questions about harmine extractions

[prottel]

I seem to remember heating syrian rue in the oven, at a temperature at about 120C/250F+. If I remember correctly, this made the powdering very very easy. Also, it would turn into a black powder, which filters very easily.

 

[endlessness]

Whats the best method of extracting from Rue? A simple A/B or A/B with salt? Does the anticaking agent (sodium hexacyanoferrate ) in table salt make any difference?

An a/b would probably worked, SWIM never tried it

the salt thing is not done exactly like an A/B, but in a different process, the 'manske' extraction (which you can basify in the end or not, depending on what you want). For this, boil 3x in acidified water, separate and throw away the solids.. Then you let the rue tea decant for a day, keeping the water on top, and filtering the bottom gunk (maybe a double-folded t-shirt or some cloth) which you throw away.

Then you saturate this liquid with salt (somewhere around 35g of pure salt per 100ml of liquid). Dont use salt with anticaking agent or whatever other impurity. Im sure you can get pure salt somewhere. Then basically again let it settle for a whole day or so in the fridge, and this time pour off the top water and throw away, and the stuff that settled to the bottom you filter again, but now using a coffee filter instead of some cloth, and now you keep what stays on top of the filter (which will be precipitated harmine/harmaline hcl), and throw away the liquid that passed. This filtering part is a bit of a pain but if you made the first decanting with the tea before adding the salt, and if you have patience and change filters a few times, its for sure possible and doable

Now what you have is impure harmala salts, mixed with some impurities, including quite a lot of salt. To get it much purer, re-dissolve it all in hot pure water (if using tap water with too high pH or if you just want to make sure, you can add a tiny bit of lemon juice or white vinegar to guarantee the alkaloids will dissolve). Now the salts (harmalas and normal salt) will be dissolved in water. So now you basify to pH 10,11 or so using non-sudsy ammonia (what SWIM used), but also sodium carbonate/bicarbonate must work. Dont use sodium hydroxide, or if you do be very careful you dont over-basify as it may destroy the harmalas. As soon as the base touches the water, it changes to a lighter colour, which means the harmalas are precipitating. Now just let it settle for a couple of days again, and then again pour off the water on top, throwing it away, and filter the last part with coffee filter, keeping what stays on top. Now you have purer freebase harmala alkaloids with no salt impurity. 100-200mg are enough MAOIs for oral DMT activation

the advantage of this process instead of an A/B is that you need no petrochemicals or chemicals that are dangerous, you need salt, a weak base and time (and a fridge helps). Anybody can do it and its legal basically everywhere. The only issue is filtering which is a bit of a pain but its very possible.

 

[geeg30]

Can I use Phosphoric acid instead of acetic in the Manske type extraction? Mainly due to the smell of vinegar

 

[burnt]

^^SWIM doesn't see why not. Yuo could probably do it without using any acid or even lemon juice would probably be enough.