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  • Trip Reports Moderator: Xorkoth

Mucuna Pruriens (extract) 400mg - No prior experience - Blissing Out On Mucuna

Survived Abortion

Bluelighter
Joined
Jul 4, 2007
Messages
1,431
Substance: Mucuna Pruriens
Dose: 400mg Mucuna Pruriens extract (standardized to 15% L-DOPA)
Date of experience: 29/02/12
Daily stack: Vitamin B complex, Ginkgo Biloba, Rhodiola Rosea (SHR-5 extract 360mg)
Mind set: Optimistic

I received a bottle of Mucuna Pruriens extract through the post on Wednesday morning. I had been intending to add this supplement to my daily nootropic/supplement stack for energy, mood, focus, and for the physical benefits of increased muscular fluidity/dexterity and increase in lean muscles mass with excersise, specifically yoga.

The recommended dose is 2 capsules of Mucuna standardized to 15% L-Dopa (800mg Mucuna extract containing 120mg L-Dopa). I skipped my Rhodiola Dose in case there were any interactions (read on), and took 1 capsule to be cautious. I'm glad I only took one. I did my morning yoga flow and felt sleepy so I had a little nap. I had the most incredibly vivid dream I have had in a long time. It was nightmarish, where I was being locked in a house with a demented psychopath who wanted to do terrible things to me.

At one point in the dream, I figured out that I could control the reality I was experiencing (to a certain extent), and everything changed. The entire realm - which was previously dark, dank and toxic - transformed in to a jewel-encrusted land of psychedelic hilarity. I was upon a boat, looking across the top from stern to bow, and there were many other boats next to 'mine'. They were very colourful and shaped in perfectly geometric fashion. I was able to control their movement with the power of my mind. I was exploring this strange place for a little while, until my mental power seemed to diminish and I was back in psycho land again, being chased by a lunatic. This battle between dream lucidity and flaccidity continued for a little while, until I was able to wake myself up from the nightmare.

Upon awakening, I found myself in an unusual state of perception. There seemed to be a slight resistance in my breathing, and my skin looked pale but beautiful. My muscles were soft and easy to move. Everything had a slight glow about it. Everything felt "pink" and fluffy if that makes any sense. I was experiencing some eye wiggles.

I went about my day with a very bright mood, feeling relaxed and empty of all the normal annoying thoughts that chatter incessantly in my head when I'm not meditating. Not in a benzodiazepine kind of way, this felt very different. Come night time, I could not sleep for toffees, and every time I tried to do so I would get intense brain zaps which would leave me feeling wildly dizzy and disoriented. I had been up on a hill overlooking the adjacent town all evening. I lay down on a bench and looked up at the stars, still having intense eye wiggles. I was chasing stars around the sky with my eyes because they kept moving, which was fun and very meditative. I must have been laying there for hours, because when I looked at the time on my phone it was 00:49.

I went home and tried to sleep, but it was impossible because it felt like something was being detonated in the centre of my head everytime I tried to fall asleep. So I spent the night playing guitar, amazed at the increase in dexterity.

By the morning I was very tired, and just wanted to sleep. I tried, but to no avail, only experiencing more head zaps. They became very annoying. As the sun rose, things started to become more psychedelic. The pink feeling and fluffiness increased, and I started experiencing morphing in objects. I would almost perceive faces melting in and out of flower patterns and wood grain. I could hear the ether, and there was many flashes of light, bursts of static, and moving shadows. I decided to go for a walk to get some fresh air, and I was feeling very weak and sometimes quite dizzy, like I would pass out on the spot.

I drank water and ate some wholesome foods (although I wasn't feeling very hungry), and I walked to one of my favourite places up on a hill where I can sit watching the world go by. Sitting for hours, I watched people jog past on their daily runs, gaped at aeroplanes flying overhead, and watched the sun come down and finally set. I was feeling absolutely wired, and by this time I was tripping pretty moderately, constantly. I was still having occasional head zaps, but they had lessened in intensity considerably.

Jupiter and Venus looked stunning in the blue sky in conjunction with the crescent moon, and I sat for a couple of hours watching this. As it got dark, I decided to go home and get something to eat. I was very tired and tried sleeping, but I still could not. I lurked on Bluelight for a while, amazed at how long I had been tripping on 1 capsule of this substance that isn't even supposed to be psychedelic, even at the recommended dose of 2 capsules.

By this time I had been 'tripping' for roughly 40 hours. I tried to go to sleep again a couple of hours later, and voila, I woke up at around 10:00 the next moring (Friday) feeling very refreshed.

At some points during this experience it felt like I was on the verge of "losing the plot", but I was able to keep it together. I knew immediately that it had to be the potentiation from the MAO b inhibiting aspect of the Rhodiola, keeping excessive amounts of dopamine and norepinephrine in my brain to work their magic. Mucuna also contains numurous other alkaloids, including nicotine, 5-MeO-DMT, and Bufotenin, so who knows how much they contributed to the experience.

It was far more than just a speed high. I am familiar with dopaminergic drugs, having abused methylphenidate pretty heavily some years back, and taken cocaine on countless occasions, amphetamine too. This was quite different. The high was lush. Everything felt marshmallowy with a psychedelic tinge, and I had long periods of very serene and tranquil mindstates that were void of internal monologue. The world looked yummy. It felt very relaxing actually, just being in the moment.

But it was also far too much for my brain. It felt like overdrive, like I was being driven on when I just wanted to rest. Yoga felt very good, but by the second day I was way too fatigued to do any asanas. It has left me with sensorial static. All those brain jolts seem to have done a bit of temporary damage, and my brain feels in need of some TLC. Visual, aural, and tactile static is apparent - in the case of the tactile sense, I am experiencing occasional parasthesias (pins and needles). It's nothing that a good diet and some excersise and rest won't cure. So I think I'll go and pour myself a glass of vegetable juice right now!

Conclusion:

Although it was delicious, I won't be combining Mucuna with Rhodiola any time soon. There is a definite interaction here. One normally needs to take a decarboxylase inhibitor with L-Dopa to allow great enough levels to reach the brain before it gets converted to dopamine in the body. Even so, with all the extra dopamine in the brain, there is only one good reason that it may stick around for so long (2 days) with such intensity: monamine oxidase inhibition of MAO b.

Additional notes:

I would like to try combining Mucuna with EGCG (from green tea extract) which is a peripheral decarboxylase inhibitor, and COMT inhibitor. This means that more L-Dopa has a chance to cross the blood-brain barrier before being decarboxylated to dopamine. This should produce a more intense high with less of the peripheral side-effects associated with excessive dopamine in the body. It could also be worth doing this with an MAOI selective for MAO-a, such as a low dose of harmalas. Although Rhodiola is an MAO a inhibitor, it also inhibits MAO b with almost equal intensity. An MAOI such as harmaline would presumably boost the serotonergic activity of the tryptamine alkaloids, whilst leaving dopamine metabolism intact.
 
What's the difference between this, l-dopa powder and tyrosine re effects?
 
Tyrosine is rate-limited in the production of levodopa by the enzyme tyrosine hydroxylase. Thus it is a much slower way to boost your dopamine levels, as you are also competing with the metabolism of dopamine via MAO and COMT. Also, tyrosine is not just exclusive to the production of dopamine, but also in the production of proteins and peptides, as well as thyroid hormones and melanin. You can indeed boost your dopamine levels somewhat with tyrosine, but in a limited way. L-dopa bypasses the rate-limiting factor of tyrosine hydroxylase, and isn't diverted in to the production of anything else, so it is essentially dopamine straight to the dome.

L-dopa powder is pure L-dopa (you can find pure l-dopa extracted from mucuna). However, those using l-dopa daily for therapeautic purposes (mainly Parkinsons sufferers) find the side-effects to become unpleasant over time. Having browsed through some anecdotal accounts by Parkinsons sufferers who are on carbidopa (l-dopa + a synthetic decarboxylase inhibitor), it seems that many are dropping their medications in favour of mucuna. For some reason, it seems some people find that the long-term side effects from pure l-dopa are lessened or almost non-existent with mucuna, presumably due to other active compounds in the plant.

When used as a tonic and general revitalizing herb, it seems there is a great deal of difference between mucuna and pure l-dopa. Mucuna apparently contains - alongside l-dopa - nicotine and various tryptamines in small quantities such as 5-HTP, n,n-DMT, 5-MeO-DMT, and 5-HO-DMT, as well as numerous other phytonutrient compounds. I would suspect that the reported dream-enhancing effects of Mucuna (like that which I reported above) can be somewhat attributed to the presence of these other compounds, especially nicotine.

It is likely the synergy between all the compounds found in the bean in small quantities which give rise to it's effects which are distinct from pure l-dopa. I haven't tried pure l-dopa so I can't comment on the exact differences. I would assume the effects are similar but with differences in the stimulatory, aphrodisiac, and dream-enhancing effects, as well as any serotonergic activity from the tryptamine compounds present in the bean.
 
I just got 3oz of Mucuna Pruriens 25% L-Dopa extract and am wondering what to take as a dose for energy and stamina. My girlfriend is interested in using it as a source of DMT, but I can't personally play with MAOI' s because I take Venlafaxine. How much should I take for energy, and how much for an Ayahuasca brew for my girl?
 
One normally needs to take a decarboxylase inhibitor with L-Dopa to allow great enough levels to reach the brain before it gets converted to dopamine in the body. Even so, with all the extra dopamine in the brain, there is only one good reason that it may stick around for so long (2 days) with such intensity: monamine oxidase inhibition of MAO b....I would like to try combining Mucuna with EGCG (from green tea extract) which is a peripheral decarboxylase inhibitor, and COMT inhibitor.

Kratom is a decarboxylase inhibitor. That might be a nice combination.
 
For some reason, it seems some people find that the long-term side effects from pure l-dopa are lessened or almost non-existent with mucuna, presumably due to other active compounds in the plant.

That's one of the mysteries of L-DOPA to me... the pure substance has some nasty side effects reported, whereas I've heard no issues with some who have supplemented with mucuna long-term. Clinically L-DOPA is often combined with a DDCI like carbidopa to make the L-DOPA more available to the brain, perhaps it is this relatively strong chemical combination that play a part in the side effects?

I have some mucuna pruriens extract (also 15% std), and honestly this is the first psychedelic report I've heard of it. Mucuna to me seemed to be helpful for sleep and give an interesting mood lift, but nothing like this. Interesting report.
 
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