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Homemade enteric coated capsules - how it's done

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69ron

69ron

Esteemed member
Homemade enteric coated capsules - how it's done

To make homemade enteric coated capsules you fill a standard gelatin capsule with your alkaloid, oil, or other active substance, and then you close the capsule. You then dip the capsule in food grade shellac. You then dry the capsules completely and then dip them again. Dry and repeat one more time, and dry once more. This produces a coating that’s insoluble in water that can’t be penetrated by stomach acids.

Any kind of non-toxic shellac can be used. It must say on the package that’s it’s non-toxic when dry. “Food grade” shellac is simply standard non-toxic shellac mixed with ethanol. The same stuff is sold at hardware stores.


Enteric coated capsules have great utility for things that either upset the stomach or must be digested in the intestines. The following is just a list of ideas to get started with:

* it can completely block the nausea caused by mescaline by disallowing the mescaline to absorb in the walls of the stomach.
* it will prevent many drugs from re-salting to hydrochlorides by bypassing the hydrochloric acid in the stomach secretions. This can be of great benefit for some things. Possibly freebase bufotenine will benefit from this, allowing it to be absorbed in the intestines as freebase bufotenine rather than the nauseating bufotenine HCl.
* it should allow elemicin to work better. It seems that elemicin doesn’t work well unless it’s digested in the intestines.
* it allows you to make capsules that are water resistant, and better protected from the environment. Enteric coated capsules will last longer.

This information is taken from drugs.com:

Toxicology
Shellac NF is food grade and is listed as Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) by the FDA.

Shellac is the purified product of lac, the red, hardened secretion of the insect Laccifer (Tachardia) lacca Kerr. This tiny insect sucks the sap of selected trees and bushes, and secretes lac as a protective covering. The name lac is said to derive from lakh , the Sanskrit word for one hundred thousand, a reference to the very large number of insects involved in producing appreciable amounts of the product. 1

Lac is cultivated in India, Thailand, and Burma. The whitest lac is produced by insects infesting the kusum tree ( Schleichera trijuga ). The harvester cuts twigs coated with lac into small pieces called sticklac. The crude material is ground and soaked in water to remove debris and insect bodies. The remaining material is soaked in sodium carbonate, which removes laccaic acid, a complex mixture of at least four structurally related pigments. The resulting granules retain the yellow pigment erythrolaccin and are dried to form seedlac. Further treatment by melting, evaporating, or filtering yields shellac. 2

Chemistry
The National Formulary XV recognizes 4 grades of shellac: Orange, dewaxed orange, regular bleached and refined wax-free bleached. The grades differ in the manner in which the seedlac is treated. Orange shellac is obtained by the evaporation of filtered ethanolic solutions of seedlac. It may be dewaxed by further filtration. Regular bleached shellac is obtained by dissolving the seedlac in aqueous sodium carbonate at a high temperature. After filtration, a bleaching agent (such as sodium hypochlorite) is added. The resin is removed by sulfuric acid precipitation. Refined wax-free bleached shellac adds another filtration step to remove the waxes. 3

The exact chemical composition of shellac is unknown. It appears to be composed of a network of hydroxy fatty acid esters and sesquiterpene acid esters with a molecular weight of about 1000. Aleuretic acid, r-butolic acid, shellolic acid, and jalaric acid are the major constituents. The composition is a function of the source and time of harvest of the sticklac. Variability in the product may be a problem for commercial users of shellac. The physical properties of shellac also vary. For example, the reported melting point ranges from 77° to 120°C. Shellac is soluble in ethanol, methanol, glycols, glycol ethers, and alkaline water.
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This info is from SHELLAC

Pharmaceutical - shellac is used to coat enteric pills so that they do not dissolve in the stomach, but in the lower intestine, which alleviates upset stomachs. Its also used as a coating on pills to "time release" medication.

Food Coatings - because of its FDA approval, shellac is used to coat apples and other fruits to make them shinier.
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you really have something here. I cant wait for this to blow up and see what other tricks of the trade can be pulled out from this. Im guessing this would also be very helpful in dxm capsules for making a more direct ratio of dxm to dxo
 
A little bit of an update here.

SWIM is in the process of making an elemicin capsule. He made some mistakes alone the way. He tried one and it started leaking and had to do it again. If the capsule contains liquid you need to follow specific steps to get it to work right.

1 - Fill the longer bottom piece of the capsule with liquid. While keeping it held upright you put the shorter capsule top on tightly.

2 - Holding the capsule by the top of the capsule (the shorter piece of the capsule), dip the bottom into the liquid shellac all the way past the point where the capsule top joins the capsule bottom. Don't submerge it completely. The top end of the shorter capsule piece (the capsule top piece) should have no shellac on it. The bottom part of the top piece where it meets the bottom piece should be well coated with shellac so that it forms a liquid tight seal when it dries. The entire bottom piece should be well coated with shellac. We don’t dip the top piece completely into the shellac so that we have a non-coated place the capsule can be held from while it dries.

3 - After dipping, while keeping it upright so the capsule doesn’t leak, carefully remove the capsule from the shellac being sure not to touch any part of the wet shellac. Air dry the capsule upright with something holding onto the dry uncoated portion of the capsule top piece only. At no time should anything touch the wet shellac coated areas of the capsule or the process will be ruined and you’ll need to dip it again. It’s dried upright so that excess shellac will drip off the capsule and no liquid will leak out of the capsule while it’s drying.

4 – let the capsule hang until it’s completely dry. This can take 8-24 hours. Once the bottom half dries completely the liquid is sealed inside the capsule and you can move onto the next step.

5 - Flip the capsule upside down so that the smaller partially coated top piece is pointing down. Holding the dried completely coated longer bottom piece of the capsule you then dip the top piece of the capsule into the liquid shellac past the point where it joins the bottom piece. Don't submerge it completely. You'll need a portion of the bottom piece dry so it can be held while the rest of the capsule dries.

6 – After dipping, holding it upside down you lift it out of the liquid shellac and air dry it with it held upside down by the dry bottom piece only. At no time should anything touch the wet shellac coating or you will need to dip it again.

7 – let the capsule hang until it’s completely dry (8-24 hours).

For the best coating, repeat the entire process one or two more times.

NOTE: Don’t try painting the shellac on the capsule. SWIM tried that, it’s really hard to do and leaves streaks of uncoated areas on the capsule. You NEED TO DIP IT to produce an even coat. Only an even coat will act as an enteric coating.
 
Another idea could be this:

1)Find a flat wire mesh with holes not too big, not too small*.
2)Place filled capsules on it making sure capsules do not touch eachother and are not piled up
3)Submerge the whole think in shellac solution
4)Lift, let dry
5)Unstict the capsules and turn them over,so the previously stuck-on-mesh side is exposed to the solution and dip again.
6) Repeat 3-4 times

The above is NOT TESTED but it could work for bulk ,given that attaching capsules somewhere to dry for a minimum 8 hours might be a bit difficult if one wants to do more at a time. I have never worked with sellac so i do not know if it goes totally hard and one cannot remove capsules from the mesh. A small scale experiment could be worth it.

*The holes might be critical: A too fine mesh might have too much contact point with the capsules so it would make them more difficult to unstick them. A mesh with very big holes might not hold the capsules.

Tell me what you think on the above.


P.S. A rather crazy idea: Is shellac harmless to birds? I wonder if shellac-coated seeds of some plants could be added in normal wild bird feed (for example 1/4 ratio), so the seeds can pass relatively unharmed from the birds digestive system -well at least not exposed to stomach conditions-. If this works ,this could turn birds...seeding dispersal mechanisms for seeds that would not survive their digestive system.I do not know much about avian physiology so if anyone is more knowledgable please chirp in :D
 
Thanks a lot 69ron. This is exactly what I have been looking for. Have your friend tried the elemi capsules yet? Please let us know how it works!
 
This is not as easy as it sounds.

This takes forever to dry. SWIM messed up 2 times so far. I wish there was something that could speed up the process.

Beware that using a food dehydrator to speed up the drying causes leaks when your using liquid filled capsules. Apparently the heat build up causes pressure build up in the capsule (should of known that would happen!) and that causes some of the liquid to force it's way out of the capsule. So you have to dry it at normal room temperature. This was just discovered, and so now he's got to start all over again!

If using liquid, it's a good idea to let the capsule have a lot of empty space in it to avoid leaks.

It's a little frustrating. SWIM was hoping to try this yesterday but it looks like it won't be done until tomorrow!

Maybe adding a gelling agent to the liquid before putting it in the capsule would help prevent leaks. Leaking is the number one problem with this. Any leak will ruin the whole process.
 
Ron, I don't know how much you're willing to invest into this project but I found this


If you don't wanna shell out the couple hundred bucks maybe you could try to at least replicate the design of this thing. The pdf keeps closing on me but it looks like its 395 dollars, does 60 capsules at once, and takes ten min to dry
 
1992, that’s a nice to have device if you have the extra cash. A similar one can be built for just a few dollars.

SWIM’s capsule is finally done and is now sitting in pH 2.5 water to simulate being in stomach acid. It’s been there for about 1 hour. Another non-coated capsule is also being tested in the same pH 2.5 water in a separate beaker. The non-coated capsule should dissolve and the coated one should not, if it worked. He’ll check on it in a while to see if it worked.
 
Ok, so the capsule test is done. The non-coated capsule almost completely dissolved in a pH 2.5 solution. The coated capsule was 99% intact but had a very small pinhole in it and was leaking a very tiny amount of its elemicin oil solution into the water (less than 5% leaked). Its possible this hole was already there and was simply an air bubble in the shellac. When the coated capsule was removed, its structure was still good, except for the tiny pinhole. The non-coated capsule was no longer a capsule, just a few pieces floating in the water.

So this definitely works. 1 hour and only a very tiny pinhole is present in the coated capsule. That's long enough for the capsule to move into the intestines in most cases.

Unfortunately because of the development of a tiny hole after 1 hour, SWIM can no longer use this elemicin capsule to test the enteric coating process in his own stomach. The tiny hole will mess up the test. He'll need to make another capsule. Damn!

I think one possibly reason for the tiny hole is that maybe the elemicin oil is leaking out of the capsule and dissolving the shellac? I'm not sure. There was no leak before putting it in the pH 2.5 solution though, so I'm sure what caused the hole. An air bubble is likely the cause.
 
Evening Glory said:
Thanks for the update! Is there any reason normal enteric capsules wont work? Something like these?
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I have read many times that you cannot make an empty enteric capsule that is fillable without requiring it to be sealed. I never once saw empty enteric coated capsules for sale until I saw that link. It is not sealed so what will prevent leakage? IS THAT A SCAM?

If those actually work, despite all the things I read stating that they can't, then those are great. I want a box of those. Is there a place in the US that carries them? I'll try them out. At worst they won't work, but at least I'll have some extra capsules sitting around, so it won't be a total waste of money. If they work then that's the way to go.

I would like to get some and test them in a solution of pH 2.5 water and see how long they actually last. I'll fill one with liquid and another with powder. Run the test. If they pass, that will be great.

Anyone can sell anything on eBay. There are lots of scams there. Let's put these things to the test and see if they are real or just another scam.
 
If you scroll down on the eBay site, you will see an explanation of how they work. To me, it seems like they have a good patent and doesn't seem like a scam at all. But then again, seeing that the elemi is an oil, it may be that something can leak out. Well, as you say, the only way to know is to test it. They're so cheap anyway, so why not order and try? :)
 
I am very skeptical that those capsules actually work. Why is it that no one else seems to sell those capsules? None of the big capsule vendors sell them. That kind of capsule has a lot of potential buyers. It sounds like a SCAM to me. I hate eBay. I've already lost over $1000 to scams on eBay. It's probably a scam. Is there another place that has those? A respectable non-eBay vendor?


Has anyone used this before:


This is an enteric coating solution.
 
This is a statement from Cap-M-Quick
it isn't possible to sell empty enteric-coated capsules
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Evening Glory said:
If you scroll down on the eBay site, you will see an explanation of how they work. To me, it seems like they have a good patent and doesn't seem like a scam at all. But then again, seeing that the elemi is an oil, it may be that something can leak out. Well, as you say, the only way to know is to test it. They're so cheap anyway, so why not order and try? :)
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This is the company that makes those empty enteric-coated capsules (I think):


Why do they only sell on eBay? I'm very skeptical. Every other site I've visited says it's impossible to make empty fillable enteric coated capsules. No respectable vendor carries them? WHY? It sounds like a scam. But then again, maybe it's not. Maybe they do work, but everyone just doesn't believe they do so no one buys them?

We need to try them and see.
 
Update, SWIM's next enteric coated capsule is now completely dry (he made a few). He's dipped it in water to see if there are any leaks. There are none. This capsule is taken on a FULL stomach with a tiny bit of water.

If the capsule coating does not work, SWIM should get stimulant effects only, and they should come on in about 15-30 minutes and be pretty strong.

If the capsule coating works, the elemicin should not be absorbed in the stomach, so it should take at least 1 hour before the effects start, and it shouldn't have that speedy feeling, but instead be psychedelic.

It's possible that the pH of the stomach alone is actually hydrolyzing the elemicin into a stimulant. I don't really know. But whatever happens when it sits in the stomach too long definitely ruins the effects.

I'll report back in a while.
 
About 1-2 hours.

In SWIM's test with elemicin, it took 1 hour. I'll post a trip report in another section of this forum.
 
Ron, do you think enteric capsules are promising for pharmahuasca? It will be tricky to get the timing right, but is there a potential? I dreamt that maybe bypassing the stomach and dissolving in the intestines be a smoother dfumarate experience(less nausea) jw
 
Pharmahuasca can cause stomach based nausea from the DMT affecting the 5-HT sites in the stomach, and can also cause motion sickness nausea which is more caused by the harmala alkaloids. Using enteric coated capsules will stop the first kind of nausea for sure, but will have no effect on motion sickness based nausea, which is caused by the brain misinterpreting balance data. So nausea from caapi or rue or harmala alkaloids is not going to be blocked.

Nausea from taking the following alkaloids orally should be greatly reduced by using enteric coated capsules:

Mescaline
Bufotenine
Psilocybin
5-MeO-DMT
DMT
LSD

Nausea from the following alkaloids will probably not benefit from using enteric coated capsules:

Harmine
Harmaline
Tetrahydroharmine

It’s possible that making a bufotenine freebase enteric coated capsule will allow the user to take bufotenine orally and experience effects similar to smoking bufotenine freebase. Bufotenine HCl is unpleasant and barely psychedelic. Taking bufotenine orally in most cases will cause the formation of bufotenine HCl when it hits the stomach acid. Bufotenine freebase is very visual and much more pleasant. If an enteric coating can prevent bufotenine freebase from forming bufotenine HCl in the stomach acid, then possibly the trip experienced will be far better. This is one experiment SWIM wants to try pretty soon. If it works, this will be great.
 
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