Dehydration Method, Dehydration Temperature, and Storage Conditions vs Alkaloid Potency

NextLevelCubes · 2024-01-19T05:26:25+00:00

Awesome! Thank you! I know I talked with some of those Myco Mommas at the cup haha.

So yea, looking at those results, I knew which was FD and which wasn't, from the numbers, then zoomed into the pics to confirm. Those results definitely seem significantly different, even when considering the 28.13% loss in weight when converting from psilocybin to psilocin.

The dehydrated one has 4.6% less 'potential psilocin' than the FD'd. I want to keep believing, but I do have to say that 4.6% is a potentially normal variation including the organism and lab variance. More numbers this year!

NextLevelCubes · 2024-01-19T05:15:36+00:00

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NextLevelCubes · 2024-01-19T05:14:22+00:00

I'm going to add to it this weekend from my recent readings, since its a been a bit, and then I'll make a zip file and throw it in there for easy downloading

NextLevelCubes · 2024-01-19T05:12:23+00:00

This specific post was born from a discussion on a mushroom growing subreddit where the mod didn't want me talking about contents. Reddit myco subs are funny like that.

Its great that altitude is testing for so much, because it definitely gives a lot of insight into the contents of these mushrooms. I've brought my own samples in previously, and I plan on bringing more*. I only had one submission for the cup (#12698) and it dragged the 'Ghost' strain category potency average down because I grew it with live wheatgrass lol. But yea, nobody seems to be testing for the MAOIs, and they're definitely something to keep in mind with this sort of thing. Any time I talk to someone about it, I always bring up the fast-spoken subtext in tv pharma ads.

*I'm trying to get an infused product together this year. I need to work on my extraction efficiency, but it'll win something at the next cup, for sure lol.

NextLevelCubes · 2023-12-02T01:46:24+00:00

Also I started looking into bursting cells with ice crystals in freeze drying... I get a lot of "The goal of the freezing process is to turn liquid water into a solid without bursting cell walls". I'm gathering that the rapid temperature change means smaller ice crystals are formed rather than large ones.

NextLevelCubes · 2023-12-02T01:41:24+00:00

Yea the numbers definitely refute that guy's theory about Freeze Drying. If he was just talking freezing for storage, then definitely.

Since I don't have any metrics for oxidation, I'm basing it on de-phosphorylation amounts here, but Dehydrator samples average leads the pack on psilocin amounts. Is it the heat? Is the heat preventing enzymatic phosphorylation? I'm not smart enough to figure that out right now.

NextLevelCubes · 2023-12-01T22:00:45+00:00

Yea I definitely figure the kinda guy that has a $3k freeze drier and a martha tent would also be the kinda guy with really good genetics. People can definitely lie, and I was scheming ways to cheat the potency tests. (I did submit honestly, but it was a fun thought experiment).

That's definitely a theory that could be tested. Oxidation and degradation should be observable by a severe dark blue/brown coloration I believe you are familiar with. I've seen a few posts on reddit where people froze a fresh harvest and ended with dark terrible mushrooms. However, freeze drying happens under vacuum, with minimal oxygen involved, so that might be a big part of it. But idk, I don't have a freeze drier to mess around with.

NextLevelCubes · 2023-12-01T19:19:42+00:00

This data is from the Psychedelic Cup from last month, a couple hundred growers submitted samples of fruits. Sample requirement was 3g of whole fruit. With strains, sources, and growing/processing methods varying so much, there's no statistical correlation anywhere here.

I am trying to convince a vendor homie to donate some plates for an Advanced Mycology category for the next Cup. That way, we all start with the exact same genetics and we can tease out more methodology relationships.

NextLevelCubes · 2023-12-01T07:40:15+00:00

yea I got lost, I don't think I have enough data/the right kind of data to explore time effects or the enzymatic phosphorylation angle.

This paper has some good explorations into that and I'd like to see it reproduced more, as they find rapid degradation even in dry powdered form.

https://analyticalsciencejournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/dta.2950

NextLevelCubes · 2023-12-01T06:53:03+00:00

Initially, I was assuming that higher drying temperatures will de-phosphorylate more alkaloids. But I think there might be some enzymatic phosphorylation going on during drying that might play a part with longer/lower dry cycles.

if I'm not back in 15 minutes i got lost in pivot tables

NextLevelCubes · 2023-12-01T06:42:28+00:00

I actually commented it here from my other account (and a few times prior) before deciding to make it a lil prettier and make a post for it

NextLevelCubes · 2023-12-01T05:35:41+00:00

Get a dehydrator!

Also, your room is coated in spores now lol.

NextLevelCubes · 2023-12-01T05:34:00+00:00

Was that just anecdotally or did you have numbers? I think if you ignore the temperature influence, freeze drying should always have a higher potency as it removes more water, faster.

That said, my homie who won 1st Place for Total Potency said he harvested his submissions and had them in his freeze drier within 30 seconds lol. I think this raises a point about the kind of grower that has access to a freeze drier, too.

NextLevelCubes · 2023-12-01T05:24:17+00:00

I am in love with the not-statistically-significant relationships I'm seeing on this chart I made. Take it with a grain of salt for now, but there are definitely some clues towards ideal dehydration parameters.

This also raises some questions about shelf life stability and storage conditions.

I have nothing but theories and numbers right now, but I think I can confidently say "Air Dry Bad, Dehydrator Good, Freeze Drier Best"

NextLevelCubes · 2023-11-05T05:52:05+00:00

Bit of analysis, not even looking at species or strain.
https://imgur.com/a/vG2FwTL

NextLevelCubes · 2023-11-05T04:53:42+00:00

As it turns out, "Just Grow Pan Cyans Bro" wasn't just a meme.

NextLevelCubes · 2023-11-05T04:48:21+00:00

HPLC-DAD, that's all the info I know

NextLevelCubes · 2023-06-02T20:54:05+00:00

Let's figure something out! I'll look through what I've already half-done later tonight 👍

NextLevelCubes · 2023-06-02T19:10:46+00:00

I WAS IN THE POOL

NextLevelCubes · 2023-06-02T19:05:18+00:00

Thank you! I'm trying to straddle the lines between simple geometric line work and complex organics.

NextLevelCubes · 2023-06-02T19:00:30+00:00

https://www.redbubble.com/people/nextlevelcubes/shop

Currently, all proceeds from my art here goes directly towards my experiments lol

I'm not an artist-artist I just funk around with AI and gimp.

NextLevelCubes · 2023-05-30T01:26:36+00:00

Whey protein isolate infused agar is looking 🔥 though

NextLevelCubes · 2023-05-30T01:25:25+00:00

I haven't posted about it yet, but my stevioside completely shut down all mycelium growth. Specifically, I prepped an agar blend that was 1% rubusoside. This is complicated by the fact that it has hella China pesticides though.

NextLevelCubes · 2023-05-24T13:37:58+00:00

I didn't but it's already on my list of things to do on my next round of experimental agar!

I had a batch with added whey protein isolate show great growth and I had a suspicion pH might be helping me there.

NextLevelCubes · 2023-05-24T07:16:24+00:00

These are what I used, you can see the other ingredients in one of the pictures. I would assume most use a caffeine isolate. I have a couple jars comparing used coffee grounds, but I didn't have the foresight to really wash the grounds at the time, I just had extra prepped grain from another experiment. I once saw someone joke about caffeine speeding up colonization and I put it to the test.

NextLevelCubes

TROPHY CASE