So my friends cat grew some mushrooms, and being bored attempted to do an extraction. Approximately 15 grams were used.
First step was to grind them up in a coffee grinder, which unfortunately made a bit of a mess out of them because they weren't as dry as first thought.
Using a double boiler setup and everclear, the mixture was heated until the alcohol was just starting to boil for about 30 minutes or so. Yeah, I know
some recipies call for up to four hours.
The alcohol was filtered through a 305 mesh and left to sit. The mushroom mush was then mixed with water and microwaved to just under boiling
and allowed to steep. This mixture was also filtered through a 305 mesh and then refrigerated.
A whitish gunk precipitated out of the alcohol after cooling. The alcohol was then carefully removed using a syringe. The whitish paste at the bottom
was then dissolved into water and stored in a dropper bottle.
The alcohol was left out to evaporate a bit. Amazingly after a day or so crystals formed on the bottom. The crystals seemed to be quite pure and
were clear as glass. This part was unexpected.
1/4 of the water fraction was then consumed by the cat. The effect, according to the cat was extremely mild to non existant suggesting that the
active ingredients were in one of the other fractions.
Further study will involve consuming 3/4 of the water fraction to test for activity. The assumption being that this will give an indication of exactly
how much active materials was removed by the alcohol extraction.
The crystals however confuse the cat as the active ingredients are supposedly not soluable in alcohol. Perhaps they are sugars of some sort.
The initial precipitate will of course also be investigated. According to everything the cat read on the internet that is where the active ingredients
should be.
Questions....
What are the clear crystals? Has anyone ever seen these? I would assume that in most extractions these would have wound up in the precipitate
paste. They were only visable because the excess alcohol was removed very early on in the process, perhaps 2 hours after filtering. They are
quite pretty. Somewhat square in appearance.
All the recipies end in people storing the precipitate in alcohol and then ususally heating to redissolve and dose. Why is this? The material seems
to dissolve well in water, thus skipping the reheating to dose step. Will water somehow damage the active ingredients? Is this a result of people
not having a syringe to suck out the alcohol?
Worst case scenario, the crystals are active and represent a 10 gram dose. Anyone out there eat a 10 gram dose of PC and live to tell about it?
Was it horrible? The cat was thinking about eating them all at once.
I notice that in the water fraction there is some settling of material. What is the soluability of the active ingredients in cold water? Perhaps I should
suck off the water and test each part separately?
First step was to grind them up in a coffee grinder, which unfortunately made a bit of a mess out of them because they weren't as dry as first thought.
Using a double boiler setup and everclear, the mixture was heated until the alcohol was just starting to boil for about 30 minutes or so. Yeah, I know
some recipies call for up to four hours.
The alcohol was filtered through a 305 mesh and left to sit. The mushroom mush was then mixed with water and microwaved to just under boiling
and allowed to steep. This mixture was also filtered through a 305 mesh and then refrigerated.
A whitish gunk precipitated out of the alcohol after cooling. The alcohol was then carefully removed using a syringe. The whitish paste at the bottom
was then dissolved into water and stored in a dropper bottle.
The alcohol was left out to evaporate a bit. Amazingly after a day or so crystals formed on the bottom. The crystals seemed to be quite pure and
were clear as glass. This part was unexpected.
1/4 of the water fraction was then consumed by the cat. The effect, according to the cat was extremely mild to non existant suggesting that the
active ingredients were in one of the other fractions.
Further study will involve consuming 3/4 of the water fraction to test for activity. The assumption being that this will give an indication of exactly
how much active materials was removed by the alcohol extraction.
The crystals however confuse the cat as the active ingredients are supposedly not soluable in alcohol. Perhaps they are sugars of some sort.
The initial precipitate will of course also be investigated. According to everything the cat read on the internet that is where the active ingredients
should be.
Questions....
What are the clear crystals? Has anyone ever seen these? I would assume that in most extractions these would have wound up in the precipitate
paste. They were only visable because the excess alcohol was removed very early on in the process, perhaps 2 hours after filtering. They are
quite pretty. Somewhat square in appearance.
All the recipies end in people storing the precipitate in alcohol and then ususally heating to redissolve and dose. Why is this? The material seems
to dissolve well in water, thus skipping the reheating to dose step. Will water somehow damage the active ingredients? Is this a result of people
not having a syringe to suck out the alcohol?
Worst case scenario, the crystals are active and represent a 10 gram dose. Anyone out there eat a 10 gram dose of PC and live to tell about it?
Was it horrible? The cat was thinking about eating them all at once.
I notice that in the water fraction there is some settling of material. What is the soluability of the active ingredients in cold water? Perhaps I should
suck off the water and test each part separately?
