Anyone know if paper chromatography works to detect mescaline?

[modern]

I posted on reddit but no replies

Color doesn’t pick up properly… this is from lophophora williamsii it’s a bright lime green tone. No solvent or separation just placed on to dry

This is trichocereus harder to see but is almost a blue with a very little amount of green harder to see even with eyes

After I do an extract I’ll do a ghetto paper chroma just to see if it separates. I don’t have TLC paper nor reagents and idk what uv length my light is.

Anyone know if non TLC is worth pursuing? I mostly see this used to measure amount of chlorophyll a vs b

 

[endlessness]

So what are you trying to do, show if there is mescaline in a cact, or compare different cact to see which has more, or?

With few exceptions, you can assume L. williamsii will have mescaline, you don´t really need to do any type of chromatography for that. In any case I would just grow L. williamsii, not extract from it, use Trichocereus instead for that.

I´ve never done paper chrom but why not try, sure.. What solvent do you have access to?

Even if you don´t want to spend money on TLC, at least getting a marquis reagent is recommended, it should turn reddish with mescaline. But it´s gonna react with the paper so you should just do it with the dry extract instead.

 

[famine]

Of course paper chromatography works for mescaline. If you just use a crude extract, you will not be able to tell which spot is mescaline, as there might be multiple constituents. Get a pure mescaline reference and run TLC. Perhaps try 4:1 MeOH/DCM as the eluent system. Possibly 1% triethylamine is needed to avoid streaking too.

 

[modern]

endlessness thanks for the question as it made me research a bit more.

I want quantative which isn't the purpose of paper chroma HOWEVER some old papers published in the 50s say that they were able to use it as quantative by comparing brightness under the light and also the size of the smear/dots. Not sure how well the alkaloids will separate or if they will still react under the uv light but ill just try it with what I have when the time comes...

BTW I'm gonna be using toilet paper and not filter paper if doesn't work I'll try printer paper. For solvent I can use acetone, iso 70% or make a buffer with baking soda?

 

[downwardsfromzero]

Did you try this?

My guess would be that toilet paper doesn't work well and something with a denser structure would be better.

 

[modern]

Not yet... still building up my material to do the extraction.