Solvent for Harmine/Harmaline

[NotTwo]

I'm looking to impregnate some smoking leaf with Harmala + Spice.

I've tried to dissolve the harmine/harmaline mixture in heptane and found that it doesn't seem to dissolve. Google suggests "sparingly soluble in acetone" and another source says "1mg per 1ml of IPA" i.e. 1 liter to dissolve 1 gram - not feasible to infuse 1 gram of leaf.

Can anyone suggest a way I can impregnate my leaf with harmala?

Many thanks

 

[concombres]

Ethanol.
If you can get everclear/grain alcohol, that is the best option.
If you cannot find that, 100 proof flavorless vodka will work.

 

[NotTwo]

Wiki reckons 1mg harmine / 1ml ethanol also. I guess that might improve if warmed to just under BP of ethanol :?

 

[TGO]

Drinking/grain ethanol will work better than acetone and IPA. Maybe vodka would work, dont know if it would leave a taste (for changa or whatever). Ethanol is not the best but quite better than acetone or IPA. The best solvents for harmalas are more toxic, like methanol and DCM. If you use them, make sure its properly dry before using (better let it soak again in some non denatured ethanol and let it air dry again for many hours to help getting rid of traces of those solvents)...

Hope this helps. Not everyone has access to methanol or DCM so warm ethanol (I use everclear at least 95%) is the best option in comparison to Iso or acetone.

 

[NotTwo]

Cool. Many thanks Concombres and The Grateful One!

 

[Nereus]

Drinking/grain ethanol will work better than acetone and IPA. Maybe vodka would work, dont know if it would leave a taste (for changa or whatever). Ethanol is not the best but quite better than acetone or IPA. The best solvents for harmalas are more toxic, like methanol and DCM. If you use them, make sure its properly dry before using (better let it soak again in some non denatured ethanol and let it air dry again for many hours to help getting rid of traces of those solvents)

 

[Nereus]

Edit: Pardon,there are teks involving just water in which you would dissolve your harmalas,light and infuse herbs all in one.

 

[Nereus]

Edit: off topic

 

[NotTwo]

Edit: Pardon,there are teks involving just water in which you would dissolve your harmalas,light and infuse herbs all in one.

Hi Nereus
Sorry, maybe I'm not too good at searching Would you mind pointing me to one of those teks where you can do it all in one with water.
Many thanks

 

[Nereus]

Solvent free DMT enhanced leaf - warm water bath TEK - Changa - Welcome to the DMT-Nexus

What you could do is first take your harmalas and dissolve them in minimal ammount of water,then drop in there your desired changa herbs in the desired ratios,let evap until dry (should not take more than 1 summer day) and after these steps you could follow the above tek to further infuse your goods on them.

 

[Nereus]

Edit: off topic

 

[NotTwo]

Solvent free DMT enhanced leaf - warm water bath TEK - Changa - Welcome to the DMT-Nexus

what you could do is first take your harmalas and dissolve them in minimal ammount of water,then drop in there your desired changa herbs in the desired ratios,let evap until dry (should not take more than 1 summer day) and after these steps you could follow the above tek to further infuse your goods on them.

Hi Nereus
The harmalas themselves won't dissolve in water. Mixing them in the molten spice, as in the tek you've given the link for, sounds promising for when I come to my 3-part mixture. But to start with I'm just going to infuse the leaf with harmalas so I can try out different ratios prior to trying it with the spice added.

 

[endlessness]

They dissolve very easily in water in salt form, not in freebase form.

The only reasonable solvent for a normal person to use is ethanol.. As mentioned before methanol works better but not everybody can get it, and its toxic so if you'd use that make sure to evap it properly (and dont breathe vapors).

 

[NotTwo]

They dissolve very easily in water in salt form, not in freebase form.

I have harmala:HCl (which as you say is readily soluble in water) but can I use this for enhancing leaf for the purposes of smoking/vaping? I was thinking it had to be the freebase in that case.

 

[endlessness]

Personally I've never tried smoking harmalas in HCl form. In general it is recommended to smoke freebases and not salt form of substances. Nevertheless, when people smoke caapi leaf, or when they soak caapi leaf in a solvent to do 10x caapi or whatever, the harmalas in the plant itself are in some salt form, possibly tannate, or palmitate, or some other salt form related to naturally present acids.

Since each salt form will behave in a particular manner, I'm not sure how much we can generalize about the effectiveness of smoking harmalas in the different salt forms. If you are willing to be the guinea pig, you could infuse a small amount of plant material with your harmalas HCl using water and then report back your results.

Good luck!

 

[Nereus]

Oops! My mistake. You are right. I don't know how did I misunderstand the OP in such a way.

Apologies!

 

[NotTwo]

Thanks guys for the suggestions.

If you are willing to be the guinea pig, you could infuse a small amount of plant material with your harmalas HCl using water and then report back your results.

Good luck!

And I will guinea pig it with harmala:HCl, endlessness
But to do it scientifically I'll infuse some leaf with freebase in solvent and then the same amount with harmala:HCl in water and compare the difference.
(In fact I'll take the MWt of the HCl into account and make sure I have the same amount of harmala in both!)

 

[Jees]

Related: Solvent to dissolve harmala freebase and Here

 

[NotTwo]

Thanks Jees. I think I'm going to go for methanol in the end. I can lay my hands on some next week. I know it's toxic but I'll be mega sure it all evaps before smoking it.