muricinine/reticuline/graviola

[jacky]

graviola is a name for the plant annona muricata, or soursop. which produces an edible fruit, with toxic seeds. the root bark/bark/stems/and leaves contain a plethora of isoquinoline alkaloids.

one of which is a direct morphine precursor, that may be metabolized into morphine by certian cellular processes in both plant and animals.
the compound is reticuline, and it occurs in many other plants as well, some of which, like sassafras, have been used medicinally for years.

graviola has many uses reportedly, but I will just mention that is is used for diarhhea, and as a sedative. the other claims for graviola are pretty interesting to say the least.

I am pretty interested in finding the best source of reticuline possible, and having some high purity alkaloid extracts made. possible uses might be as a feeding supplement for other plants, like tobacco, the tobacco plant will uptake reticuline and turn it into morphine in pretty much the same way the animal model has shown.
now, I am not really going to try that here, in the USA, but it would be completely legal to eat these graviola alkaloids, and see if there is any noticeable analgesic,sedative effect.

salutaridine is another morphine precursor, reticuline and salutaridine are one or two steps away from eachother in the synth process.

I have wondered about these two isoquinolines for some time now, the only herbs I have experimented with that contain reticuline are peumus boldus, and sassafras rootbark tea.

[nick]

Beautiful Jacky.You're turning into a junky sage.

[insanesteveo]

that right there is the single reason that convinced me i wanted to go back to college and get a degree in botany. i was already thinking of going back for botany, but this makes me REALLY want to go back.

im very interested to hear more jacky.

[surreal]

What do you think - would be Chelidonium majus (for sanguinarine) or Peumus boldo be of worth as feeding supplements for tobacco?

Or how about amino acid mixtures as supplement for poppies?

And, searching for that for months now without success - shouldn't be Berberin of any value somehow?
It seems so near the morphine structure ...

[insanesteveo]

i just had a vision of a long vine of hops, being fed that stuff, and then brewing a form of laudunum, but no extraction needed. just making plain old beer that happens to have some morphine in it! thatd be wonderful. tell me its possible.

[surreal]

that would be great, too.

been thinking about crossing different popppies till they do not look suspicious anymore but still produce goodies - or - even better, a plant like hops or tobacco with enough op's in it to use. Without extraction would be best, of course! I mean, if that's true one can feed tobacco with precursors from other plants, like chelidonium, e. californica or what ever to get them to produce m - wow, that would be so cool!

Or feeding poppies with amino acids or other stuff they need to produce real huge amounts of morphine ...
what ever, there got to be a way to become autark.

[alterego]

Better stay away from this Annona stuff:

PubMed ID : 11835443
Title : Toxicity of Annonaceae for dopaminergic neurons: potential role in atypical parkinsonism in Guadeloupe.
Abstract : In the French West Indies there is an abnormally high frequency of levodopa-resistant parkinsonism, suggested to be caused by consumption of fruit and infusions of tropical plants, especially Annona muricata (corossol, soursop). To determine whether toxic substances from this plant can cause the neuronal degeneration or dysfunction underlying the syndrome, we exposed mesencephalic dopaminergic neurons in culture to the total extract (totum) of alkaloids from Annona muricata root bark and to two of the most abundant subfractions, coreximine and reticuline. After 24 hours, 50% of dopaminergic neurons degenerated with 18 microg/ml totum, 4.3 microg/ml (13 microM) coreximine, or 100 microg/ml (304 microM) reticuline. The effects of the alkaloid totum were not restricted to the population of dopaminergic cells since GABAergic neurons were also affected by the treatment. Nuclei in dying neurons showed DNA condensation or fragmentation, suggesting that neuronal death occurred by apoptosis. Cell death was not excitotoxic and did not require toxin uptake by the dopamine transporter. Neurodegeneration was attenuated by increasing the concentration of glucose in the culture medium, which also reduced the effect of the dopaminergic neurotoxin MPP+, a mitochondrial respiratory chain inhibitor. Toxin withdrawal after short-term exposure arrested cell death. Acute treatment with totum, coreximine, or reticuline reversibly inhibited dopamine uptake by a mechanism that was distinct from that causing neuronal death. GABA uptake was not reduced under the same conditions. This study suggests that alkaloids from A. muricata can modulate the function and the survival of dopaminergic nerve cells in vitro. It is therefore conceivable that repeated consumption could cause the neuronal dysfunction and degeneration underlying the West Indian parkinsonian syndrome. Copyright 2002 Movement Disorder Society.