Elrich Testing Question

[jaredamodio]

Hey, I'm new to this so I apologize in advance if this is a dumb question or one that has been asked in the past here. I was wondering whether, after testing a blotter with Elrich reagent and getting result positive for the presence of an indole, the substance can be consumed or not. I initially thought this wouldn't matter and that it would be fine to take the acid but it also seems the reagent contains decently concentrated HCl and other potentially harmful chemicals so maybe not?

 

[daytryptr]

You cut off less than an 1/8th of the tab, even a 1/16 works with bigger tabs and test that. Theres no need to test the whole tab.

I wouldn't personally consume tabs that have reagent on them, such a small amount prob wouldnt be that harmful but really i dont know, and the easy way to get around that is just using a small corner of the tab so you don't really waste any of your tabs, but still are able to confirm if it does indeed have an indole present.

 

[Phluffhead]

No do not consume drugs that have reagents on them. Discard them.

When testing blotters cut off the smallest possible corner of the tab and that's enough to react.

For powders you literally need a grain to get a reaction.

Then throw l away what ever you tested and wash your hands. I recommend wearing gloves but I know they are not always accessible.

 

[.:Holy::Toast:.]

There's usually some pretty nasty chemicals that you certainly don't want to ingest in any reagent test, I'm pretty sure all at least contain a concentrated strong acid as this should keep the alkaloid fully protonated and would help drive the complexation reaction that results in the colour changes; ie. the Mecke kit is a small amount of selenic acid as the ligand and the rest is ~95% concentrated sulfuric acid.
Also the compound used in Ehrlich's reagent has hasn't been studied in terms of it's potential toxicity, at least there is no information I can find.