HappyHulu wrote:I know many of us use some type of citric acid to draw out the alkaloids.
I know I do, and the paper supports this, reaffirming that mitragynine is acid soluble, "acid labile" and as such is "easily degraded" by gastric fluids (which are, of course, acidic). No great surprise there. It also adds multiple times that mitragynine is "poorly water soluble".
I kind of liked hearing that, because my doses these days are t&w with citric acid and water, and taken immediately after mixing. So all I'm doing is helping my own digestion, the way I'm reading this.
"mixing with acid is possibly one of the worst things you could do. It donates a proton to the hydroxyl group on the 7-ohm turning this into water and mitragyine."
This may be true, I don't know, but it's is not in the paper -- the paper just didn't go that far at all. All it really said is that in multiple tests with simulated gastric and intestinal fluid, the mitragynine is easily released in the stomach, to the point of being readily degraded there, and taken up in the small intestine.
Again, this is no surprise. Many pharmaceuticals are subject to degradation in the stomach, and this is compensated for by various means, like buffered tablets and the like. Seems like we do this organically with kratom when we titrate our doses to give us the effects we want. I'm just not seeing a problem here either way.
(Additionally, because I personally suffer from low stomach acid, it's a confirmation to me that I'm accidentally doing the right thing by adding acid, though that may not be true of everyone, of course.)
Of much greater interest to me were the repeated statements in regard to mitagynine's lipophilic ("fat-loving") nature, to the point that it says this property "warrants a detailed investigation using various lipid base carriers" and suggests that adding mitragynine to fat is one way to "improve its solubility in aqueous media" (see page 4922, top paragraph).
It actually makes me want to experiment with making kratom butter. Simmer a mix of kratom and butter over low heat for a while and see what happens. Maybe make some brownies.
Can some of the experts on here give me their opinion on this?
Oh, wait, you wanted an EXPERT. In that case I don't know what to tell ya.
