Journey to Ixtlan

[ElectricBlueToad]

His journey begins in 1977, the year he graduated from high school. He showed remarkable kinship with the plants and herbs of his botany classes and field research. His experimental growing technique proved bountiful in the realms of cannabis and other ethnobotanicals.
Tech at that time was nonexistent, no internet as we know it today. it was all book work. The library, magazines, writing letters, all the things of the past he used for his learning.
Even so, the tech evolved into today. His simple beginnings of tinctures and oils, the most advanced tech at the time, extractions based on alcohol and oils, the best we could get in our High Times mag or Whole Earth Catalog.
Trying to find the Honey Oil in the Thai Stick was our highest goal.
After tinctures and oils he ventured into soponifacation of oils into soap, it seemed a logical next step, and he began a successful soap company for several years and learned the powers of NaOH. The empowerment of this process brought him many rewards. After years of experimentation from everything from wild lettuce to coleus, San Pedro to Mushrooms, his tech evolved.
His first A/B extraction was MHR in a naphtha capture. It was beyond his dreams. Such a powerful ethnogen in such a relatively easy process.
His next extraction was the extraction of pure psilocybin crystals via 98% ethyl alcohol. Such an amazing, and easy, transformation of the gross matter into the elixir, the aqua vita, so easy compared to all the other techs from harmala to salvinorum. This conundrum confounded the student to no end. He would still like to know why the psilocybin extraction was so easy compared to all the others.
His next alchemical miracle shall be harmala crystals to bio with the psilocybin crystals.
A report should be in order at that point.
Until then my fellow psychonauts.
Electric Blue Toad

 

[Doc Buxin]

Excellent....

Please Mr. Toad, sit down....

We've been waiting for you.

8)

 

[ElectricBlueToad]

Thanks Doc, been waiting a while for this.

 

[Orion]

Welcome ElectricBlueToad

Quite interested in that pic you have there, would that be your psilocybin extract? As far as many have gathered so far, those crystals should be much more than just psilocybin and psilocin, but fungal sugars and other substances. I am curious as to why yours is so clean, when many others, myself included, end up with a goo or resin. Care to talk of how you went about the extraction ?

 

[Loveall]

I second Orion, could you please provide details of the psilocybin extraction process?

 

[ElectricBlueToad]

Sure, the picture is from the mushroom extract after 5 days in the fridge using only everclear for the extraction and growing.
I think the occasional jiggle from the fridge door being opened was good to keep the solution occasionally agitated
The picture makes it look a lot cleaner than it really was, there is a bit of orange discoloration and a gummy residue under them
The tech was found here, Loading... and it was very easy to follow, and it worked great.
Wondering about washing them, what to use without loosing them, but they are just too beautiful as the are.

 

[dmusicaltrancistor]

Aye this is awesome we were just talking about the different xtract teks for psilocybin out there let us know how the bio assay turns out.

Also i will be doing some experiments with the hoffmann tek, i have heard good things about it and it seems a more viable method then others out there

 

[blue.magic]

Aye this is awesome we were just talking about the different xtract teks for psilocybin out there let us know how the bio assay turns out.

Also i will be doing some experiments with the hoffmann tek, i have heard good things about it and it seems a more viable method then others out there

Can you please provide a link or citation for the "hoffmann tek" ?

I highly doubt one can get "pure psilocybin crystals" from simple alcohol extraction. These can be anything from sugars to urea. The pictured crystals are not psilocybin - it forms needles like this:

I found in Albert Hofmann's 'History Of The Basic Chemical Investigations On The Sacred Mushrooms Of Mexico' that additional washing of the alcohol extract is needed, namely with chloroform, benzene and acetone. Even this gave Hofmann just a white powder (though extremely potent) and further purification was needed using paper chromatography to finally get a crystalline psilocybin needles from concentrated aq. solution (in vacuo).

In one forum outside Nexus, it was speculated whether psilocybin hydrochloride is possible, which allowed easier isolation, but the author of the tek has not posted any results or assays.

 

[Orion]

blue.magic, the original is in french, but here is one in english based on the same method :

Psilocin extraction help - Preparation - Welcome to the DMT-Nexus

I'm still curious to about these sugar crystals though, perhaps they would be one wash away from the good stuff ? The sugars here are what the acetone removes in the above method.

 

[blue.magic]

blue.magic, the original is in french, but here is one in english based on the same method :

Psilocin extraction help - Preparation - Welcome to the DMT-Nexus

I'm still curious to about these sugar crystals though, perhaps they would be one wash away from the good stuff ? The sugars here are what the acetone removes in the above method.

Interesting, thanks. I've read several papers on psilocin extraction but psilocybin is more interesting as it is water soluble and more heat stable.

Funnily enough, the only useful papers or fungal extractions were either in german or french.

I was planning a similar extraction but the other way around, starting with methanolic extract and then wash the resin with chloroform, acetone (I didn't know psilocin/psilocybin is insoluble in it - good to know) and possibly benzene (this can remove urea).

If I ever have excess amount mushrooms, I will definitely try this as a scientific project.

I don't think a crystalline product is possible without at least paper chromatography followed by (fractional) crystallization but the said extract should be already two orders of magnitude stronger than dried mushrooms weight-wise - so no reason to purify further - but heck - crystals! (who else share the fetish for crystals )

 

[ElectricBlueToad]

SWIM found this pic of Hoffman's crystals,

Looking similar in structure, though individual, not clusters.

But it is amazing how much they look like this.

Although not nearly as pronounced.

So does anyone have a clue as to how much sugars there really are in dried shrooms?
And if so, could they crystallize in alcohol?

Thanks