Yew tree

[Salvacion]

Thats the website I bought mine from. I bought two 3-year old yews from them and each yielded about 40-50g of needles.

I brewed the tea with chopped up leaves and it tastes terrible, I'm having trouble getting it down. Plus it is a huge mug full and there is so much of it

How r u doing? How bad was the taste and effects

 

[Dreamcollege]

How r u doing? How bad was the taste and effects

I couldn't do it. It was a giant mug of terribly bitter tasting leaf juice and large clump of chopped up leaves at the bottom, and it was just too disgusting. I didn't drink enough to experience any real effects. In the past when I ate crushed yew seeds I experienced a little fast heartbeat and trembling which felt like caffeine jitters which honestly wasn't bad. But I didn't eat enough seeds that time which is why I moved on to leaves. WIth the seeds I just gulped them down with water almost like I was taking pills, so I never really tasted them, which is why it was easier than this tea

Drinking it all is like the survival instinct when trying to hang yourself. You have to keep pressing your neck against the noose. But in this case you have to keep taking large gulps of liquid and I couldn't even get past one gulp. Wasted $140 on these fucking yew trees that were going to be my salvation

I need something quick and easy. Trying SN next because you only need to down a sip-worth of liquid

 

[Psilo]

I couldn't do it. It was a giant mug of terribly bitter tasting leaf juice and large clump of chopped up leaves at the bottom, and it was just too disgusting. I didn't drink enough to experience any real effects. In the past when I ate crushed yew seeds I experienced a little fast heartbeat and trembling which felt like caffeine jitters which honestly wasn't bad. But I didn't eat enough seeds that time which is why I moved on to leaves. WIth the seeds I just gulped them down with water almost like I was taking pills, so I never really tasted them, which is why it was easier than this tea

Drinking it all is like the survival instinct when trying to hang yourself. You have to keep pressing your neck against the noose. But in this case you have to keep taking large gulps of liquid and I couldn't even get past one gulp. Wasted $140 on these fucking yew trees that were going to be my salvation

I need something quick and easy. Trying SN next because you only need to down a sip-worth of liquid

Sorry it didn't worked as planned.

Yew does taste absolutely horrendous when you have to take like more than 20g, but I believe you didnt simmer it in water? I did and the taste was not as bad and strong, the volatile oil is what makes it bitter. I simmered them in cold water with lemon to enhance the extraction of oils.

Don't quote me on this but I believe young tree have not the same amount of taxines. I plucked the leaves out of a fairly older speciment, maybe 5 meters tall. I woudnt be surprised if the taxine concentration is higher for grown up trees, but again I found nothing on that.

I would suggest to find taxus in a park, I would have never bought a tree for that. Its an ornemental tree so shoudn't be too hard to find it.

 

[Dreamcollege]

I boiled the water then turned the stove heat off and put the leaves in. I was worried about simmering the leaves because it might have damaged the taxine. The water was clear when it was just uncut leaves, and then I remembered I was going to chop up the leaves, so I used scissors and cut them up in the pot. Then the water turned a dark green/brown. So whatever was in the leaves definitely came out of them

I live in the US so English yew is not as common just growing around outside of peoples' gardens. And my plant identification skills aren't trustworthy enough to discern between yews and hemlock and other similar conifers

Plus I don't like this method because of the large volume of nasty liquid I have to drink. The mug is still sitting on my windowsill but I just don't want to drink it. But I look at it fondly. Death is so close but so far away

 

[Psilo]

You need to boil it at 80°c not highet I think, bettet have a look on that other thread to be sure, because the taxines can in fact degrade under high temperature.

Ok so you in NA, yes it is surely complicated to get to english yew, unless you sneak out a place in your neighbor gardens. You might get shot, the us is still the wild fucking west somehow.

 

[Psilo]

Been thinking for a way to ingest the leaves and I think there is a good way to do so:
It consist simply to crush the leaves and put them into capsules. Idealy larger capsules, doliprane capsules are kinda small.

Has anybody an idea where to buy capsules?

 

[Psilo]

Been thinking for a way to ingest the leaves and I think there is a good way to do so:
It consist simply to crush the leaves and put them into capsules. Idealy larger capsules, doliprane capsules are kinda small.

Has anybody an idea where to buy capsules?

Bump

 

[Wintergirl666]

How do I know that the tincture will work? Like, even tho I followed every step correctly I'm scared that I could've done something wrong and now it won't work.
Can I just taste a bit of the tincture and it'll do something to me, like increase my heartbeat or something? Just so I know it works?

 

[spanishguy22]

id like more info of this methods, sounds good for now

 

[spanishguy22]

where can I buy it? Im from europe, cant find sellers :(

 

[spanishguy22]

I found this on eBay, opinions? It looks like an actual extract of taxus bacatta

SBL Taxus Baccata 1X (Q) (30ml) | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for SBL Taxus Baccata 1X (Q) (30ml) at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

 

[BecauseOfMyPurpose]

Has anyone tried just steeping the dried crushed leaves and seeds in hot water and making actual tea?

 

[GerMann]

The toxicity of the taxine alkaloids detected in yew
heartwood is not known. However, as the Kew
chemists readily detected taxine contamination in
wine into which yew wood had been placed, it
would seem sensible to caution against testing
Pliny's observation and not drink wine from a yew
wood utensil.
At Kew, a sensitive method for detecting taxine B
had previously been developed to assist with
livestock poisoning enquiries. The method involved
making an extract of the test material in methanol
and analysing this by liquid chromatography-mass
spectrometry (LC-MS), a technique that is able to
detect trace amounts of a specific compound in a
chemically complex solution

https://phys.org/pdf297504422.pdf

Alkohol (Ethanol) 70 Vol.-%. seem ideal, to make a extraction ( 24h "cold" crushed male "leafes"
[some say limp needels are extrem toxic])

 

[Wren]

I researched this a bit and one source says that yew trees don't start producing taxine before 15-25 years of age, or the amount of taxine is negligible. So young trees are devoid of the juice we thirst after. (I have no proof or credible source though!) Since yews live for thousands of years and taxine becomes more potent with time, I reckon the safest bet is to find the oldest tree you can.

Someone in this or other thread bought a bunch of saplings and failed, so this might've been the reason.

 

[Deleted member 1768]

I researched this a bit and one source says that yew trees don't start producing taxine before 15-25 years of age, or the amount of taxine is negligible. So young trees are devoid of the juice we thirst after. (I have no proof or credible source though!) Since yews live for thousands of years and taxine becomes more potent with time, I reckon the safest bet is to find the oldest tree you can.

Someone in this or other thread bought a bunch of saplings and failed, so this might've been the reason.

Baccatta is the Yew needed, and winter is the best time to collect the needles. So there are a few issues in obtaining high toxicity. Cyanide, on the other hand, requires specific growing conditions for lethality.

 

[Rosiel]

I researched this a bit and one source says that yew trees don't start producing taxine before 15-25 years of age, or the amount of taxine is negligible. So young trees are devoid of the juice we thirst after. (I have no proof or credible source though!) Since yews live for thousands of years and taxine becomes more potent with time, I reckon the safest bet is to find the oldest tree you can.

Someone in this or other thread bought a bunch of saplings and failed, so this might've been the reason.

Do you know if Yew hedges are old or not? We have a lot of Yew hedges here in the UK, I start to wonder about their toxicity!

 

[Wren]

Do you know if Yew hedges are old or not? We have a lot of Yew hedges here in the UK, I start to wonder about their toxicity!

I wish I knew but I'm not a dendrologist. Some sources say the yews grow up to 25 meters, some say they are ornamental and thus smaller in size. The former should be the old ones that you need, the later are younger and with lower levels of taxine. But how much of it is in them, I don't know.

 

[Wren]

Could I theoretically gather a fuckton of leaves, dry them until they are crumbly, then grind them to dust and dump them into alcohol, bottle it up and wait for the taxine to extract? Sieve out the leaves and dump a new batch in there, rinse and repeat until I fit that fuckton of liquidated needles into a vial?

How bad or good is this idea?
The oils would still be there, right?
Also, the most important question of all:

 

[Wren]

Here are excerpts from a scientific paper I found:

• Taxine alkaloids (1-6) were isolated from yew needles by extraction in 0.5 % sulphuric acid.

• Plant material. After being dried for 3 h at 60°C in an oven with forced air ventilation, the needles were separated from the branches and stored in stoppered glass vials until analysis.

• Extraction procedure. Dried needles (≈ 1000 mg) were accurately weighed and placed in a 20 mL brown bottle. Then 10.0 mL 0.5 % H2SO4 was added to the needles, after which the bottle was closed and left standing for 2 days at room temperature.

So this reinforces my assumption that drying the plant is a very good idea. On the other hand, they used sulphuric acid and that stuff burns (unless 0.5% is very mild?), so maybe substituting it for something harmless could do the trick?

I wish more people would research this method, as I'm quite fascinated by it, but am terminally stupid.



EDIT:
But then, people are simply eating the damn thing and die promptly despite hospitalisation. So maybe I'll just reconnect with Mother Nature and graze the tree like a deranged deer stark-naked and high as a kite.

Bits from another study (DOI: 10.4323/rjlm.2013.115):

• [...] the needed lethal amount of leaves to ingest is only of 50 g. We could not determine the exact quantity of yew leaves our patient had ingested [..], but the doctors estimated a whole quantity of approx. 300 g.

• [...]study of five fatal cases of Taxus poisoning. There were all young people with ages between 16 and 26 years old, 2 females and 3 males. All of them were voluntary suicidal ingestions. Four of them were found dead and one had a 2 weeks survival.

• The autopsy findings showed no signs of external violence.

• In 2 cases there was mentioned the exact amount of yew leaves found in the digestive system, namely 200 g and 150 g, this being more than the lethal dose of 50 g mentioned by Wilson, Sauer and Hooser [9].

• a schizophrenic 43-years-old man. He replaced his antipsychotic drug treatment by a regular intake of tea from Taxus and died. [...] he had been searching for alternative medication for schizophrenia and had bought a small yew tree and prepared and consumed a decoction from the leaves few days previously.

Scrape my past post about saplings, looks like any Bacatta tree works.

 

[Deleted member 1768]

Could I theoretically gather a fuckton of leaves, dry them until they are crumbly, then grind them to dust and dump them into alcohol, bottle it up and wait for the taxine to extract? Sieve out the leaves and dump a new batch in there, rinse and repeat until I fit that fuckton of liquidated needles into a vial?

How bad or good is this idea?
The oils would still be there, right?
Also, the most important question of all:

View attachment 25180

Whatever method is used for extraction you must have the right kind of Yew, 'baccata'. Resource has an excellent account of using the Yew tree. Tends to be a long and painful death though.

 

[Wren]

you must have the right kind of Yew, 'baccata'.

Yes, that's been established a hundred times.

Tends to be a long and painful death though.

Never seen this mentioned. It's generally assumed to be fairly quick and bearable. Do you have a source?

 

[NotWhatIExpected]

Hey sorry what would a lethal dose be in mL or fluid ounces? Not sure if this seems painless or really shitty but I think it would good to get a few options

 

[STRIKER19966]

I found some sellers selling leaf powder or something. It's not that expensive. Will that work? I'm just curious

 

[Deleted member 1768]

I found some sellers selling leaf powder or something. It's not that expensive. Will that work? I'm just curious

You need a specific type of Yew, referred to as baccata, and I cannot imagine anyone selling a deadly poison legally. My guess would be no.

Yes, that's been established a hundred times.


Never seen this mentioned. It's generally assumed to be fairly quick and bearable. Do you have a source?

Here is 1 of them, but you have to extrapolate the discomfort of the patient from the information given.

Cardiotoxicity of yew

The Common Yew (Taxus baccata) is an ornamental tree. The taxine alkaloids contained in yew berries, needles or bark are poisonous. The lethal dose fo…

www.sciencedirect.com

Yew poisoning: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia

The yew plant is a shrub with evergreen-like leaves. Yew poisoning occurs when someone eats pieces of this plant. The plant is most poisonous in winter.

medlineplus.gov

Sometimes google is my friend

 

[Wren]

Here is 1 of them, but you have to extrapolate the discomfort of the patient from the information given.

I read the paper before. The guy died 5-6 hours after ingesting yew needles (not said how many), and would have died sooner if not for professional medical assistance and having his stomach pumped twice. That seems like the most unpleasant part. Nothing is said about discomfort.

It stands to reason that poisoning is unpleasant and quite likely painful, but I haven't found a source describing levels of discomfort or anything relevant to the dying phase.

 

[Red Dog]

Ive collected the needles. I weigh 16 stone. That's a lot of needles. My reckoning is 210 grams min. for the final solution... no pun intended...does that sound right? And...how much 80% alcohol is needed?

 

[Red Dog]

I see, thanks a bunch for the link.

That link doesn't work...

Ive collected the needles. I weigh 16 stone. That's a lot of needles. My reckoning is 210 grams min. for the final solution... no pun intended...does that sound right? And...how much 80% alcohol is needed?

I've collected half what's needed leaves wise...washed them...simmered them...dried them...crushed them.... they crush down to almost nothing/enormously... you need to get a lot of needles....going to use my version of 80% alcohol (ethanol based hand wash) to extract the toxin....so I'm almost half way there. Feel quite at peace with this...actually sleeping better. Beginning to feel in control....over my life.

 

[DetachedDreamer97]

That link doesn't work...

I've collected half what's needed leaves wise...washed them...simmered them...dried them...crushed them.... they crush down to almost nothing/enormously... you need to get a lot of needles....going to use my version of 80% alcohol (ethanol based hand wash) to extract the toxin....so I'm almost half way there. Feel quite at peace with this...actually sleeping better. Beginning to feel in control....over my life.

Hold up. By hand sanitizer ethanol, are you gonna salt out the ethanol?

 

[Red Dog]

Hold up. By hand sanitizer ethanol, are you gonna salt out the ethanol?

What does that mean salt out the ethanol? And why should that be necessary?

If anyone is interested, I´ll copy the the best instructions from the site:
"
Preparations:
1) Clean the leaves/seeds.
2) Dry them.
3) Simmer the needles in water for about 30 minutes, possibly with a splash of lemon juice added to the water (in order to enhance the water's extracting performance). (Skip for seeds.)
4) Retrive the yew needles from the water and then discard the water extraction (since the liquid only contains mostly volatile oils and compounds (ephedrine) that impede the taxine and make you sick. (Skip for seeds)
5) Dry the needles in a convectional oven at 85-90 Celsius and crush them. (Skip for seeds)
6) Put the crushed needles/seeds in a jar of alcohol (80 proof minimum) and stir with a clean spoon to get rid of air bubbles.
7) Cap the jar and store in a cool/dry place, away from light, shaking daily for a minimum of 1 week to a month.
8) Strain the resulting liquid extraction, boil the alcohol out and store the liquid into a colored dropper or a clean glass jar.
9) Store it in a cool/dry, place away from light, until you're ready to use it.

Notes:
Don't use the tincture unless you're 100% sure you're ready to die. There is no antidote for the poisoning.

Antiemetics should be taken when using the tincture as a precautionary measure.

This extraction is gonna taste bitter, so it's recommended you dilute it with water and probably add some flavoring to mask the taste.

The concentration of taxine in the leaves are highest at winter (2.0%) and are lowest in the summer (0.6%). The low end of the lethal dosage is 0.5 grams of leaves for every kilogram you weigh in bodyweight. Regardless of the concentration, the recommended dosage for a real attempt is 2g/kg. The concentration in seeds are always at a constant 0.92%. So the minimum is 6 seeds (0.362g)/kg. The recommended dosage is 24 seeds (1.448g)/kg. The lethal dose of taxine is 3/mg/kg.

The shelf life will be up to around 7-10 years, though making a new batch every 3-4 years would be recommended. You can extend the shelf life of the tincture by adding a little glycerin (5-10%) in the tincture. It will help stabilize the ethanol to slow down the evaporation rate.

Taxus baccata and Taxus Cuspidata are the most toxic. Don't bother with pacific yew, they only contain minimal amounts of Taxine alkaloids.

The interval between consumption and loss of consciousness is 30 minutes. So, be sure to consume the entire extracion within the time period. The quicker the better."

Seems like a pretty great way. I just gotta find the damn tree now lol .

Here in the UK many Church yards have yew trees. There is one less than a mile away in Hanley William . That is where I collected mine . Needed 2 carrier bags full. Initially I confused Irish Yew with taxus baccata but the needles are quite different so make sure you check them out. After following the above instructions I am soaking them now and intend to use them soon (2 weeks) Strangely I am finding it hard to decide where to do it more than anything else. I'm torn between causing the most or the least inconvenience. But that's just my torn and twisted mind.

 

[Linda]

I have recently heard from a friend of mine that a girl he knew killed herself two weeks ago by ingesting some leaves of the taxus baccata ( from latin ) and drinking half a bottle of vodka. The whole tree is highly poisonous. The reason of death is that your heart stops.

I have been wondering if anyone has any resource about this since I couldnt find anything regarding the amount or if you should put the leaves into a mixer or something. Any kind of advice would be welcome.

EDIT: Apparently there is no known antitode for the poison from this tree yet. Quite nice.

All parts are toxic except the red part of the berries. (My guess is that the red parts are not toxic because the seeds are dispersed by birds and killing the birds would not make evolutionary sense.) However, the seeds inside the berries ARE toxic. Usually animals die by eating the leaves, as they are (fairly obviously!) the part most easily eaten by a grazing animal. However, I don't know about dosage (though I have seen what is cited in some online sources). The concentration of any substance in any plant can be rather variable, so you would need to treat numbers you find online as rough indicators, not precise amounts.