Godsmacker
Rising Star
Fellow Chemists,
Over the span of the past four years, each and every one of my innumerable attempts to extract and purify harmala alkaloids from Syrian Rue seed have failed miserably. I have tried nearly every single tek on this site, and have wasted kilos' of P. Harmala seed in my process/attempts. Unfortunately, I lack the financial resources ATM to purchase a vacuum filtration system in order to properly and easily isolate/separate the precipitate/alkaloids from alkaline solution.
Due to my lack of financial resources and innumerable failed attempts at extracting harmalas via the traditional teks, which involve the use of a traditional acid-base extraction with only one solvent (dihydrogen monoxide), I have turned my eyes towards designing a novel extraction tek involving the use of a non-polar solvent, such as xylene/naphtha/d-limonene, to pull the alkaloids from an alkaline solution, followed by back-salting them from the NPS, and into a fresh aqueous 4% acetic acid solution (in a manner akin to mescaline teks). The pH of this distilled white vinegar solution (pH~3), now [hopefully] impregnated with the alkaloids, would be titrated to a pH of 12-14 via addition of a 5% solution of either Na2CO3 or NaOH (please lmk which reagent would be best-suited for precipitating full spectrum harmala alkaloids from an aqueous solution). Upon re-basification, the solution would be left overnight in a dark cabinet at RT (~25 degrees centigrade, 100% humidity; assume entire experiment takes place at a pressure of ~760 mmHg) in order to ensure optimal yield of precipitate. This basified solution would then be vigorously agitated, as before, and added to a separatory funnel, followed by addition of more alkaline water and agitated as before in order to ensure that as much precipitate gets in the vessel as possible. 100-400ml of either a different NPS, or the one used in the initial pulls (please lmk which option I should use; if multiple NPS are warranted/suggested, please elaborate as to the order of solvents I should use in each run/pull in my process, and why I should do so in that order. Unfortunately I only have access to naphtha, xylene, [potentially] toluene, n-hexane/heptane/octane/pentane and d-limonene ATM) would be added to the funnel. It would be sealed and vigorously agitated, burping it every 30-ish seconds along the way, until only impurities are in the aqueous layer, with harmalas in NPS. A small aliquot of alkaline aqueous layer would then be drained into several sterilized glass test tubes, sealed, and subjected to colorimetric reagent testing in order to check for alkaloid which remains in solution; if the tests suggest that a significant fraction of the alkaloids are still in aqueo, additional pulls will be done until no significant amount of alkaloid is detected in the alkaline layer, at which point the layers would be separated. The NPS would be back-salted yet again with 4% acetic acid solution overnight.
After separating the solvents, the pH of the aqueous solution would then be slowly titrated via addition of 5% Na2CO3 to a pH of ~8 and left to sit for a few hours, followed by hot gravity filtration and/or vacuum filtration, depending on circumstance. This precipitate would consist mainly of freebase harmine, harmol, and other species with lower pKas. Upon complete filtration, the pH would be slowly titrated to 12.6 with the 5% Na2CO3 solution, and left to precipitate-out the more basic harmalas in a dark cabinet at room temperature/humidity/pressure overnight, and then filtered in the same manner as the prior precipitate. In both cases, the precipitate would be dried on a seedling warming mat at ~27 centigrade, then carefully scraped into glass containers, each of which would labelled with a sharpie marker for reference.
The above-mentioned sea of word sperm outlines my future scheme. Any and all input from professional/experienced chemists would be grately appreciated, especially so with respect to the order of non-polar solvents I should use, as well as if I should use hydroxide or carbonate to titrate the pH with. Any/all other concerns and grains of advice would be gratefully appreciated. I'm planning to attempt this extraction process in the near future, and would appreciate any/all input concerning it.
Thank You,
-Godsmacker
Over the span of the past four years, each and every one of my innumerable attempts to extract and purify harmala alkaloids from Syrian Rue seed have failed miserably. I have tried nearly every single tek on this site, and have wasted kilos' of P. Harmala seed in my process/attempts. Unfortunately, I lack the financial resources ATM to purchase a vacuum filtration system in order to properly and easily isolate/separate the precipitate/alkaloids from alkaline solution.
Due to my lack of financial resources and innumerable failed attempts at extracting harmalas via the traditional teks, which involve the use of a traditional acid-base extraction with only one solvent (dihydrogen monoxide), I have turned my eyes towards designing a novel extraction tek involving the use of a non-polar solvent, such as xylene/naphtha/d-limonene, to pull the alkaloids from an alkaline solution, followed by back-salting them from the NPS, and into a fresh aqueous 4% acetic acid solution (in a manner akin to mescaline teks). The pH of this distilled white vinegar solution (pH~3), now [hopefully] impregnated with the alkaloids, would be titrated to a pH of 12-14 via addition of a 5% solution of either Na2CO3 or NaOH (please lmk which reagent would be best-suited for precipitating full spectrum harmala alkaloids from an aqueous solution). Upon re-basification, the solution would be left overnight in a dark cabinet at RT (~25 degrees centigrade, 100% humidity; assume entire experiment takes place at a pressure of ~760 mmHg) in order to ensure optimal yield of precipitate. This basified solution would then be vigorously agitated, as before, and added to a separatory funnel, followed by addition of more alkaline water and agitated as before in order to ensure that as much precipitate gets in the vessel as possible. 100-400ml of either a different NPS, or the one used in the initial pulls (please lmk which option I should use; if multiple NPS are warranted/suggested, please elaborate as to the order of solvents I should use in each run/pull in my process, and why I should do so in that order. Unfortunately I only have access to naphtha, xylene, [potentially] toluene, n-hexane/heptane/octane/pentane and d-limonene ATM) would be added to the funnel. It would be sealed and vigorously agitated, burping it every 30-ish seconds along the way, until only impurities are in the aqueous layer, with harmalas in NPS. A small aliquot of alkaline aqueous layer would then be drained into several sterilized glass test tubes, sealed, and subjected to colorimetric reagent testing in order to check for alkaloid which remains in solution; if the tests suggest that a significant fraction of the alkaloids are still in aqueo, additional pulls will be done until no significant amount of alkaloid is detected in the alkaline layer, at which point the layers would be separated. The NPS would be back-salted yet again with 4% acetic acid solution overnight.
After separating the solvents, the pH of the aqueous solution would then be slowly titrated via addition of 5% Na2CO3 to a pH of ~8 and left to sit for a few hours, followed by hot gravity filtration and/or vacuum filtration, depending on circumstance. This precipitate would consist mainly of freebase harmine, harmol, and other species with lower pKas. Upon complete filtration, the pH would be slowly titrated to 12.6 with the 5% Na2CO3 solution, and left to precipitate-out the more basic harmalas in a dark cabinet at room temperature/humidity/pressure overnight, and then filtered in the same manner as the prior precipitate. In both cases, the precipitate would be dried on a seedling warming mat at ~27 centigrade, then carefully scraped into glass containers, each of which would labelled with a sharpie marker for reference.
The above-mentioned sea of word sperm outlines my future scheme. Any and all input from professional/experienced chemists would be grately appreciated, especially so with respect to the order of non-polar solvents I should use, as well as if I should use hydroxide or carbonate to titrate the pH with. Any/all other concerns and grains of advice would be gratefully appreciated. I'm planning to attempt this extraction process in the near future, and would appreciate any/all input concerning it.
Thank You,
-Godsmacker