Acacia spp.

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General acacia info

Acacia plants are found all over the world and are potential sources for psychoactive tryptamines. Nevertheless, some acacias are endangered, hard to find, not high yielding or with bad alkaloid profile, so care must be taken when selecting an Acacia source for extracting or as ayahuasca analogue or extraction, and for how to extract it.

For a lot of good acacia info, check this thread

Comparative alkaloid content

For information on sustainable harvesting, Acacia yields, how to extract and alkaloid content, check the Acacia Information Thread and the Acacia Analysis Thread for a lot more info.

Cultivation

Acacias grow well in full sunlight and dry soil. However, in the initial stages the tree should be gradually introduced to the light and later, it must be exposed to light for at least 6 hours a day


Seeds: Develop 1-4 months after flowering (usually at least two specimens required in cultivation to allow cross-pollination) ; viable 10-50 years (or more if stored well)


Seed Collection: Acacia seeds ripen in the pods on the bush and are expelled at maturity. If it is not feasible to be there at the right time, a cloth or nylon bag may be placed over the ripening pods and tied, to protect them from insects or being eaten by birds. After collection pods should be discarded and the dried seeds stored in airtight containers marked with date, place of collection and name.


Germination: Studies and research was conducted evaluating the most effective methods for germination of Acacia seeds. This included:

  • Water (control)
  • Boiling water soak (10 mins)
  • Sulphuric Acid soak (1hr), follow by tap water rinse
  • Mechanical scarification

A general conclusion was that for the species with the larger seed weight, the highest germination was achieved using sulphuric acid, and for smaller seed, the highest germination was achieved using scarification and boiling water. [1]

For boiling water soak or scarification, place seeds in saucepan of water and bring to boil over 7-10 minutes, or carefully damage hard outer coat with scissors or file being careful not to hit the internal 'germ'; leave soaking in water, they should slightly swell over 24hrs..then place in soft moist medium such as moss or wet tissue..as sprouts they are very delicate and should not be allowed to dry out or be moved until their first root is a few cm


Seedling Care: after a couple of weeks the sprouts can be potted in seed mix, either purchased commercially, or mixed using 3 parts river sand (not beach) and 1 part well composted pine bark, peat moss or vermiculite (or other well drained but moisture retaining medium). In the first 2-3 months their roots must not be allowed to dry out or they'll die. They respond well to light and regular watering. When they have no more juvenile leaves (mimosa-like) they are more robust.


Fertilizer: use nitrogen rich slow release fertilizers (avoid phosphorus), ash also good supplement.


Long Term Care/ Planting: acacias will develop more quickly & become larger in the right ground conditions..well drained (e.g moist sandy), lots of sun, water & nutrient, low acidity, no competing grasses..growth rates of 5-7ft in 3-4 years (from germination) are attainable in cultivation..some smaller species like a. phlebophylla may be suited to long-term large tub growing, if indoors lots of light required..pruning of branches every few years should not cause much harm to large trees.. Make sure to clear away any weeds or grass and dig a hole about twice the depth of the pot. Fill the hole twice with water allowing the water to drain away each time before planting. Continue to water about once a week until the new plant is established. The garden area could be mulched with pine bark or other available material to help prevent drying out but the mulch needs to be kept away from the plant stem to avoid the possible development of stem rot. Pruning is advisable each year to maintain a bushy healthy shrub. This is best undertaken after flowering.


Conditions: most southern australian acacias tolerate frost and winter conditions in the low minus range; a few weeks of snow is ok for a few; once established they are drought resistant and should no longer require watering, but still respond well to fertilizer..


Growth of Acacia’s is affected by the soils’ effective rooting depth, water retention capacity, drainage and fertility

Harvesting

The best source of plant matter to use to ensure sustainable harvesting, is twigs and phyllodes.

Look for trees with large (75mm + diameter) branches growing from the main trunk less than about 3 feet from ground level and harvest them like a good tree surgeon would.

Before cutting the branch off you need to do an undercut on the underside of the branch that penetrates about 1/4 to 1/3 of the diameter of the branch - cut upwards into the branch and then do your felling cut at least 30mm further away from the trunk from the top of the branch downwards.

The initial undercut is important! without doing this the branch may fall and tear a strip of bark off the tree, which could be fatal. Never cut into the collar (the bulbous swelling where the trunk joins the branch) and leave at least 50 -75 mm of branch before the cut.

Never use the same saws on different trees without cleaning them with a some sort of disinfectant between trees. Bleach, metho & tea trea oil will do, even dettol is better than nothing.

Suppliers

Extraction teks

Different extraction teks used for other DMT containing plant can work theoretically for Acacia too, but there are 3 main issues with extracting from phalaris:

1- Finding a plant that yields decently

2- Finding a plant with good alkaloid profile

3- Dealing with plant impurities/chlorophyl/fats


For these reasons, one will more likely have good results if one extracts from a plant with consistent high yield

Heptane/hexane/naphtha recrystallizations can clean up from some of the potential unwanted alkaloids but can also eliminate certain possibly wanted alkaloids (NMT, DMT N-oxide, etc)

For separating from fats, fumarate precipitation such as FASI on limonene or FASA on xylene could potentially be a way to bypass the need for defats.


See Extraction teks

Also, see Acacia Extraction Workspace


Acacia list


























Relevant links

References

  1. Reference: Ghassali, F., Salkini, A. K., Petersen, S. L., Niane, A. A., and Louhaichi, M. 2012. Germination dynamics of Acacia species under different seed treatments. Range Mgmt. & Agroforestry 33(1): 37-42