Poppy Tea and pH balances???

[I-Nod]

Does any chemistry-related Ophiles know if pH levels effect the potency of poppy tea? I thought I read on another site of people adding a little baking soda to their tea to bring down the pH. I've also noticed that I get some heavy acid-reflux sometimes after drinking tea or eating grounds... so I figured poppies are naturally acidic.

Any truth to this, or did I dream I read it? (I've been known to dream weird crap and believe it.)

Has anyone tried this? and does it help?

If so, what would be the proper pH range?

Thanks guys/ gals, any ideas on this is appreciated. Take care and Nod oN!!

[CSiiSEQ]

Does it affect potency? No. Can it affect the quality of the extraction and therefore the amount of drug extracted? it can at the extreme ends of the scale you can reduce the efficiency.

Getting reflux after drinking could be related to the method you are using. Are you adding any form of acid while brewing? OJ, vinegar or anything like that? You'll see a lot of claims that these or other acids are necessary to extract the alkaloids from the poppy; they aren't and usually just make the tea taste worse. The chemical form you obtain from a dry poppy is extremely water soluble. There is no need to "help" it get into solution. Using an acidic brewing solution also will NOT make the extraction faster or better in any way.

The best pH range to work in is going to be what is best for you to drink. In your case, I would avoid acidic solutions and try other methods of making it taste better. As long as the pH is in the range that is comfortable to drink, the alkaloids will all be happy.

Using acids won't hurt the process, as long as you're not getting into more extreme pHs- which you won't using "kitchen" acids. Neither will adding bases. The only reason for even worrying about the pH when dealing with poppies would be if you were not looking to keep it into solution, then it's a little more critical. I've seen some recipes that are just insane in the ingredients being added in order to acidify and "improve" their tea. All it does is make it taste a whole lot worse than it has to.

[WarmCyanide]

i heard PT is made for a man, but Ph balanced for a woman. hdhh

[I-Nod]

Ok, after reading that great explaination, I can't help but to think "What a retarded fucking question!" Heh heh. Sorry bout that y'all.

Many, many thanks to you CSiiSEQ!! You touched on everything I was wondering about and then some. I do eat my grounds w/ V8, and knew this was very acidic and why I got heart-burn... but I have also gotten it when eating grounds w/ apple-sauce too and figured pods were the culprit. Seriously tho, thanks a lot for the well informed reply CSiiSEQ, appreciate it.

And thank you WC for the laugh! Haven't seen a Ban deoderant commercial in years, that's pretty funny shit. That was Ban wasn't it?? hmmm. Pea's out y'all!!

[robojunkie]

The tea itself is like ph~4.5 or so. Almost as acidic as vinegar. As long as someone doesn't go brewing it in drano they'll be allright, and if that was so they'd be having bigger problems to say the least. But an arbitrary range, between 4 and 6 or 7 is probably fine, 8 to 10 will precipitate most the alkaloids, higher will resolvate the morphine, not to mention you probably don't want to be drinking anything not between 4 and 10 in any case. 4 being strong OJ and 10 being tums.