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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards

Codeine extraction and evaporation: failed?

P

phantomcosmonaut

Bluelighter
Joined
Dec 24, 2011
Messages
277
I did a codeine extraction from Tylenol 3 pills, and followed the directions step by step. I decided to evaporate the liquid as well. Not much is ever said about that (other than the fact that it is optional), everyone is too impatient I guess, so I put it on a plate and left it to dry for a few days. I come back and find a VERY small amount of crystal to have formed. I scrape it up, dry it, and since I'm skeptical about why, I weigh it and it comes out to... .02g... And this was with .6g of codeine in pill form to begin with. So WTF happened?! It had to have been the evaporation process, I did everything right during the extraction.
 
Yes my scale is calibrated and I was left with .02g (20 MILLIGRAMS). How does that mean I lost product during my extraction?
 
while the above is true, you should only be losing 10-20%. There must have been something wrong with your extraction. Did you use enough water? how much water was there to evaporate? How did you filter? did you refilter too many times? I've done the extraction more times than i can count and never lost that much.
 
i probably would have used 100ml of water. I know less is better but the coffee filter is bound to soak up some water. If the water is too gunky i find it impossible to filter. Either way, try it again and i'll bet you'll have much better results, it takes a few tries to really get it down.
 
Well, the water was thick white to being and when I filtered the water was actually really clear, I considered not even bothering to re-filter. I really think it was the evaporation, I can't think of another explanation.

Actually, I remember adding more water once I added the pill dust to the water, because the solution was just way too thick. It came out to 80-100 ml from what I can remember.
 
Codeine does not mysteriously evaporate into nothingness. Nor does it break down into gases. The evaporation wokred just fine.

You did not mix your pills with the cold water long enough (or did not use enough cold water), and hence you did not extract most of the codeine. It stayed in the solid muck which you filtered off.

The best way to ensure good extraction is to put your pills in a blender with cold water. Second best is to grind them very finely with a mortar and pestle before mixing cold water in and sirring vigouorously.
 
That must be it, thank you. I was under the impression you shouldn't stir a lot because that would cause a lot of acetaminophen to be absorbed, and that codeine was soluble enough in cold water for stirring a lot to be unnecessary. I do specifically remember hardly stiriing my mixture. I guess that's a pretty stupid thing to think, but whatever.
 
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