San Pedro Potency FAQ - Steve Barton

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San Pedro Potency FAQ

by Steve Barton

v 1.1 - Sep 1994

Erowid Note: This FAQ was not authored by Erowid. It may include out-

of-date and/or incorrect information. Please check the version date to

see when it was most recently revised. It appears on Erowid as part of

our historical archives. For current information, see Erowid's summary

pages in the substance's main vault.

Disclaimer

This FAQ is presented for informational purposes only. We do not

advocate illegal activities. We do believe in the right of the individual to

have free access to information and ideas. We strongly recommend that

the reader learn about applicable local and federal laws regarding

possession, production, and sale of these and related cacti.

Introduction

Ver 1.1 of a FAQ on this persistent topic. co-author credit is due to

RBrennan for his indespensable research & tireless intellectual

exchanges with me as we gather data and clarify our thinking on "the

San Pedro Question." - Steve Barton

What is the name of the legal mescaline-containing cactus?

Most commonly, you are referring to Trichocereus pachanoi, aka "San

Pedro". Various other Trichocerei have been shown to contain



mescaline, however, and there have been been informal reports of

usage of T. peruvianus and what we suspect is T. macrogonus as well.

T. pachanoi is employed as a grafting stock, landscape plant,

ornamental accent, and (in South America) as hedging and fencing. It

has wonderful 9" night-blooming flowers, in season. It is amenable to

pot-culture (i.e., growing it in a clay pot on your patio). It is legal to

own, but illegal to consume or process into mescaline.

How strong is it?

That depends on "which pachanoi". It is highly variable.

Isn't T. pachanoi weaker than peyote?

That depends on "which pachanoi" you are talking about. Reports

published in scholarly journals have shown pachanoi to sometimes be

twice as strong as peyote. In addition, T. pachanoi grows a few orders

of magnitude faster than peyote; pachanoi can double in mass every

year, while peyote takes about a decade to grow to flowering size. T.

pachanoi branches can grow to 18' by 4" dia, while natural peyote tops

out at about 2" high by 4" dia. T. pachanoi is certainly a formidable

mescaline producer and has three millenia of human usage. "Weak" is

really an unfair word to apply to either plant.

In addition, peyote is illegal to posess (lacking religious exemption) and

is becoming endangered in nature; hence it is harder to find, while T.

pachanoi often turns up at the local nursery, etc. How strong *is* the

cactus you can't get?

I thought that it was some other Trichocereus that is as strong

as peyote.



There is a UL that peruvianus is "10x as strong as pachanoi". Again, the

response to this is "which pachanoi?" Here is a table of some of the

primary citations on Trichocereus potency that should make it clearer:

species % age fresh %age dry citation

peyote ? 1-6% (rarely >1%) XXX

pachanoi 0.12% 2% CF

peruvianus 0.05%* 0.82% P&M

peruvianus >0.0005% >0.01%* Ag

pachanoi 0.02%* 0.331 C&M

pachanoi 0.02%* 0.357% T&H

pachanoi 0.006%*-0.14%* 0.1-2.375% H&B

* estimated, calculated assuming constant 94% water in fresh material.

Provided simply for convenience in comparing different studies. *most*

give figures only based on dry material, while Ag gives only fresh.

Ag

Agurell, S. 1969 "Cactaceae Alkaloids. I." Lloydia 32:206-216 Found no

detectable mescaline at all in T. peruvianus.

CF

Friedberg, Claudine. 1959 "Rapport sur une mission au Perou..."

Travaux de l'Institut Francais d'Etudes Andines AFAIK, this is the earliest

measurement of M content in pachanoi.

C&M

Crosby & McLaughin 1973 "Cactus Alkaloids XIX. Crystallization of

mescaline HCl and 3-MEOtyramine HCl from T. pachanoi" Lloydia 36:416



H&B

Helmlin HJ & Brenneisen R, J Chromatogr 1992 Feb 28; 593 (1-2): 87-

94 Samples of T. pachanoi were taken from private collections, shopping

malls & florist's shops.

P&M

Pardanani & McLaughlin. 1977. "Cactus Alkaloids. XXVI. Mescaline and

Related Compounds from Trichocereus peruvianus" Lloydia Vol 40 #6.

This seems to be the sole primary cite on which all claims of peruvianus

potency is based.

T&H

Turner & Heyman 1960 (cite by C&M) "the presence of mescaline in

Opuntia cylindrica (sic)" J. Org. Chem. 25: 2250

XXX

cited by C&M, these figures are widely quoted but I have not examined

C&M's primary sources for them.

As you can see, pachanoi varies by 20X. This is not likely to be

experimental error; H&B using consistent methodology came up with

figures that nicely bracket all other citations. The strongest pachanoi

measured is 3X the strongest peruvianus measured, and while it is less

than half the strength of the strongest peyote on record it is more than

twice the strength of peyote you are likely to get your hands on. The

strongest T. peruvianus reported is not quite as powerful as the "usual"

peyote.



But maybe there was an even more powerful T. peruvianus that

was never tested?

Likely, studies of other trichos similar to H&B would also show a

variance. How great a variance, and what its top value would be is

unknown to the scientific literature. It is possible that the failure to find

mescaline in peruvianus reported in Ag is nothing more than the lower-

bound.

There is reason to think that other trichos than pachanoi have at times

been identified by anthropological informants as "San Pedro", but

whether this means that they are pharmacologically as-or-more active is

not known at this time.

If you have such a T. peruvianus and can do respectable quantitative

chemistry, why not send a note to Lloydia? TIA.

What makes one pachanoi stronger than another?

This is an open question. There is lore within the entheogenic cactophile

community that there is both seasonal variation and variance due to

plant culture, but no proper scientific studies have been done. There is

also a legend of a "purple pachanoi" that was reputed to be very

powerful. Turning purple is also a symptom of phototoxicity (over-

exposure to sun). Shoots from old clumps are held to be stronger by

some, as are branches with 4 ridges (rare to non-existent in pachanoi),

and those grown in mineral-rich soil in the Andes. It is possible that

different genetic strains of pachanoi have different potential. Much of

the pachanoi available is thought to be clonally propagated from one or

a very few genetic lines and probably selected for its utility as a grafting

stock, although "different individuals" do turn up from time-to-time.



If the cactophile community showed the same dilligence and

resourcefulness as have the cannabis-cultivators we would be able to

answer your question with certainty (although I certainly do not envy

the degree of legal and illegal attention the multi-$G cannabis industry

has attracted).

How do I know if I the San Pedro I have is strong or weak?

Ok, so this dude sold you some San Pedro. Do you have the strong kind

or the weak kind? Neither you nor I have any idea. Probably neither

does the dude. There are some suppliers with a track-record of selling

"effective" San Pedro. If you are risk-averse, see if you can find

someone who has been in business for some time and ask their other

customers.

So how do I know how much to take?

Now you're sitting there with a cactus cutting in your hand, intending to

commit felonious cactophagy, and are about to add aggravated weenie-

cide unless I can give you a straight answer on how much of that cactus

in your hand you should eat. The "maximum safe dose" of mescaline,

according to Ott, is 1000 mg. Assume the worst (best) about your

cactus, that it is H&B's 2.375% (dry), the most powerful pachanoi

known to science. You would therefore not want to take more than 714

gms (fresh), or about 1 1/2 lbs. The threshold dose is about 150 mg, so

you'd need at least 107 gms (nearly 4 oz.) to get any effect in the best

(worst) case. If you got the wimpy stuff you will need to eat at least 2.5

kg to get the least effect. To get the maximum safe dose from the

wimpy stuff you need to eat ~17 kg; probably about one-fifth your own

body weight.

I got the wimpy stuff, now what do I do?



Let the rest of it callous off, root it out, plant it, and join the rest of us in

discovering what this organism wants from life. It may or may not be

weak because of lack of genetic potential; nobody really knows. This is

not Safeway, this is a living organism we are approaching and

attempting to enlist. Negotiations may be in order. If nothing else, the

flowers are gorgeous. Join your local cactus society, or a net mailing-list

and expand your horizons.

I've yet to try the wimpy stuff, BTW, although as a plant- collector I buy

many more specimens than will ever make it into my kitchen; there

might be some wimpy ones in my back-yard unbeknownst to me. But

perhaps it is not very common; only representing very unhappy plants

that have been living in a shopping-mall or similar unnatural locale. 400

gms of any I've tried seems like an "entheogenic all-day lollipop" to me.

If I could get 1000 pachanoi branches blooming in my garden I'd be a

*very* happy gardener, regardless of their alkaloidal content.

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San Pedro Potency FAQ - Steve Barton