I have been in contact with a person who has bioassayed a crude extract of the bark of the pukatea tree, not much to report as yet, although he said it has been quite effective at helping him withdraw from an opium addiction.

I suffer from an attention deficit problem, and after using a combination of ritalin, opium and brugmansia sanguinia leaf i have found significant relieve, ritalin for the focus (dopamine) (previously it had been causing very unpleasant side effects until i tried the combination), the brugmansia as i had started to suspect organophosphate toxicity interaction (which also made the attention deficit worse as i was prone to dizziness, digestive upsets, muscular weakness and tiredness), and the opium to reduce the general levels of agitation, and lower my blood pressure to a more safe level...)

the results have been quite phenomenal. i believe now, after this experiment, which was fairly poorly done, but i am no scientist and cannot make pure extracts or whatever... but this seemed very much effective, i had to stop taking the brugmansia altogether after 2 1/2 days (note that i was taking much less at a time than is required for a 'psychoactive' effect and only at the end the dose got too high and i noticed my eyes were dialated when i got a noticable tracer from the moon), as it started to noticably affect me in a bad way (kept me awake all night) and i stopped with the opium, no major withdrawals, although i felt quite odd the next morning (stayed up to 5am)... i intend to get my sleep now...

the ritalin now does not give me the same side effects at all. I attribute this to the effect of the brugmansia blocking the effect of the organophosphate poisoning... I wish there was a proper medicine which could protect one from it, but as it stands i can't find any information about chronic toxicity (i may lack an enzyme essential to metabolising OP's or something). I now actually get a slight dry mouth with the ritalin, which did not happen before at all. All the blood pressure, elevated body temperatures, tremors, all gone now, and i have so much more energy and vitality.

I actually have found that the combination of opium and ritalin extremely preferable to either by themselves, and it is my hope that this plant medicine offers a possible alternative to the ritalin. If it also happens to help the decomposition of organophosphates (the antioxidant action sounds like it might be just that)... not holding my breath... but there is good reason to suspect it may well be the optimal solution, which would be a major relief as i know of no other single medicine which does everything i am needing, and the dopamine agonist drugs are all scheduled which makes it so i have to deal with a psych, and the drug prohibition folks, a legal, readily available and effective treatment for my combination of attention deficit and OP sensitivity, so i can focus on the issues in my psychology which, now that the physical issue is dealt with, will become much easier, as it was i already have made major progress all on my own.

Gotta get out and find some, lucky i am located in new zealand on the north island so i should be able to find it.

here is the abstract of a recent study into the pharmacology of pukateine, found via pubmed:

General Pharmacology Volume 32, Issue 3 , March 1999, Pages 373-379

doi:10.1016/S0306-3623(98)00210-9 Cite or link using doi Copyright ? 1999 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. General papers

Dopaminergic pharmacology and antioxidant properties of pukateine, a natural product lead for the design of agents increasing dopamine neurotransmission

Federico A. Dajas-Bailadora, , , Marcelo Asenciob, Carolina Bonillaa, Ma. Cecilia Scorzac, Carolina Echeverryc, Miguel Reyes-Paradac, Rodolfo Silveirac, Philippe Protaisd, Graeme Russelle, Bruce K. Casselsb and Federico Dajasa

a Division of Neurochemistry, Instituto de Investigaciones Biol?gicas Clemente Estable, Av. Italia 3318, Montevideo, Uruguay b Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile c Division of Cell Biology, Instituto de Investigaciones Biol?gicas Clemente Estable, Av. Italia 3318, Montevideo, Uruguay d Physiology Laboratory, UFR de M?decine-Pharmacie, Universit? de Rouen, Saint-?tienne du Rouvray, France e Horticultural Research Institute, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Received 16 January 1998; revised 30 June 1998; accepted 7 July 1998. Available online 1 April 1999.

Abstract

The dopaminergic and antioxidant properties of pukateine [(R)-11-hydroxy-1,2-methylenedioxyaporphine, PUK], a natural aporphine derivative, were analyzed in the rat central nervous system. At dopamine (DA) D1 ([3H]-SCH 23390) and D2 ([3H]-raclopride) binding sites, PUK showed IC50 values in the submicromolar range (0.4 and 0.6 M, respectively). When the uptake of tritiated dopamine was assayed by using a synaptosomal preparation, PUK showed an IC50 = 46 M. In 6-hydroxydopamine unilaterally denervated rats, PUK (8 mg/kg but not 4 mg/kg) elicited a significant contralateral circling, a behavior classically associated with a dopaminergic agonist action. When perfused through a microdialysis probe inserted into the striatum, PUK (340 M) induced a significant increase in dopamine levels. In vitro experiments with a crude rat brain mitochondrial suspension showed that PUK did not affect monoamine oxidase activities, at concentrations as high as 100 M. PUK potently and dose-dependently inhibited the basal lipid peroxidation of a rat brain membrane preparation. As a whole, PUK showed a unique profile of action, comprising an increase in extracellular DA, an agonist-like interaction with DA receptors, and antioxidant activity. Thus, PUK may be taken as a lead compound for the development of novel therapeutic strategies for Parkinson disease.

Author Keywords: Pukateine; Brain dopamine; Dopamine receptor binding; Oxidative stress; Aporphines; Parkinson disease; Lipid peroxidation

Index Terms: antioxidant activity; drug receptor binding; dopaminergic system; antioxidant; aporphine derivative; dopamine receptor; dopamine receptor stimulating agent

Corresponding author. Tel./Fax: 598 2 4872603; email: [email protected]

Link: pubmed link to pukateine study

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