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White spirit for non polar solvent

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delta-9

delta-9

Rising Star
I have used the search tool and I haven't found any threads about the use of white spirit as a non polar solvent to be used to extract freebase spice after basification (if anyone knows of any please just link me).

It is a hydrocarbon mix of:

~75% straight chain and cyclic aliphatic compounds between lengths of 7 carbons to 12 carbons and,
~ 25% aromatic compounds

Boiling point of approx 120c-170c

It does not contain any terpenes or turpentine derivatives I am not refering to turpentine although white spirit is sometimes sold as Turps Substitute

It is very cheap and readily available from hardware and home stores for use as a paint thinner.

Has anyone got good experience of using this? Is there anything I should know about any nasty residues or reasons it is bad as a solvent?

Naptha isn't so readily available where I am (UK) and I would like to avoid chem. suppliers for n-heptane or xylene so could this be used as a good alternative?

Any info would be greatly appreciated.
 
Ah, good old white spirit...

This is a garbage solvent. SWIM tells me that it does pull spice though, but freeze-precipitation is something that works very poorly. And evaporation takes for ages. And smells your house awfully. One can definitely back-salt the freebases in acidic water and evaporate water to get the actives.

But if one is ready to go this route, then he may as well go for a solvent like xylene or limonene that pull more and pull better. Definitely forget the white spirit. Same goes for the turpentine substitute, (which is slightly different from white spirit in that it contains much bigger aliphatics than white spirit).

The best alternative to naphtha in the UK in terms of quick evaporation rates and freeze-precipitation ability is zippo fuels. At least in the UK (and in contrast to some countries like the states and canada) Ronsonol has been found to evaporate cleanly. Better though try some evaporation yourself if in doubt - the composition of these products often changes. The only drawback of Ronsonol and other zippo fuels are their price - to damn expensive.

Another solvent that SWIM has used is Bartoline Low Odour White Spirit. I think he got it from B&Q. This one evaporates very slowly but it worked perfectly for freeze-precipitation.

Hope this helps,
 
Good evening delta-9!

I have used white spirit (brandname Bartoline Low Odour White Spirit, cheap as chips from B+Q) for defatting using an A/B tek and its fine for this.Using it after basification is not advisable as it takes ages to evaporate and is not great for freeze-precipitating.

Naphtha, which I favour for the post-basification steps is more than easy to get in the UK- your Zippo Fluid is basically naphtha which is more than adequate.Swan/Newport/Perma brands all are good for your needs.They will cost you more than your turps/white spirit but you have to invest a little to reap a worthwhile return:wink:
 
Thanks to both of you for your helpful replies. I was just about to suggest using it s a crude solvent for defatting, and just throw it away after use thanks corpus callosum for confirming this. Is ronsonol lighter fluid a good naptha substitute or must it be zippo? Thanks again to both Infundibulum and Corpus Callosum.
 
Ronsonol all the way!!!:) Ive used it a few times, pretty sure i still have a tin somwhere.

Do a small evap test on it if you want to feel at ease.
 
Thanks I'll probably used lighter fluid for the first few pulls to get the spice, followed maybe by a xylene pull to get some of the other jungle alkaloids. I've just found that a company I used to buy IPA from is back online and selling xylene gpc for £3.50 per litre.

Could one do a large xylene pull, allow to evap to leave crude alkaloid solid. Then with the full spectrum solid dissolve in hot naptha and recrystalise to get a nicer product? Naptha would only pull out spice, and as long as recrystallisation is done performed carefully it should yield some nice spice crystals.

Just a thought.
 
I've used B&Q White spirits own brand (not the bartoline stuff) and it's worked fine, evaporation is a no no because you will be waiting months but it freeze precipitates fine. Spread the crystals out on a plate, will take a day or two by an open window to completely lose the odour, it helps if you occasionally move the crystals around to increase surface area. It's worked fine in my experience and it's the only thing I've used as naptha in any extractions thus far.

Methtical
 
Thanks for all replies, I now have a good framework to work in and I may combine a few ideas here and there. SWIM has good understanding of recrystallisation and use of solvents so I will use my previous knowledge combined with the information you have all kindly supplied me with. Thanks again to all who replied.
 
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