>>2612954>Phase 3, Decarboxylation>need: pot for boiling, a cover for the pot, a pH meter, a strong, food-safe acid like lemon juice or hydrochloric acidThis is the part that is going to involve some chemistry. The pH meter is a near-necessity for efficient decarboxylation but you can get away with pH strips if you must.
A lot of this information is sourced from
https://www.reddit.com/r/AmanitaMuscaria/comments/s9x07x/psychoactive_amanita_mushrooms_beginners_guide/ but I have my own takes on some of it.
At this point, you will have a pot of yellowish or brownish water containing the two important psychoactive isoxazole compounds, ibotenic acid and muscimol (plus residual inactive compounds like proteins from the mushroom). Muscimol is the stable, hypnotic/sedative/deleriant GABA-ergic compound you want more of, while ibotenic acid is an unstable, stimulating glutamate-ergic compound with higher toxicity. Luckily, ibotenic acid breaks down directly into muscimol through decarboxylation in the presence of acid, so we can make that happen.
Side note here, Wikipedia lists ibotenic acid as a "powerful neurotoxin" and "brain-lesioning agent" which makes it sound scary, but these effects are observed when injected directly into the brain at high doses, do not be scared of the relatively small amount you are about to consume orally.
Add your acid to your pot of active water, stirring, until the pH reaches as close to exactly 2.7 as you can get. The decarboxylation process happens most efficiently at this pH. I use hydrochloric acid here to avoid adding large amounts of lemon juice to the mix that I have to drink later.
