• stormliquid2@lemmy.world
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    19 days ago

    DMT does not need to be heated to be active. Ayahuasca is a tea, but the psychoactive ingredient is more than just DMT from mimosa hostilis. Let’s do a quick biochemistry lesson: the reason DMT isn’t orally active is NOT because it hasn’t been “heated”, it’s because an enzyme called monoamine oxidase in our bodies is used to break down the DMT faster than it can cross the blood-brain barrier. If the chemical compound can’t cross that barrier and make it into the brain, it has no effect.

    The act of taking a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI) to prevent the enzyme from breaking the drug down makes it orally bioavailable long enough to be absorbed into the blood stream and carried to the brain. And because the enzyme used to break DMT down has now been inhibited, the effects will last much, much longer.

    The fallacious logical progression of “if you can make a tea out of it, you can naturally extract it, if you can extract it, you can put it into edibles.” is so incredibly fucking dangerous. Please don’t speak with such confidence without any education behind it. People could seriously be hurt.

    • naeap@sopuli.xyz
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      19 days ago

      And just to add: Ayahuasca is not just a tea of DMT vines. It is specifically a mixture of DMT and MAOI, so it can be active - and be active for quite some time

      But yeah, that’s nothing to mix in during your typical Saturday night.

      • stormliquid2@lemmy.world
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        19 days ago

        Precisely, ayahuasca only actually works due to some of the synergistic alkaloids that are in the concoction. There is one, actually I think a couple (it’s been a long time since I’ve done biochemistry work), natural monoamine oxidase inhibitor in the various roots/plants that gets brewed.