discussion of California Poppies (escholtzia californica)

[DL-ark]

An interesting recent development is that it has been found that California Poppies have been found to Psychoactive in more ways than one. It was found to have affinity for the Benzodiazepine receptors, as well as the 5-HT1 and 5-HT7 receptors. Although experience reports state that the poppies seem to simply make them slightly relaxed, and sleepy, I am wondering if in higher doses this plant could have much more drastic effects. As far as I know, EC's alkaloids have only been tested against 8-OH-DPAT which is a potent 5ht1 and 5ht7 agonist. The alkaloids blocked the action of 8-OH-DPAT, thus proving that EC has decent affinity on on these two receptors. However, as far as I know, only a few receptors have been tested with CB receptors (no affinity there unfortunately), Adenosine receptors (some antagonistic action here) EC is also been shown to block the transfer of dopamine to norepinephrine and also perform moderate beta-blocking action. EC seems to be gold mine of potential anxiolytic properties. Additionally it has affinity for at least two serotonin receptors. However, as said before, most experience reports only report mild sedation to no feeling at all. Most of these tests have been performed on rats, but rats generally have similar reactions to drugs as humans. So is it true that all this action is just weak, or is there something people are missing when experiencing California Poppies.

A lot of this information (with sources) can be found here: http://examine.com/supplements/Eschscholzia+californica/

 

[《Plasticity》]

I've taken california poppy tea a few times, in fact I still have a few samples from my kratom vendor... It's nothing special. I would conisder is as psychoactive as chamomile tea to be honest. Have you tried california poppy before? It's definately nothing to rave about and certainly not very recreational either.

 

[sekio]

Some compounds from california poppy related to e.g. sanguinarine are known to be cytotoxic in large doses.

The other issue is that most of these studies are in recombinant cells in petri dishes, that's all well and good, but for these drugs to be effective they also have to be absorbed and not metabolised rapidly. I think that's the problem with california poppy. There's a low alkaloid content to begin with and most of it doesn't make it to the brain.

 

[endotropic]

They were able to extract around 290mg of alkaloids out of 1.2kg of plant material. Their extraction efficiency might not have been particularly high, but in any case it doesn't seem like there's much there.

 

[DL-ark]

They were able to extract around 290mg of alkaloids out of 1.2kg of plant material. Their extraction efficiency might not have been particularly high, but in any case it doesn't seem like there's much there.

I will say that eating the petals of the plant does have a noticeable effect. This felt to strong to be placebo but i may be.wrong

 

[sekio]

Unless you've done blind testing you don't know at all whether you're experiencing placebo...