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Anyone w/ experience in chem. or neuroscience have a guess how Indian Warrior works?

Mycophile

Bluelighter
Joined
Mar 3, 2014
Messages
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Hey,

So, I have now experimented a few times with smoking and vaporizing Indian Warrior (Pedicularis Densiflora) which is a fairly obscure herb but which is noted on wikipedia and other sites as "being a powerful muscle relaxant, tranquilizer, aphrodiasiac and sedative that has been smoked by at least one Native American tribe for it's sedative properties".

It is in the Broomrape family and the Lousewort genus, has antioxidant properties and has been used for insomnia.

I like this herb, it is a pleasurable smoking experience and feels kind of like a much weaker version of an Indica strain of cannabis.

I've combined it with Klonopin, Prozac, Alcohol, Nitrous, Camomile, small doses of benzedrex, caffeine, melatonin and Kratom....all with zero side effects.



I am wondering:

Does anyone with knowledge of plants, chemistry and/or neuroscience have a guess as to what kind of chemical might be in this plant and how it might work in the brain??


Do people assume it works on Dopamine, GABA, Serotinin, etc??

And most of all:

Just based on PURE educated guessing, do people with scientific knowledge believe this plant probably has any SERIOUS negative long term side effects from OCASSIONAL low dose smoking/vaporizing, especially in combination with an SSRI (Prozac) and benzo (Klonopin)??


From the way it has felt so far, it SEEMS to me like something which could be smoked recreationally fairly often, maybe even as often as some people smoke cannabis, without any real long term negative effects, but I am basing that ONLY on using it 3 times and mixing it with a number of substances.

It just FEELS BENIGN to me, doesn't send out any "alarm signals" in my brain or body in mixture with numerous types of substances listed above, and based on that alone, I am guessing that it is probably quite unlikely that this is the sort of herb which only feels benign...but will someday lead to cancer, or heart problems, or decrease in white or red blood cells, or serotonin syndrome, or some horrible after effect.

Can I trust my body alone to guide me when it comes to this kind of thing?

Is it really all that likely that an herb with outwardly benign and mildly pleasurable activity could silently lead to sinister and extreme health problems?

If so...it'd be one of the only herbs I've ever heard of which would act like that.

Therefore...I feel quite relaxed and confident in using it....but I am fascinated in finding out what is actually in this stuff and how it works on the brain.

[we don't need you to repost the wikipedia article here]


More info:


Pedicularis densiflora, Indian Warrior


All of the Pedicularis' are tranquilizers, muscle relaxants, powerful aphrodesiacs, and sedatives. They are often employed medicinally for muscle pain and tension, particularly back pain. Pedicularis are also used for their psychological effects, good for anger, fear, pain, anxiety. At least one Native American tribe is known to smoke the flowers of certain Pedicularis species for their medicinal effects and narcotic effects. These plants are a welcome addition to any smoking mixture both as flavor and a narcotic. Elephant's Head is claimed to have the best flavor but is the mildest, but every Pedicularishas an excellent taste. P. Densiflora being the most potent species.

Elephant's Head dries to beautiful red or purple buds with what appears to be red hairs. Indian Head dries into green buds that could easily confuse a local peace officer. The narcotic effects however are profoundly different. Pedicularis are somewhat rare plants found in mountainous regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Since they are semi-parasitic, supplementing its photosynthesis with thievery and are not at all easy to cultivate, these factors make them very rare in Ethnobotanical collections.Pedicularis groenlandica is also found in Labrador and Greenland and is rarely parasitic, like its name implies the flowers really do look like pink Elephant heads. Cheyenne Indians made it into a tea to break up a cough.
 
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Related plants in the Pedicularis family produce a variety of phenylpropanoid glycosides that probably have various mild effects in humans. I can't find anything on Indian Warrior specifically on PubMed. [ref][ref2][ref3]

Unless you had access to analytical tools like HPLC to determine exactly what's in it, you'll have to pretend you're an ethnobotanist :)

Is it really all that likely that an herb with outwardly benign and mildly pleasurable activity could silently lead to sinister and extreme health problems?

Not very likely. There are the occasional exceptions (tobacco, areca nut, probably stuff like coca), but I'm willing to say Indian Warrior is in the same sort of pharmacological toolset as rooibos tea. That is - it's probably delicious and relaxing, and unless you subsist entirely off of flowers grown in unusually lead-rich soil, or something, (read: if you use it in moderation), it shouldn't cause you any harm.

A regular doctor checkup probably won't hurt anyway, but in general it's rare to find something that silently damages your body while you don't notice. Especially if you live a healthy lifestyle to offset any possible damage.
 
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