• Neuroscience & Pharmacology Discussion Welcome Guest
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules
    Recent Journal Articles Chemistry Mega-Thread
    FREE Chemistry Databases! Self-Education Guide

  • N&PD Moderators: Skorpio | someguyontheinternet

spinach contains opioid peptide

opioids, opiates are synthetic.

Yeah opioids are quite normal to our body and important for our general drive from early age on, like endorphins.
So being happy is like taking an opioid, to a certain degree.

I've always been wondering about peptide release in our CNS, does it start cravings, for example? Or stop cravings? Very interesting topic
 
December Flower said:
opioids, opiates are synthetic.
Click to expand...
Opiates share morphine's backbone and epoxy group. Opioids are any compound that can agonize an opioid receptor.

I think the chance of an orally consumed unmodified opioid peptide making it through the gut intact and then crossing the blood brain barrier is quite low. Perhaps there could be some effect on gut motility due to peripherial opioid receptors, but the stomach and small intestine do a very good job of breaking down proteins and peptides into their constituient amino acids (this occurs both by acid hydrolysis, and enzymatic action).

One of the interesting thing's about peptides is that they are released as pro-peptides, which can often be differentially cleaved by different enzymes to yield multiple distinct products. The cleavage step is therefore as important as the secretion of pro peptide in the context of receptor activationm
 
i think wheat and rice's opioids probably are responsible for the constipation effect. although as someone mentioned, i doubt it can cross the BBB to do anything beyond that.
on the other hand, milk opioids are something else. if people ever had unpastaurized fresh squeezed milk, youll know what i mean.
im curious though if we isolate the opioid peptide from spinach and consume in large amounts, perhaps it will have some effect beyond constipation? ive never heard of spinach causing constipation though but thats because the compound is probably tiny amount per kilo
 
December Flower said:
opioids, opiates are synthetic.

Yeah opioids are quite normal to our body and important for our general drive from early age on, like endorphins.
So being happy is like taking an opioid, to a certain degree.

I've always been wondering about peptide release in our CNS, does it start cravings, for example? Or stop cravings? Very interesting topic
Click to expand...
It's actually the other way around. Opiates are the ones coming from poppies directly so only natural ones. Opioids include opiates and the synthetic ones.
 
There's a book about opioid peptides from wheat, how artificially crossed species contain more of them and have bad effects, wheat belly. Somehow didn't read it completely and was long time ago but the essence is that these peptides might influence your metabolism to the worse, accumulate belly fat, mess with hormones, constipate / irritate the bowel and induce tiredness but as Skorpio stated, they won't readily enter the CNS and thus act more akin to loperamide in regular dose ranges.. also the book has some critics that it's overblown / not backed by evidence.

But I'm interested about the implications of peripheral opioid agonism. First, would it cause some sort of withdrawal too, or is withdrawal centrally mediated? Seemingly blocking peripheral NMDA receptors does significantly slower (they said block, but I don't buy that) tolerance development to opioids. Would a peripherally selective opioid ant-/inverse agonist have positive effects (surely relieve opioid induced constipation and possibly protect against withdrawal gastric discomfort which imho is the worst besides anxiety/depression).

Do these peptides act differently than usual opioids, e.g. kratom has a slightly different tolerance profile without involving beta arrestin (don't understand this one yet. Greatly appreciated if somebody might be able to explain it!). My understanding was that endorphins cause no/less tolerance but now recently read that one's brain also produces actual morphine but strange cause it is such long acting, maybe miniscule amounts only like DMT?
 
Last edited:
It's nothing to worry about. Your own saliva contains an opioid 6x more potent than morphine.

Opiorphin is an endogenous chemical compound first isolated from human saliva. Initial research with mice shows the compound has a painkilling effect greater than that of morphine. It works by stopping the normal breakup of enkephalins, natural pain-killing opioids in the spinal cord.

I've eaten a bunch of spinach before and never got high unfortunately.
 
can you find more about that wheat belly shit references?? it makes a lot of sense btw. but so do consuming rice, in my point of experience doing both.
 
I don't think the peptides in food are even active in the gut. After stewing in hydrochloric acid and exposure to various protease enzymes I don't think anything is left but amino acids.

Certainly I think it would be easy to see if they did have any effect. Bake some muffins or something and add an obnoxious amount of blue food dye. Eat one and note the time. Then when you take a poo check and see if it's a funny colour. That can tell you your gastric transit time. Then cut out wheat/rice/milk etc. for 24-48 hours and see if your gut speeds up.

If any of these foods were active as opioids then would they not be an obvious treatment for opioid w/d?

on the other hand, milk opioids are something else. if people ever had unpastaurized fresh squeezed milk, youll know what i mean.
Click to expand...
Any peptides would survive pasteurization. I personally don't find milk to be sedating.

im curious though if we isolate the opioid peptide from spinach and consume in large amounts, perhaps it will have some effect beyond constipation?
Click to expand...
It would likely need to be administered IV/IM/SQ or perhaps even intrathecally but it should produce typical opioid effects. beta-endorphin is active when injected but as I understand it, morphine is still easier to produce industrially.
 
sekio said:
I don't think the peptides in food are even active in the gut. After stewing in hydrochloric acid and exposure to various protease enzymes I don't think anything is left but amino acids.

Certainly I think it would be easy to see if they did have any effect. Bake some muffins or something and add an obnoxious amount of blue food dye. Eat one and note the time. Then when you take a poo check and see if it's a funny colour. That can tell you your gastric transit time. Then cut out wheat/rice/milk etc. for 24-48 hours and see if your gut speeds up.

If any of these foods were active as opioids then would they not be an obvious treatment for opioid w/d?


Any peptides would survive pasteurization. I personally don't find milk to be sedating.


It would likely need to be administered IV/IM/SQ or perhaps even intrathecally but it should produce typical opioid effects. beta-endorphin is active when injected but as I understand it, morphine is still easier to produce industrially.
Click to expand...

"if any of these foods were active as opioids then would they not be an obvious treatment for opioid w/d?"

probably because the one who controls advertising, distribution and profit which is the pharm industry, has no benefit bothering with natural sources. otherwise they would have taken kratom under their wings long time ago. but when it becomes illegal they probably will twitch few things here and there and make it accessible pharmaceutical worth a lot.
because in point to fact, kratom helps heroin WD 100% of the time with my personal experience and everyone else i talked to who have have tried it. BUT its natural herb. so pharmaceutical companies never bothered. i speculate they will wait its banned, and then twitch few things around and make it their own and sell a lot!
and IF, pharms cared enough they could do the same with some of those food opioids too. twitch, change some things and make em more bio available and PROFIT!
might happen actually... lets not talk too soon
 
I wonder if there will be good peptidomimetics that are orally active.

Thinking something like stapled peptides (which have carbon chains locking amino acids in position) or unnatural d-amino acid peptides (not of same sequence, but of equivalent side chain position as the l-peptides). Both of these should resist proteases some and may be a little more druglike (though also some wishful thinking).

Any thoughts on this approach?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top