L-Huperzine A, Acetylcholinesterase inhibitor Options

[cerebral]

Anyone have experience with Huperzine A?

According to uniquenutrition.net:
L-Huperzine A is a natural plant alkaloid (extracted from Huperzia serrata), which quickly and potently boosts memory, learning, and concentration. Used worldwide for decades in adults and high school students. Is considered the most potent short term memory enhancer available.

What's the best place to buy this?

[Underman]

ACHe is there for a reason. Inhibiting ACHe long term will basically give you mild brain damage, roughly equatable with excitotoxicity of high glutamate/NMDA doses, seratonin syndrome (or any toxic accumulation of molecules as a byproduct of inhibited metabolism). Also I'm not sure how much I trust the OP's study: roughly "Huperzine A also protects from damage by the experimental neuro toxin NMDA." Ok, NMDA isn't an "experimental neurotoxin". It's a receptor that you can't function without, and an amino acid that mimics glutamate (and can therefore be excitoxic just like glutamate can).

Huperzine A is an NMDA antagonist. You know what else is? Ethanol. Chronic administration of ethanol causes brain damage through precisely this pathway (not the only one however). So yes, it protects from excitoxicity, which you will pretty much only have if you have a stroke or a seizure, but it does this by inhibiting glutamate-affected signalling, which plays a major role in brain plasticity, learning and memory. The brain upregulates NMDA receptors in response to its antagonism, but this is not a good thing. Huperzine A will, over time, increase NMDA desensitization and kill your ability to learn information.

It is also a potassium antagonist. You know what else is? Lamictal, and I can tell you from personal experience that chronic lamictal administration absolutely destroys your memory. Don't take my word for it, look up K+ role in synaptic transmission.

Huperzine A is most likely not safe long term. Ache inhibitors are potent neurotoxins. I believe black widow poison is ache. Serin gas is an ache inhibitor. So taking highly purified huperzine A is not the same safe medicine that the Chinese use for short term administration (in far smaller doses) in traditional medicine. I'd be very careful, and evaluate how long I want to live a healthy lifestyle. ACHe inhibitors have been on the market for a long time, and they have a side effect profile to die for.

[Alexander]

ACHe is there for a reason. Inhibiting ACHe long term will basically give you mild brain damage, roughly equatable with excitotoxicity of high glutamate/NMDA doses, seratonin syndrome (or any toxic accumulation of molecules as a byproduct of inhibited metabolism). Also I'm not sure how much I trust the OP's study: roughly "Huperzine A also protects from damage by the experimental neuro toxin NMDA." Ok, NMDA isn't an "experimental neurotoxin". It's a receptor that you can't function without, and an amino acid that mimics glutamate (and can therefore be excitoxic just like glutamate can).

Huperzine A is an NMDA antagonist. You know what else is? Ethanol. Chronic administration of ethanol causes brain damage through precisely this pathway (not the only one however). So yes, it protects from excitoxicity, which you will pretty much only have if you have a stroke or a seizure, but it does this by inhibiting glutamate-affected signalling, which plays a major role in brain plasticity, learning and memory. The brain upregulates NMDA receptors in response to its antagonism, but this is not a good thing. Huperzine A will, over time, increase NMDA desensitization and kill your ability to learn information.

It is also a potassium antagonist. You know what else is? Lamictal, and I can tell you from personal experience that chronic lamictal administration absolutely destroys your memory. Don't take my word for it, look up K+ role in synaptic transmission.

Huperzine A is most likely not safe long term. Ache inhibitors are potent neurotoxins. I believe black widow poison is ache. Serin gas is an ache inhibitor. So taking highly purified huperzine A is not the same safe medicine that the Chinese use for short term administration (in far smaller doses) in traditional medicine. I'd be very careful, and evaluate how long I want to live a healthy lifestyle. ACHe inhibitors have been on the market for a long time, and they have a side effect profile to die for.

Black widow venom is not an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor; it stimulates production and release of acetylcholine.
"The best-studied latrotoxin is alpha-latrotoxin, which acts presynaptically to release neurotransmitters (including acetylcholine) from sensory and motor neurons"
The reason why Huperzine A can be therapeutic is because it binds reversibly to acetylcholinesterase, as opposed to poisons such as sarin gas which inactivate them permanently.
"Sarin acts on cholinesterase by forming a covalent bond with the particular serine residue at the active site. Fluoride is the leaving group, and the resulting phosphoester is robust but biologically inactive."

When it comes to the neurotoxicity of NMDA antagonists- this has been observed in rats only (in the form of Olney's lesions). An experiment was done on primates to see if these would form, and according to "the unpublished monkey data that we know about, that of Frank Sharp, [...] there is no damage at doses up to 10mg/kg." It is purported that we do not experience the same detriments that rats face because our brain metabolism works at about half the rate of rats'.

Lastly, lamictal is a sodium antagonist, not a potassium antagonist. As far as potassium antagonists go, the only side effect reported on wikipedia was Torsades de pointes- a rare form of ventricular tachychardia.

Forgive me if this was a terribly shallow investigation- I used Wikipedia for all of my sources after all. I would like anyone to correct me if I am mistaken on any of these points. The long-term usage of Huperzine A is something very interesting and potentially useful to me, and I need to know if it is something that could do me more harm than good in the long run.

I tried to post my sources but apparently I need to make more posts before I am allowed to do that. As I said before, however, everything I just said can be found on Wikipedia.