Virola extraction failed

[Garulfo]

A friend sent me the details of a failed extraction and wondered if someone here could help him to understand what happened.

So, he reduced in powder some virola bark. It was a pain as he did it 'by hand' with a rasp. 150 gm were soaked in hot lemon juice (PH=2.36) for one hour. It was probably a mistake as the sugar from lemon may react (or not ?) with other element.
Then another soak in HCL water (PH=2) and then in acetic acid water (PH=3). All waters were gathered and basified to PH=12. 250 ml Naphta was poured...

And nothing came from it, after full evap, a tiny drop of yellow oil seems remaining.
My friend is quite disapointed as he expected to meet the great power of 5-Meo...
Maybe this was not a virola bark... ?
What could he do with his basified soup that should still hold some alkal as nothing was catched in the naphta (assuming it is a virola specie) ? Add more lye, heat the naphta ? Xylene ?
Any advice is welcome.

 

[Entropymancer]

Was the naphtha heated? I know that hexane has been reported as a good recrystallization solvent for 5-MeO-DMT, but that means that its solubility is poor at room temp. Also, naphtha probably contains some heavier alkanes (C7-C10), so that could further reduce the 5-MeO solubility. Maybe try a more polar nonpolar solvent (like xylene)?

 

[69ron]

It's probably just poor plant material. Most virola on the market is pretty low in alkaloid content.

5-MeO-DMT is just about as soluble in naphtha as DMT is but pH 12 might destroy 5-MeO-DMT. That pH destroys a lot of similar alkaloids (psilocin, bufotenine, etc.). SWIY should use a safer pH like 9.5.

Also, the virola is probably old. Most of it on the market is very old and so the 5-MeO-DMT would have oxidized into 5-MeO-DMT N-Oxide which is insoluble in naphtha. You’ll need to convert it back into 5-MeO-DMT or extract it with a solvent like ether, DCM, or chloroform.

SWIM has successfully extracted 5-MeO-DMT from virola using pH 9.5 to freebase it. He used DCM as the non-polar solvent but naphtha or heptane should also work. He freeze precipitated in heptane to get pure white 5-MeO-DMT (and a tiny bit of DMT). The yield was very small, but the effects were that of pure 5-MeO-DMT. SWIM couldn’t feel any DMT effects present.

SWIM doesn’t know anyone who’s gotten a good yield of 5-MeO-DMT from that plant. It usually has less than 0.05% DMT. From 150 grams you’re talking a yield of 75 mg if you’re lucky.

Try using Diplopterys cabrerana. It has 0.08-0.3% 5-MeO-DMT and is much easier to extract. It’s not as pure of a 5-MeO-DMT experience as virola is. You do feel the DMT, especially at low doses. But you can take it sublingually at about 10 mg and that will give you an almost pure 5-MeO-DMT trip because DMT isn’t very active sublingually at that dose.

 

[Garulfo]

Thanks for your infos. The bark was probably quite old and if 0.05 % is the rule, added to the weakness of naphta for oxydes, then yes, the almost null yield makes sense. My friend will anyway try to heat the naphta in case of (this pulls a lot of stuff from MH) but as he really want to know 5 Meo he will try to find some cabrerana...

 

[69ron]

That 0.05% quoted for alkaloid contents of Virola is a rare high figure. It usually has either traces or nothing at all. Most people get no alkaloids from it at all. There appears to be mostly bunk virola on the market. SWIM has yet to find a good source for virola.

 

[Entropymancer]

One could always test the material by placing it in the mouth and allowing it to melt and absorb buccally (through the mucous membranes of the mouth). Such an assay ought to determine whether or not there's an active dose in the quantity of material that's tested.

 

[Garulfo]

Here are some news from that guy I know : he heated during one hour the A/B soup with naphta. Naphta was slightly yellow but still very clear. Unfortunatly an accident made him lose 90% of that naphta, but the few remaining was put in the freezer. Some very very slight particles appeared but once filtered, nothing could be scrapped.

So that guy had nothing to lose and added around 150 g of lye (!) to the 150 g of wood exausted (?) by the acid soak, heated it and shaked it while hot (the cap exploded and he was lucky to not receive any drop of that hot toxic stuff). That time the naphta is really yellow, cat piss color he would say. Some clouds seems appearing after few hours in the freezee however. Don't know yet if it will yield anything.