Psilocybin/Psilocin extraction

[HoffmansMandala]

Hey there, I have seen quite a few threads (on here and elsewhere) about psilocybin extracts/extractions and was wondering if any of you all have had experience with it.

On one hand Ive seen the "crystals of the gods" and the talk about crystal psilocybin/psilocin but I've also heard that's a tedious extraction. On the other hand, would it even be worth trying to extract, considering that psilocin is extremely unstable in crystal form? I don't know the stability of psilocybin crystals.


Anyhow, I liked the idea of the tincture, but am a little curious onto different methods of making it. I was given a small dose of his remaining mushroom tincture a year back and it was definitely something to be desired. More intense than mushrooms but it was a little bit of a shorter trip. So my question to those who have worked with it, in making the tincture (I currently have 190 proof ethanol) I saw on one place that you HAD to boil it in the EtOH but I've seen elsewhere that you could just soak it for a week as well. Any input?

Also if anyone has had the crystals and vaped it or anything that would be interesting to hear about as well!

 

[fathomlessness]

I haven't tried it but I have read about it. I think psilocybin its self just breaks down with heat... so the heat from a vaporizer would for sure kill anything. The very fact that not many people do this shows that it is a waste of time considering you can dry shrooms and store them for years. If you want to smoke then make freebase. If you can't ingest shrooms then look into lemon essence oil or ginger root for nausea.

Vaporizing Psilocybin - The Psychedelic Experience - Shroomery Message Board

Perhaps this has been posed before but here it is: I happened upon a batch of extremely cheap vaporizers, we're talking sub $10. These are obviously not spectacular vaporizing weed. I have tested

www.shroomery.org

Mushroom Extracts | Ask Dr. Shulgin

 

[fungalfanatic]

I have made fungal tincture a few times. Always paranoid about leaving goodies behind so I do multiple 'pulls' just like if I was extracting DMT. A couple short heated (though not boiling) soaks followed by a long soak at room temp. Combine and reduce. Doesn't taste too great as you know but easier than chomping down the fruits + it is nicely inconspicuous & seems to last a long time in the freezer. Also I always use vodka instead of the high-proof everclear stuff and it works fine.

Also those crystals of the gods things aren't just pure psilocin/psilocybin, I've seen talk on this forum about them being over half non-active protein stuff. Would not smoke it if I were you :!:

 

[Nereus]

Also did try it using Liberty Caps soaked in warm EtOH for a couple of hours.Did maybe 3-4 pulls after which I assisted the evaporation using warm water baths.The resulting liquid was a clear yellow oil that smelled heavily of mushrooms.It was diluted with 40% vodka and dosed in ml increments.The oil was potent and hit quite rapidly after ingestion although the duration of the experience was quite short.

 

[BongWizard]

Don't necessarily boil it, but a warm phase befor you allow it to soak for a day or 2 is a good idea as it helps to liberate the alkaloids from the plant material.

Once extracted, the psilocybin crystals can be stored in an airtight container for extended periods with no noticeable loss of potency. And if you want to further clean them, chloroform or DCM can be used to remove the unwanted proteins that ethanol or methanol may dissolve

 

[benzyme]

note: assuming the premise that both psilocin and psilocybin have zwitterionic character, there is no "pure" form, per se. these molecules will be electrostatically bound to something, salt complex or otherwise.

 

[BongWizard]

note: assuming the premise that both psilocin and psilocybin have zwitterionic character, there is no "pure" form, per se. these molecules will be electrostatically bound to something, salt complex or otherwise.

I know psilocybin is zwittierionic, but is psilocin inherently zwittierionic?

 

[benzyme]

not psilocin, psilocybin rather. psilocin's hydroxyl has acidic properties as it will readily shed its proton, so basifying psilocin leaves an O-, net negative charge.

 

[BongWizard]

not psilocin, psilocybin rather. psilocin's hydroxyl has acidic properties as it will readily shed its proton, so basifying psilocin leaves an O-, net negative charge.

Thus forming an enolate, correct? I didn't know that. Very interesting. Do you know the pH at which this occurs? Or is it outside the realm of aqueous bases?

 

[HoffmansMandala]

Thanks for the input fellas! So I don't plan on extracting crystals after seeing all of this, but I am still interested in fungal tincture. The only worry about fungal tincture is of course dosing. I have read quite a few places that over time and temp. change (makes sense since psilocybin/psilocin arent very soluble in ethanol) that alkaloids began falling out of the ethanol.

FungalFanatic, have you ever had issue of psilo dropping out of solution? Especially after transferring to the freezer.

 

[benzyme]

not psilocin, psilocybin rather. psilocin's hydroxyl has acidic properties as it will readily shed its proton, so basifying psilocin leaves an O-, net negative charge.

Thus forming an enolate, correct? I didn't know that. Very interesting. Do you know the pH at which this occurs? Or is it outside the realm of aqueous bases?

well within. pH of 12.
psilocin pKa distribution

 

[BongWizard]

^^ undoubtedly the best archive of chemical data on the net (that I've seen anyway). Never seen it before. Thanks for the link benzyme :d

@HoffmansMandala yes, once you reduce the solvent to a manageable amount the crystals will certainly begin to crash out, especially if you do freeze them. It's for this reason that extracting the crystals is a good idea. Simply evap the ethanol and wash with and good strong non polar (I'd go with toluene or chloroform, depending of what you have available). This way you will have a reasonably pure crop of crystals which are quite stable rather than a tincture of unknown potency (due to the alkaloid crash) and longevity (I'm not 100% sure about the degradation of 4-PO-DMT in solution, but my guess is it will degrade faster than well kept crystals).

 

[benzyme]

^^ undoubtedly the best archive of chemical data on the net (that I've seen anyway).

just one of many Sixty-Four Free Chemistry Databases | Depth-First

crystals implies a fairly homogenous compound. mass spec had revealed to me these so-called "crystals" are not homogenous, with relative abundance being ~50% .
in older posts, i've erroneously mentioned a free base form of psilocin. there is none. a quick glance of the chart elucidates this. throughout the pH range, at least one of the side groups carries a charge. for this reason, ethyl ether, ethyl acetate, and dcm are preferred solvents (as opposed to purely nonpolar solvents) for pulling psilocin, as they are slightly miscible with water and have slightly polar character.

 

[BongWizard]

Out of interest, what other compounds were found in your, for lack of a better term, "crystals" benzyme? Baeocystin, norebaeocystin etc? Or mostly just inactive proteins? Also, did you do any additional washes (or, indeed, any other forms of purification) after the initial extraction? If so, what with?

 

[benzyme]

the procedure i followed was Casale et. al (1981), not the pf blog.. 2EtO was used, with 2x re-x with hexane.
baeo was found in low abundance.

to get anything remotely "pure" with any charge state of psilocin, i'd suggest experimenting with IEX.


some people simply complex the molecule with an acid having antioxidant properties, i.e. maleic, tartaric, ascorbic, etc.

 

[BongWizard]

Thanks benzyme, you've inspired me to have a bit of a play with this. Just gotta get a fresh crop of mushys finished and I'll do a little experimenting. IEX using a positively charged medium from a mildly acidic solution would be an ideal method for psilocin purification, but I dare say it's somewhat beyond the reach of most amateur chemists. When I get around to it I'll definitely post a rundown and, depending on my results, I might even get some IEX resin and rig up something from the columns I've got (if that's at all possible, I'd have to look into it a lot more).