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DMT: How am I doing so far? Beginner researching slowly...

GreatArc

Greenlighter
Joined
Jun 19, 2017
Messages
42
Thanks for reading this, first of all.

I have never tried DMT, and have spent several hours over the last week trying to wrap my head around the drug and see how well I am understanding things or where I have gotten things wrong. I learn best by checking my understanding as I go along and getting corrected as we go slowly. I have no chemistry background, and no experience with extraction. Let me just throw out some points at you and correct me where I'm wrong or help me understand the process slightly better, if you're game to answer any or all of my points.

1.) DMT is a molecule which is about 1% of the Mimosa Hostilis Inner Root Bark's makeup.

2.) It can be orally ingested only when paired with an MAO inhibitor, which does something to your body that stops your system from just 'burning it off' somehow? This mix of DMT fumarate and MAOI is typically ayuahuasca. DMT needs to be extracted to a salt of some kind to take it this way, a 'salt' is also called a fumarate or an ester. STB would also be called crystals? Or is it crystals in both a fumarate and STB?

3.) To smoke DMT, it is not a fumarate or ester, it is extracted STB (straight to base). Is this right, and does 'base' in this context refer to pH? I don't think it does, but what exactly is meant by base?

STB DMT extraction process goes something like this:

4.) Mimosa Bark (MHRB) is put in a mix of water (tap, distilled?) with a basing agent that makes the pH basic (high). This is called a mixture (two or more things mixed together). The base agent we use is NaOH, sodium hydroxide. This is usually lye, which is really caustic and dangerous to use so get fully protected with gloves, face protection, lab coat and goggles.

5.) The water/lye mixture softens the bark up and releases a bunch of the DMT from the bark so it is now floating around in the solution. Now we have to figure out a way to get it out of the mixture without taking the unwanted stuff out.

6.) We stick in Naphtha (is Coleman fuel a good substitute?) which is a solvent. Solvents dissolve things, but I am unclear what is being dissolved. But somehow, this results in a solution. I think the solvent passes through the water/bark/lye mixture and grabs the DMT molecules out and sticks them to the naphtha solvent. Solvents dissolve a solute (not sure what is the solute in this case, (the entire water/bark/lye mixture) and make something called a solution. Is the 'solution' the DMT molecules suspended or stuck to/in the naphtha?

7.) After rolling it around, we physically remove (pull) the now separated naphtha/DMT solution off of the surface of the container. Does this get refined further for contaminants?

8.) We either refine the DMT/naphtha solution somehow to remove impurities or not, but then put the solution in a glass dish where the naphtha will either evaporate slowly off completely, leaving behind DMT crystals to scrape and gather. Another process is to put it in a very cold freezer where DMT crystals will form and freeze out of the solution, but the naphtha will not, allowing us to take it out of the freezer and quickly pour off the naphtha, leaving only DMT behind to scrape and gather.

9.) There is still DMT in the naphtha so we use it at least once more to add back to the water/base/root mixture, adding a little more naphtha and water/lye to the mixture to get it going again. Then we repeat several more 'pulls', freezing/evaporating off the naphtha and gathering as much of the DMT as we can, about 1g DMT for every 100g of root bark.

10.) At different stages during the extraction, we are going to keep the mixture and solutions very warm to aid in both getting the DMT out of the bark into the water/base mixture, and out of the water/base mixture with the naphtha solvent and into the naphtha/DMT solution.

11.) There should be nothing of the naphtha left to smoke, and just pure DMT (or at least only impurities will be root bark particles). How to test this is to see if the solvent evaporates away without residue before using it in an extraction. Does Coleman naphtha do this?

This is my rudimentary understanding of the process so far. What have I gotten right and wrong? It has been said so many times that you should not simply follow a trek like a recipe without understanding what you are doing and trying to do at each stage, so I am doing my best to up my chemistry IQ until I can describe extraction to you step-by-step and what/why we are doing them.

Thanks in advance for marking my book report so far!
 
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This is not related to chemistry but i strongly suggest you read two essays by Nick Sand RIP who was the first to synthesis dmt and discover it could be vaped. He probably has had more DMT than anyone and is without doubt the greatest underground psychedelic chemist that ever lived. Google Nick Sand Essays...they are very enlightening and a far better look into the dmt experience than The Spirit Molecule..which he discusses and points out the obvious flaws in that study.
 
Most of your questions can be clarified here https://wiki.dmt-nexus.me/FAQ_-_DMT_Frequently_Asked_Questions_and_Troubleshooting_Guide, and at the Nexus in general, but I'll cover your points anyway, for reinforcement.

1) DMT is also found in the leaves, bark, and roots of many other trees and grasses, in varying concentrations. Examples include Acacia confusa, Psychotria viridis, and a few Phalaris species.

2) Some clarification here: MAO stands for "monoamine oxidase," which is an enzyme in your body that is responsible for breaking down many different molecules. An MAO inhibitor, or MAOI, is a chemical which reduces MAO's ability to work, temporarily preventing it from dismantling a whole host of substances, including DMT. Ordinarily, MAO would break down (orally-administered) DMT far too quickly for one to register any effects, but when taken in combination with an MAOI, the DMT has time to reach your brain and work its magic.

The combination of MAOI and oral DMT is often referred to as ayahuasca, though in truth the word ayahuasca is actually the traditional name of the Banisteriopsis caapi vine, which is the prime MAOI-containing ingredient in many Amazonian brews. (In fact, ayahuasca brew is often taken alone, or used as a base on which shamans will test the "spirit" of other plants to learn what they do.) For our Western, English-speaking intents and purposes, however, yes; ayahuasca is a brew of MAOI-containing ingredient(s)--typically caapi--and DMT salt or DMT-containing plants (see: Psychotria viridis).

In simple terms, a salt (in chemistry) is a compound formed when an acid and a base react together. DMT fumarate is formed when freebase DMT--what is extracted from root bark--is reacted with fumaric acid. The fumarate form is both suitable for ingestion and arguably the most stable form of DMT, although other DMT salts (DMT acetate, DMT hydrochloride, DMT phosphate, etc.) are possible. It depends on the tek you use and what's available to you.

Both freebase DMT and the various DMT salts will be in "crystal" form if they are relatively pure (and not in the process of being vaporized =D). STB or straight-to-base is simply the term for a procedure by which DMT is extracted from the root bark directly into its freebase form, without an intervening acid step. Your execution of your chosen extraction method and the steps you take (if any) to purify will be the determining factor in whether or not you end up with crystals as opposed to a tar/resin.

3) You're mostly right. DMT needs to be in its freebase form for vaporization purposes. This is what you get with a STB tek. But it does actually require a very high (basic) pH in order to convert the DMT in the root bark into its freebase form. (DMT and most alkaloids are typically found in various salt forms in nature.)

I won't cover the extraction except to say you've got the method but your understanding of the chemistry could really use some reinforcement before you go tackling a project of this complexity. It's a far cry in complexity from cooking LSD, of course, but take it from someone who's been around the proverbial block a time or two: take the time to understand all the facets of the process, really know it, before you dive in the first time. You appear to be doing this (hence the thread), so "good on ya," I just want to reinforce the importance of what you're doing now. ;) Kitchen chemistry can be a lot of fun, but it's not without some modicum of danger. (Even if that danger turns out to simply be wasted product :D.)

As a source of information regarding this topic (and many other related topics), I can't talk up the Nexus enough. I'd also recommend looking up some other teks; most people have graduated from the caustic lye+naphtha extractions of yesteryear. (In any case, don't use Coleman fuel unless you test it first to ensure it evaporates cleanly with zero residue! Many common fuels have potentially dangerous additives.) D-Limonene is where it's at!

Good luck and be safe!
 
Any good limonene extraction teks? I know, I should go to Nexus, but the only limonene tek there (Q21?) is so confusing, that I don't even want to try..
 
Thanks, some wonderful help here! I just discovered that Nexus site by chasing links and questions in the interim between asking the question and reading the reply. It seems like a wonderful resource. Also, thanks for not just saying 'go read online', as you rightly recognized, I am reading online and checking in to see how well I'm understanding things that I'm reading and hoping to be not wrong for any longer than I have to be.
 
Any good limonene extraction teks? I know, I should go to Nexus, but the only limonene tek there (Q21?) is so confusing, that I don't even want to try..

There are actually a few teks that use limonene. Check out Amor fati's nontoxic approach if you want to go totally food-safe. It's important to understand any tek thoroughly before attempting it. It's not rocket science, but none of them are soak-and-sit, either. A lot of the teks can be confusing at first. Not everyone is clear with their language when writing a tek, either...

To be fair, I did make a small blunder: While I still fully endorse the non-toxic lime+limonene and similar teks, I was actually thinking of 69Ron's D-Limonene tek that has become the go-to for mescaline extraction. Been absorbed with cactus lately, sorry! Lye+naphtha may still be the most efficient method for DMT extraction; all teks on the Nexus purportedly result in similar purity and yield when executed correctly. It's a matter of the materials available to you, what you choose to work with, and how carefully you execute the steps.

GreatArc, here is a great primer that should answer most, if not all, of your questions and give you a better understanding of the chemistry behind it all.
 
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Wonderful! Yes, Nexus seems like the very best DMT resource online so far. Thanks again, all.
 
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