Lab equipment upgrade for A/B extraction

[psychonautFrank]

Hello there.. first post on DMT nexus...

So SWIM have done 5 A/B successful extractions in total and wants to improve the process using the proper lab equipment. He wants to use:
- Soxhlet extractor for alkaloid extraction from MHRB;
- continuous liquid-liquid extractor for extraction with DCM or petroleum ether;
- rotary vacuum evaporator to evaporate the DCM or pet. ether;
- dessiccator with grinded paraffine wax to evaporate the heptane in the re-x phase.

I have some questions:

- How can the Soxhlet extract the DMT, wich is in the cells, if the bark is not cooked?
- In the continuous liquid-liquid extractor the solvent is boiled, does this degrade the DMT?

Are these lab items good for an extraction?

The continuous liquid liquid extractor and the rotary vacuum evaporators are very expensive, but SWIM is an engineer and can provide a 3D printed DIY version of both on GitHub and Thingiverse, so everyone can benefit!

SWIM thanks everyone on the forum in advance!

 

[Tony6Strings]

I use a 1000 ml Erlenmeyer flask, 10ml pipette and bulb, and corningware casserole dishes. Coffee filters and razor blades. You are overthinking things keep it simple.

 

[Voidmatrix]

I use a 1000 ml Erlenmeyer flask, 10ml pipette and bulb, and corningware casserole dishes. Coffee filters and razor blades. You are overthinking things keep it simple.

I lean towards agreement with this, but do you

For your questions, idk if the soxhlet will work without breaking down the cell walls in the bark to release the DMT. With regard to degrading DMT when boiling solvent (why are you boiling it?), I doubt it because, if I'm not mistaken, the boiling point of the solvent should be lower than that of the DMT.

Good luck

One love

 

[psychonautFrank]

All of your points are 100% right, DMT extraction is absolutely doable with common items.
I would like to have this equipment because i would like to:
- use as little solvents as possible;
- reuse as much solvents as possible;
- avoid acid cooking the bark (very time consuming because it needs to be supervised, while the Soxhlet goes on by himself);
- avoid the need of a freezer (I live in a hot weather area and the crystals melt after freez precip.)

Having a closed loop extraction is also more safe because you minimize the exposure to free solvents.

 

[Dirty T]

I also agree that simple is better here and you are adding unnecessary steps and wanting to use complex equipment for an easy task. Freezer issues? Get a ice chest and some dry ice, refrigerate 4 hours before freeze precipation and insulate between the ice and your vessel for slower precipation. Want to reuse solvent? Poor of used solvent to collection jar, this can be reused as is or backsalted / saline wash later then reused (I personally like using the same solvent over and over then backsalting once the feedstock is spent. Solvent that is already 'saturated' at the freezing point leaves more crystals from the same amount of pulls and leaves less backsalting for later) If you are using powdered MHRB acid boil is unnecessary and if it is chipped or shredded you can grind yourself or just add a week soak to your basic soup step.

I have some scientific supplies and lab equipment but the only thing I purchased special for dmt extraction is pipettes. Everything else I have is used for psilocybin extraction (I have a wicked dual vacuum chamber set up with a solvent collection phase to keep that pesky water out of my pump and my pump oil clean) or cannabis extraction (I have stopped doing this until I can afford a closed loop set up, I always did my extractions using butane and a custom built carbon trap shop vac for safety but open butane extractions can be very dangerous and have caused explosions FOR THIS REASON I WOULD NEVER SUGGEST AN OPEN AIR EXTRACTION OF CANNABIS WITH GAS STATE SOLVENTS)

I can really appreciate your enthusiasm but I really don't see even the remote need for any equipment other than basic kitchen/soap/canning/cleaning supplies and a pipette.

 

[artificer]

Dirty T would you elaborate on your "wicked dual vacuum chamber setup with a solvent collection phase"?

I have HVAC vacuum and single trap setup but your description sounds like something I'd like to set up, at least get some ideas.

 

[Dirty T]

Well, my setup is for water or EtoH only as I designed it to be compatible with psilocybin aqueous h2o extraction but with some other materials it could be modified to be compatible with other solvents. The main vacuum chamber is daisy chained through another vacuum chamber, the input of the 'trap' chamber is fed into a receiving vessel with a length of tube that is submerged in a small amount of the solvent to be collected (water). The trap chamber required me to slowly and carefully drill a second hole in the polycarbonate lid and a nipple epoxied in place. This is your input tube that is fed into the solvent. The main chamber is placed in on a hot plate and the trap chamber is placed in an ice bath to cool the incoming liquids and prevent it boiling off again under vacuum and entering the pump which can damage the pump and makes me change the oil after every use. The entire setup minus the vacuum pump ran me less than 100 dollars. With the materials I am using I can collect water and EtoH without worry of degradation. EtoH requires the trap chamber be placed in a dry ice acetone bath to prevent boiling under vacuum and doesn't require the hot plate until the winter months. All of my vacuum processing is performed in the garage behind a blast shield in the unlikely case of an implosion.