retired_chemist
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2007
- Messages
- 365
I don't have access to a university library anymore, so I cannot cite exact references but anyone who does can easily find that there are extenstive treatises on the vast amounts of research and effort that were put into simply refining the process by which claviceps and other ergot producing species would produce acceptable yields of ergotamine.
I'm not a biochemist, just someone who looked at the literature a long time ago. My distinct impression is that industrial production of ergotamine is quite an impressive accomplishment that has involved not only careful optimization of culture conditions but also numerous isolations of fungal strains over many generations, selected for maximum ergot production.
I think Joe Hippie would have a hard enough time reproducing the ergotamine production technology as it exists today. If he did, with a viable bio-source of basic ergotamine base there would not be much need to develop any new technology.
It's only the total synthesis of lysergic acid itself which is impractical. Synthesis of LSD from ergotamine is fairly straightforward.
PIHKAL, on the other hand is all very straightforward chemistry. Maybe you could create it all in a greenhouse, but it's still always going to be pretty easy to just do it in a lab. ;-)
I'm not a biochemist, just someone who looked at the literature a long time ago. My distinct impression is that industrial production of ergotamine is quite an impressive accomplishment that has involved not only careful optimization of culture conditions but also numerous isolations of fungal strains over many generations, selected for maximum ergot production.
I think Joe Hippie would have a hard enough time reproducing the ergotamine production technology as it exists today. If he did, with a viable bio-source of basic ergotamine base there would not be much need to develop any new technology.
It's only the total synthesis of lysergic acid itself which is impractical. Synthesis of LSD from ergotamine is fairly straightforward.
PIHKAL, on the other hand is all very straightforward chemistry. Maybe you could create it all in a greenhouse, but it's still always going to be pretty easy to just do it in a lab. ;-)
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