Solvents for the masses
"I was looking in the handbook at ethylene glycol and found that it is soluble in acetic acid. Perhaps it would be better to get rid of the gel instead of extracting the oxycodone. Just a thought. If anyone knows any
other ingredients of the gel matrix I can look that up as well. "
Well, I don't know where to begin. I had my first oxycodone 80mg OP this evening and my first thought was that this would be a quick and easy conquest over the chemists that designed this delivery system. Mind you, they have college educated chemists that spent years developing a way to get you to use the drug as they intended. All the same, they have little chance of actually stopping people from adequately removing the opiate from the adulterants. They will, however, achieve their goal, as 99% of the people out there will never see the light of day as to effective separation and, thus, a well built deterrent is born.
Well, in the search of suitable solvents for oxycodone hydrochloride and solvents for some of the binders in the formulation I found this site. First I was content to read because someone had claimed to have found the answers I was looking for (out of shear curiosity as opposed to a desire to spend any time separating opiates so I could get fucked up faster). I found this thread and had to respond.
I am a chemist. I have no degree (not in chemistry anyway) but have studied chemistry in either a passing interest or professional capacity for 25 years. I was taken back by this thread.
Okay, first, there was a gentleman that pointed out that you, here, didn't even seem to have an understanding of the solvents much less chemistry. He was very correct. I was drawn here by the resolute statement that someone here had found a viable way to separate the opiate salt from the formulation. It was stated with such conviction.
Look, if you don't understand chemistry then you can't say that you have developed a process that separates oxycodone hydrochloride from the other constituents in the tablet and make it sound as if it's pure enough to inject. That is misleading. I can't think of an appropriate word to describe that assertion but must refrain from using any if I don't want to offend. I guess it'd be appropriate to just say that maybe that statement was premature. I know you probably got caught up in the moment but that was a claim you could not make.
To begin, there is a reason that you taste bitter opioid salts in both portions. Acetone is not a good extraction solvent. In this case it would be a miracle if it was because acetone does not generally dissolve organic salts and, conversely, is generally used to wash amine salts like oxycodone hydrochloride of impurities. It is generally a poor choice for extracting them. Of course this may not be true in every case. Most organic salts are not soluble in dichloromethane and, yet, it dissolves MDMA.HCl very easily. There are, of course, exceptions to most things. I find little information online as to oxycodone hydrochloride's solubility in acetone so I can't say for sure but it is likely that the opiate is only slightly soluble in it as well as it's cousin Methyl Ethyl Ketone. It's amazing it's even slightly soluble but, like I said, I don't truly know about this specific solvent with oxycodone hydrochloride so I am certainly not saying one way or the other.
The quote I posted above was a suggestion to remove the adulterants first. That, my friends, is the most logical course of action in this case. Often times one can find non-polar solvents that are well suited for removing tablet binders, like toluene or xylene, as the binders are generally waxes or polymer esters like hydroxypropyl methylcellulose. Unfortunately, as the only poster here that actually cited a reference noted, tetrahydrofuran is the best solvent for removing these binders and information I have found on the internet says that toluene and xylene do not dissolve hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, or they don't dissolve hydroxypropyl cellulose anyway, but that's a pretty good indication that it probably doesn't serve as an appropriate solvent for hydroxypropyl mehtylcellulose either. I have a 4 liter bottle of H.P.L.G. tetrahydrofuran but I assume most of you do not.
Well, I did some searching for acceptable solvents but understand, it is like I said before when I noted that the company has degree holding chemists that collaborated on this project for years just to make sure it was not easy for John Q. Everyman to separate the opiate salt from it's binders so that people could snort, smoke or inject them. They have formulated a mixture of binders (there is probably really just one main constituent that poses the majority of the problems) that are most likely soluble in some solvents but not other so as if to make it hard to separate the goods in a single step.
What is the most appropriate route to purification? I am just posing an idea but I would be heavily focused on removing the bulk of the binders, freeing the organic base oxycodone from it's organic salt, oxycodone hydrochloride, and extracting with a non-polar solvent after making the solution basic. Extractions generally are done three (3) times and washed to purify before being introduced to most likely the same acid they were originally treated with to re-form the organic salt. Recrystallization is optional but never hurt anyone. This is a lot to ask of the average guy with no chemicals, glassware, equipment or experience to speak of so, as I said before, an effective deterrent has been put in place for 99% of the people out here.
Well, I was hoping to start some searching of my own. I have a feeling that a solvent mixture can wash the bulk of the binders out at once and then the tact to take after that is very much easy. I will do some searching but I did not come here to tell you all that some guy you never met was searching for a viable way to purify oxycodone hydrochloride from OP-whatever they are calling it now days. I came by here to ask that you proceed more cautiously. Seriously, I read the bulk of the posts in this thread and a lack of knowledge is apparent with regards to chemistry. Please be mindful of the advice you give and the certainty with which you give it because I can tell that few here know the role that most of these solvents play in various extraction nor do most understand the concepts behind choosing one or another and that can be important as solvents are more and less specific depending upon which one is chosen and under what circumstances they are chosen. It is very much possible to give advise unknowingly, that can hurt other. In this case I assume that it's completely backwards, that acetone is a solvent that one might use to wash away impurities as opposed to being an extraction solvent and if you get what I am saying, you understand that I am explaining that one may possibly extract more than what is desired and that can, sometimes, have a very bad effect. I just urge caution both with statements that other might rely upon and in trying things that you think might work but don't truly understand. Of course, there is little danger in not purifying correctly a product that is already U.S.P. grade to begin with.
Bee safe y'all.
Moriarty
