with 3 solid pulls, you really need 4-5, but thats nearly double the time for such a small dose. each pull should be an hour in a hot bath with a bit of acid (twist of lemon, lime juice, etc)

the resin youll make will be about 3x, leaving you with roughly 8.3 g resin, if you manage to get all the cactus out

28g is not enough (unless its super potent) to give you a breakthrough experience, and as such more complicated methods of alkaloid isolation are overkill.

Thanks mew, that was very informative. I actually decided to go with ordering 112 grams instead of the dried piece instead of powder, with all the feedback i have received. Also considering going with Trichocereus Pachanoi instead. Is the percent of alkaloids much different?

Most sources indicate that peruvianus is a fair bit stronger than pachanoi, but there's a lot of conflicting info, as well as varying genetics and growing conditions.

By a fair bit do you mean more or less than 33% stronger? I am simply curious as to the amount i would have to consume. If i could get by with a third less plant matter that would be wonderful.

The figures I've read are not consistent at all. Try doing some google searches and you'll see what I mean.

I am quite aware of the potency variations. I did quite a bit of google searching a bit after i first started the thread. I ask here to get a bit of personal opinion on the matter since the raw scientific data is so varied.

since youll be receiving a processed product theres no way to tell exactly what plant you have, regardless of what it was labeled. you also wont know what the ratio of product is of outter green flesh to inner white core (the outter green flesh being the more potent portion)

some pachanoi have clocked in at 5% mesc alkaloids by weight and others have had negligable amounts 1%>pachanoi
same thing for peruvianus.

there is no answer to this other than your experience, keep notes on your experiences and vendor and eventually youll be able to know rather than guess at which is most potent/prefferred. i like doing an a/b on different specimens to measure analytically the potency rather than "wow that was strong" though there is nothing wrong with experiencial data.

mescaline is only one compound within the trichocereus phenylthylamine complex. the alkaloid profile of each plant varies greatly, one might end up with a plant that is 75% mescaline and 25% other mescaline like alklaoids, or 50/50.

The vendor i am going to be using is quite reputable. I have little doubt as to the authenticity.

I'd go for the peruvianus myself.

the vendor may be reputable but the plants sold by the vendor variables unless all of the following (and more) conditions are met

-same genetics
-same age/ harvest time
-same growing conditions (sunlight, water, heat, nutrients, etc)
-same preparation (and time spent from harvested to preparation)

if any of these arent exactly the same then there will be a difference in the vendors product, ineveitably there is. sometimes vendors blend many different cacti into one "san pedro" blend. this leaves the buyer unaware of the composite mixture of cacti assuming it is one cacti/genetic strain

ive had reputable vendors give me great products then out of the blue the quality was sub par, without any indication from the vendor.

most likely youll end up with a decent product but theres always a chance youll get something different


i would also go with peruvianus over pachanoi

I greatly appreciate the input and all of your points have been noted and taken into consideration.

i greatly appreciate refining approaches to cacti
let us know how it goes!