Talk:Peruvian Torch cactus
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[edit] Amount of Mescaline
The information about this cactus containing the same amount of mescaline as san pedro cactus is incorrect. Although both cacti contain small amounts of the chemical mescaline, the san pedro cactus contains quite a bit more of the chemical than peruvian torch contains within in the whole cactus.
"The earliest reference supporting the myth seem to be Peyote and Other Psychoactive Cacti, by Adam Gottlieb. In 1977 Gottlieb wrote, “T. peruvianus is purported to contain ten times the mescaline content of San Pedro.” He makes no mention of where this rumor came from and cites no sources to support it, but the claim remains in the 1997 reprint.
Second is a note in Ott’s Pharmacotheon (1993) where he states that “Mescaline has been found in 12 species of Trichocereus, the highest concentration in T. peruvianus.” To support this, Ott cites the only published reference on the isolation of mescaline from T. peruvianus which showed .817% mescaline by dry weight.1 Unfortunately, he appears to have ignored the data found by Poisson who, in 1960, found 2.0% mescaline by dry weight in T. pachanoi."
However, it is vitally important to remember that the concentration of mescal within a given species varies largely between samples. Therefore, while san pedro may contain more on average, this is by no means a definitive guide.
sources - http://www.erowid.org/plants/cacti/cacti_article1.shtml
--172.163.105.41 00:20, 19 November 2005 (UTC)
