These quality amanita muscaria dried closed caps are beautiful mushrooms with a pleasant aroma. They are eager to be entangled with you symbiotically. Their journey to Somasupplies from Siberia was long and difficult, fraught with sanctions that punish the innocent, and new import duty costs. Shipping involves the scenic root via an intermediary third country. So, these humble shrooms have picked up wisdom along the way to pass on to you. Apon arrival, the mushrooms are promptly vacuum packed and stored at 0F in darkness to preserve their wholesome compounds and provide conditions for slow very efficient solid state decarboxylation that increases potency over time. Only in these conditions will vacuum packed amanita actually increase in potency. Ibotenic acid slowly decarboxylates and at 0F, the muscimol product accumulates more than at other storage temperatures. If stored at 68F, more Ibotenic acid decarboxylates, but less muscimol product accumulates. They lose potency.
 
During extraction and decarboxylation, some variables to consider testing are:
1. Water contains dissolved oxygen. Muscimol reacts with oxygen. Boiling the water for 30 min before adding the powdered mushrooms will remove a lot of the dissolved oxygen. During extraction and decarboxylation, try to keep the water temp just below the boiling point. At the boiling point, the bursting bubbles are like an egg-beater mixing the muscimol in the hot water with oxygen in the atmosphere. This promotes oxidation of muscimol. Keep the pot covered. This will condense a lot of the evaporated water back to the pot and returning the small 2-4% of muscimol carried off with the steam via entrainment. The lid also helps create a lower oxygen level inside the pot. The most efficient method is using a pressure cooker. Heat your acidified filtrate (extract) at 250F for 45-60 min. You will get 30% more muscimol yield than boiling in a round bottom flask with a condenser attached. Decarboxylation at 250F is about 4X faster than boiling in a round bottom falsk or kitchen pot.
 
While it is possible to make a concentrated paste extract, evaporating off teh water with heat will degrade a lot of or even almost all of the muscimol. Muscimol more stable than Ibotenic acid, but muscimol is still a reactive, unstable compound. A is possible the pastes will be active, but it will cost you a lot of muscimol in the process. Important note, muscarine, a toxin, is very thermally stable. It will not degrade during a concentration step. Muscimol will degrade. So, you are increasing the ratio of muscarine to muscimol in the final product. Negative side effects from muscarine toxicity are more likely using paste concentrates than mushroom tea.

Most mushrooms bioaccumulate heavy metals. Extracting your mushrooms in acidified water will extract more heavy metals than using pH neutral water. Ibotenic acid and muscimol are both very water soluble and easily extracted into water. Steeping powdered amanita 5-10 min in 200F water is enough. Some stirring is helpful. Steeping whole mushrooms or mushroom pieces yields less actives than steeping powder.