Quote:
Originally Posted by johnt
Taking just 10 minutes and using just normal kitchen equipment, measuring the approximate concentration of levodopa turns out to be very easy. Meatyard [1] and MacDonald have identified the following process:
1. Put your test substance to soak in water. Levodopa, if present, will dissolve.
2. Put a mashed up banana to soak in water. Dopa oxidase will dissolve.
3. Mix the two solutions. If levodopa is present, the dopa oxidase will react with it to give dopachrome, which is orange/red.
I would be grateful if people run this test on "interesting" substances, such as fava beans.
Reference
[1] Google dopa oxidase meatyard, which gets a document
BarryMeatyardDopaoxidaseforASE2.docx
John
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Hi All,
I've come to this thread rather late in the game but thought it worth posting the results of our kitchen test. My husband and I decided to test 3 substances for levodopa:
- Our control - Sinemet 25/100 (carbidopa-levodopa prescribed for me but I'm not currently taking any);
- Our homemade sprouted fava bean tincture made from fava beans sprouted for four days then ground in a coffee grinder and soaked in Everclear for two weeks;
- Organic Mucuna Pruriens powder ordered from Indigo Herbs, UK.
We made an enzyme solution from mashed banana and water and left it to settle.
We then dissolved one crushed Sinemet in 6 ml of water.
We also dissolved one tsp of Mucuna powder in 1/2 cup water.
Our tincture was already a clear alcohol liquid so we left it as is.
After allowing about 10 minutes for each substance to settle, we put 3 ml of each in three test tubes and added another 3 ml of the banana liquid to each test tube.
The mucuna powder immediately started turning an orangy red and continued over the next 5-6 minutes to deepen in color.
The Sinemet did not change color at all.
Our tincture did not change color at all.
We were confused that the Sinemet did not turn orange as we knew it had 100 mg of levodopa in it. Maybe the 25 mg of carbidopa protects it from the dopa oxidase enzymes in the banana liquid?
We also weren't sure if the alcohol in the tincture might also prevent the dopa oxidase from causing a reaction since alcohol is a preservative and might be capable of neutralizing the enzyme?
The mucuna powder turned pretty dark so a color meter would help determine how much levodopa was detected in that.
Next we plan on testing fava leaves and tops crushed in water -- and sprouted fava beans, crushed in water (to eliminate the alcohol variable).
Thanks for the reference to this experiment, John. I found a lab in CA that will test for levodopa for $250 a sample. Bananas are much less expensive!
Joanne