Drying & potency

Started by fungi, October 15, 2004, 10:47:06 AM

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fungi

Does anyone know if cubies lose potency during drying? if so, how much?
I've just left them out in the open air to dry, and it seems to work fairly well, but I am concerned that they may lose potency, as I have read that is a possibility.

IndiaShroomer

They do lose potency when you dry them out in the open. The potency loss is almost exclusively due to the oxidation of psilocin (which is far more unstable), psilocybin is hardly affected.

It is difficult to quantify exactly what the loss would be, it would depend a lot on the conditions you are drying in. Ex., temp range, humidity range, direct sunlight/indirect sunlight or any sort of light.

Keeping them out in the open does work fairly well. If you live in a humid land (RH 80%+), I would recommend drying them in the refrigerator (6-8 C) with some dessicant, CaCO3 or silica gel. Drying at lower temperatures seems to result in better potency retention. This works really well with cubensis.

I dry all my wild collected and cultivated crops out in the sunlight, 24-26 C (12-15% RH). This works especially well with copelandias.

I found this very surprising; if I dry psilocybes this way, the loss of potency is marked, but not with copelandias. Surprising even more so, because copelandias have a higher percentage of psilocin and less psilocybin. In the typical sense, I would have expected a marked drop in potency, but that is not happening.  :blink:
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