Database of solvent GC analyses for DMT extraction, etc

[sekio]

I think people should know about this. Especially if you are extracting DMT! Here's a site that contains a big database (1000+ entries) of gas chromatograph analyses of many different solvents, fuels, and "ignitable liquids" from different manufacturers.

If you cannot read GC charts, here's a quick rundown: the GC is a machine that seperates compounds according to how volatile they are - you put a mixture into it and over time it will spit out the individual chemical compounds that make up that mixture. Usually, the same compound will always leave the GC at the same time - and it can be hooked up to a mas sspectrometer to get an exact identity.

GC charts are read like a bar graph: Lighter, smaller, more volatile compounds which exit the GC first appear on the left side. As the chart moves to the right, the compounds get progressively less volatile, heavier, and bigger. A bigger "peak" on the chart means more of the compound is present, and a smaller one means only a little was present (the amount of compound is proportional to the peak area, for you math nerds.) There is a bar scale for the average number of carbons along the bottom, and also major compound peaks are labeled.

BROWSE the database, or SEARCH it. It's FREE!

Ronsonol lighter fluid

Zippo lighter fluid

Klean Strip VM&P Naptha

Note how similar the above 3 are!

Escort camp fuel

This is very light and volatile. It will evaporate very fast.

Exxon Sweet South Crude Oil

There are a lot of compounds here.

Mastercraft Varsol

Note how varsol / stoddard solvent is mostly higher boiling (bigger) alkanes and also has some aromatics present. Those aromatics will dissolve DMT just like toluene/xylene, so freeze precipitation won't work.

Gasoline (93 octane, BP)

Just in case you were wondering what goes in a car engine.

& one more for lulz
WD-40

SECRETS REVEALED!!!! Actually, it's just petroleum distillate and some lubricating paraffin oil (the hump on the far right)

 

[polymath]

So, is the wide non-sharp hump in the last image there because the paraffin oil contains so many different large-molecule hydrocarbons that no individual one is seen as a sharp peak?

I've done a GC for benzyl alcohol or benzaldehyde in some lab experiment, can't remember which one (or can you even take a GC from something that oxidizes as easily as benzaldehyde?).

 

[Xorkoth]

Interesting sekio, thanks.

 

[t_wrex]

Excellent info as always sir!

 

[sekio]

So, is the wide non-sharp hump in the last image there because the paraffin oil contains so many different large-molecule hydrocarbons that no individual one is seen as a sharp peak?

That's one possibility, another possibility is that the molecule(s) is so similar to that of the coating on the GC column that it "sticks" and gets smeared out.

I've done a GC for benzyl alcohol or benzaldehyde in some lab experiment, can't remember which one (or can you even take a GC from something that oxidizes as easily as benzaldehyde?).

Absolutely! Usually the GC column is full of an inert gas, hydrogen, helium or rarely nitrogen. You can GC almost anything - as long as it is volatile (M.W. under 1000 or so) and thermally stable (usually a GC will start anywhere from 20 to 60C and increase temperature gradually, normally up to around 200C but anywhere up to 350C can be the maximum.) - but unstable compounds can be detected with special methods that keep the GC much colder.

Some petroleum analysts actually have very slow GC setups (run times of 20 hours per sample or more) with very long columns and cryo-coolers that can go to negative 50 or so. This allows them to slowly seperate every compound in crude oil, beginning with methane and ending with super heavy aromatic compounds. :O

The GC is a very powerful tool because unlike NMR, it actually seperates the compounds in a mixture out.

 

[Blowmonkey]

What would be your preferred extraction solvent? I did my first small extraction with similar garbage then moved on to hexane, which yields much purer white crystals, no residual smells either apart from the tiny bits of probably skatole (it's kinda poopy). The garbage was off-white yellow from the start upon freeze precipitation, can't get rid of the gasoline smells completely either. Probably looks like one of these gc charts, poison.

Going to try some xylene(s) on the remainder of the mhrb soup, but my next small pull will probably be an A/B, defatting with hexane when acidic and pulling with xylene when basified, or the other way around, not sure which solvent works better for what.

Would the washing with (cold) ammonia you sometimes see recommended elsewhere take care of some of these impurities or not? How about salting it with hcl and washing it with isopropyl or something, would that work?

 

[sekio]

Technical hexane works fine (mixture of n-hexane, cyclohexane, methylpentanes, dimethylbutanes etc). n-Heptane is also good but more expensive. The benefits of these are that they allow freeze precipitation: solubility of DMT is good when they are warm (40C or so max) and very poor when they are icy cold (-10C in your freezer will certainly precipitate DMT). Other solvents of similar quality are "ligroin" or "petroleum ether" that boils at 40-60C: it's basically technical hexanes.

If you can't get those, anything that is mostly linear/cycloalkanes aka "aliphatics and cycloaliphatics" (also look for the word "hydrotreated" or "hydrogenated" - this means the aromatic compounds have been converted to non-aromatics) in the range of C5 to about C8 is a good choice. Pentane is maybe a little too volatile but might work in a pinch. If you can find camp fuel that has no dye in it and is mostly low boiling alkanes and no aromatics like the Escort stuff above that will work too.

The key here is, aromatic hydrocarbons will dissolve DMT hot or cold, so they will stop freeze precipitation from happening successfuly. if you do xylene or toluene as a solvent you will not be able to freeze precip and will have to extract with acid. Also, hydrocarbons that are too heavy (above C9) are a pain to evaporate from your product. The lighter fluids above will work - it's an established fact I think - but IMO, the lighter solvent the better.

If you are a cost-concious individual or an environmentalist, you can set up a distillation setup to collect the solvent at the end of the extraction/crystallization, which can save money.

I don't use an ammonia wash, or defatting of any sort, I will blend MHRB to a fine, thready paste and add it to lye water, let it churn, put it in a 40C water bath and then extract, do several pulls, rinse the naptha with possibly a saturated sodium carbonate solution and then cold water a few times, dry over pre-baked magnesium sulfate, filter into a container and then precipitate in the freezer. Yields white to off white crystals if your bark is fresh. An easy way to purify DMT is forming a fumarate/maleate salt by adding DMT freebase (dissolved in acetone) to a solution of maleic or fumaric acid in acetone and collecting the crystals that preciptate.

 

[Blowmonkey]

Oh right the sodium carbonate wash, I forgot I read that. Seems to take care of most of the yellow colour, that's probably defatting it enough already? I think I confused the cactus extraction I just did anyways with the mhrb, ehe.

I just know that from cannabis oils the waxes trap and prevent the used solvents from purging completely, without vacuum or heat added anyways, even then there are always minute traces.

Also read some more and apparently only the fumaric acid you mentioned will form a salt with dmt that's managable, everything else will turn to a goo/paste. Would've hoped hcl or tartrate was going to take care of that but it won't. Also read that crashing it out of the xylene with hcl might even lead to impurities from the start.

I wish I paid attention in chemistry classes, my friend did, I did not. Dmt and mescaline extractions are a great re-introduction. Thanks for the pointers though, every little bit helps put things in perspective a bit more.

 

[Xorkoth]

A a few friends of mine prefer it when it's a little yellow to pure white, effects-wise. A not uncommon sentiment.

 

[Bagseed]

A a few friends of mine prefer it when it's a little yellow to pure white, effects-wise. A not uncommon sentiment.

and, like many things regarding drug use, probably due to placebo/suggestion

 

[Xorkoth]

Perhaps, yet one should allow that we certainly are far from a complete understanding of subjective effects as they relate to receptor binding, and even full understanding of how molecules bind to receptors and the full range of effects downstream. Additional molecules present could produce differences in effects. I'm not saying that is true, and that it's not due to the power of suggestion, but I don't think any of us can make a statement about it with certainty.