DCM is one of the best extraction solvents there is. It’s pretty universal in what it can extract. It’s actually better than chloroform. Nearly all freebase alkaloids are extremely soluble in DCM. We're talking hundreds of times more soluble in it than in solvents like naphtha or heptane.
SWIM always uses DCM to extract DMT and always gets better yields than if naphtha or heptane were used.
The thing that is really nice about DCM is that it boils at a lower temperature than DMT, so you can distill your extract with the DMT right in the DCM and none of the DMT will be lost. You can’t do that with heptane or naphtha. Also, DCM evaporates REALLY FAST, many times faster than naphtha or even heptane. Instead of waiting days for your stuff to evaporate at room temperature, DCM will take an hour or so.
DCM can dramatically speed up the extraction process because it evaporates so quickly. It also improves the extraction efficiency because it extracts much more DMT per ml than naphtha or heptane does and it does so faster. It’s also better at penetrating cell walls than naphtha or heptane.
If you do all the extraction steps with DCM and then freeze precipitate using heptane, you’ll get the best yields with the least amount of time.
But if using DCM to extract from Mimosa, you must freeze precipitate using either heptane or naphtha to get clean white DMT crystals. If you don’t you’ll end up with a sticky slightly yellowish goo containing a mix of alkaloids. Generally, mixed alkaloids will often not crystallize until they are separated. DCM extracts more than just DMT. It extracts the so called “jungle spice” as well as all the DMT N-Oxide, both of which are insoluble in naphtha and heptane, and both are very active.
If you just extract using heptane or naphtha, the extraction process will take more solvent, take longer, and the final yields will be smaller after freeze precipitation.
Health wise, DCM is about as bad for you as naphtha is. Both are potentially carcinogenic.
If extracting from something like Yopo, DCM is a must. Naphtha and heptane don’t work well for Yopo at all. If extracting from a leafy plant like chacruna or chaliponga, DCM is also a must, because they both contain large quantities of DMT N-Oxide, which is insoluble in heptane or naphtha.
As far as the heptane or naphtha debate, some say heptane extracts more DMT than naphtha does. Some say the reverse. According to the XLogP data, naphtha should work better than heptane, but the XLogP data is not always accurate.
SWIM prefers heptane because it evaporates much faster and can be distilled faster at a much lower temperature. SWIM has found that heptane seems to work better for freeze precipitating DMT, but he’s never done any side by side comparisons of them, so he can’t say for sure. Also, SWIM is more bothered by the fumes from naphtha than those from heptane, so that’s another reason he prefers heptane.
SWIM always distills his solvents before use, and hates the fact that naphtha takes the whole day to distill. Heptane distills in just a few hours, so SWIM never uses naphtha anymore. DCM distills in about 30 minutes, so SWIM always uses DCM when he can. Another solvent SWIM likes is acetone. Like DCM, it boils at a low temperature, distills fast, and evaporates really fast, but it can’t be used as a non-polar solvent in an A/B extraction because acetone is soluble in all solvents including water.
