MeAndMissEmma
Greenlighter
- Joined
- Jun 13, 2017
- Messages
- 21
Hi,
You will see from my other thread that I have been trying with no success to extract alkaloids from dried poppy pods, so I have been thinking of strange alternative extraction methods. Lol.
It seems to be easy enough to extract the opium from the dried pods by boiling the powdered pods in dilute acid for a few hours, filtering, and evaporating.
The tricky part seems to be the extraction of the alkaloids.
So I was trying to figure out an alternative method, and I came up with an idea to vaporize the opium, thereby subliming the alkaloids and condensing them, and leaving behind non-volatile constituents.
Something like this:
1) Grind opium into a fine powder
2) Heat powdered opium to 300C
3) Condense the vapours by some means and discard the unvaporized opium residue
4) The condensed vapour will contain alkaloids, water, some insoluble particulate combustion products, and probably some waxes and oils
5) This mixture could then be dissolved and filtered to remove the insoluble particles, and perhaps some of the waxes and oils
Perhaps a better idea would be to vaporize the opium, and pass the vapours through dilute hydrochloric acid:
This will form a solution of alkaloid hydrochlorides, with some waxes and oils dissolved perhaps, and some undissolved particles.
The solution can then be filtered to remove those particles.
CO2 and water (combustion products) will also probably have been produced, however they will both be removed when the solution is evaporated in the next stage.
The solution can then be evaporated to remove the water, hydrogen chloride, and carbon dioxide, leaving a reasonably pure mixture of alkaloid hydrochlorides.
Any non-volatile constituents (meconic acid, other plant stuff) of opium will have been left behind as a residue in the vaporization stage.
The alkaloids are definitely volatile, and by smoking opium you are getting all of the effects and yet a lot of the opium will be left behind as residue, so by definition this is purification right? (you aren't inhaling 100% of the mass of the opium)
The alkaloids could then be further purified by various other means.
What do you think of this idea?
Thanks in advance
You will see from my other thread that I have been trying with no success to extract alkaloids from dried poppy pods, so I have been thinking of strange alternative extraction methods. Lol.
It seems to be easy enough to extract the opium from the dried pods by boiling the powdered pods in dilute acid for a few hours, filtering, and evaporating.
The tricky part seems to be the extraction of the alkaloids.
So I was trying to figure out an alternative method, and I came up with an idea to vaporize the opium, thereby subliming the alkaloids and condensing them, and leaving behind non-volatile constituents.
Something like this:
1) Grind opium into a fine powder
2) Heat powdered opium to 300C
3) Condense the vapours by some means and discard the unvaporized opium residue
4) The condensed vapour will contain alkaloids, water, some insoluble particulate combustion products, and probably some waxes and oils
5) This mixture could then be dissolved and filtered to remove the insoluble particles, and perhaps some of the waxes and oils
Perhaps a better idea would be to vaporize the opium, and pass the vapours through dilute hydrochloric acid:
This will form a solution of alkaloid hydrochlorides, with some waxes and oils dissolved perhaps, and some undissolved particles.
The solution can then be filtered to remove those particles.
CO2 and water (combustion products) will also probably have been produced, however they will both be removed when the solution is evaporated in the next stage.
The solution can then be evaporated to remove the water, hydrogen chloride, and carbon dioxide, leaving a reasonably pure mixture of alkaloid hydrochlorides.
Any non-volatile constituents (meconic acid, other plant stuff) of opium will have been left behind as a residue in the vaporization stage.
The alkaloids are definitely volatile, and by smoking opium you are getting all of the effects and yet a lot of the opium will be left behind as residue, so by definition this is purification right? (you aren't inhaling 100% of the mass of the opium)
The alkaloids could then be further purified by various other means.
What do you think of this idea?
Thanks in advance