Methyl Ethyl Ketone ?

[Easykeen]

Hi there can anybody tell me what use (if any!) METHYL ETHYL KETONE WOULD BE IN SPICE EXTRACTION ?

 

[Ulim]

Not much. Could replace Acetone, IPA and ethanol but is more expensive so you can just stick to those instead. Also somewhat more nasty because it irritates the eyes and lungs more than the others.

 

[downwardsfromzero]

MEK is largely immiscible with water, which could be seen as an advantage.

I tried recrystallising once with some heptane that turned out to be mixed with MEK and it seemed to induce the formation of black gritty particles from the DMT oxide :?

 

[Ulim]

MEK is largely immiscible with water, which could be seen as an advantage.

I tried recrystallising once with some heptane that turned out to be mixed with MEK and it seemed to induce the formation of black gritty particles from the DMT oxide :?

"Solubility in water
27.5 g/100 mL"
Well not really given its density of 0.8050 g/mL. So you got 22ml per 100ml of water.
Nearly a quarter misicble so you would end up with a mess of water, MEK and dmt somewhere in between.

 

[downwardsfromzero]

Yes, I should have checked the data

However, when an appreciable amount of salt is added to the water, the solubility of MEK therein goes down significantly. It might at least be fun to play around with to observe partitioning effects. I've wasted many a happy hour playing around with aqueous IPA, sodium carbonate and red goop that may once have contained DMT. Cos IPA salts out quite markedly and MEK does so even more. The DMT base will go with the MEK.