Why not just buy a bottle of cough syrup/cough gels containing only DXM HBr?
Well I was asking for someone who wanted to know because, like someone else said, Delsym might be a good source for DXM for them if it would work.
I also think the subject is very interesting scientifically. I actually have no vested interest in the topic at hand, I really am asking for a friend. I am however trying to understand and interpret it to said friend, and also it's really interesting..
Always fun to learn something new, I say.
So it sounded like I understood your limonene idea.. but if it oxidizes easily into an allergen, then maybe that's a bad idea for people with allergies? Or is this allergen in the sense that it will stimulate an allergic response in anyone, not just people with allergies?
Does limonene evaporate cleanly? My best guess is no, if it has a lemony smell.. but if it did, couldn't you mix DXM Poly with limonene to dissolve the polystyrene, then evaporate the limonene to yield DXM sulphate? I assume the addition of the aqueous solution was because limonene wouldn't evaporate cleanly..
Lets see.. what else.. the ethanol idea, maybe use the totse thing to get a bunch of DXM poly out by itself, then dissolve it in ethanol and evaporate? What about acetone, could polystyrene dissolve in acetone? Then evaporate the acetone and have DXM sulphate?
If any of these ideas worked, does anyone have any idea of the bioavailability of DXM sulphate? I know other drugs are in a sulphate form, but I also know that doesn't necessarily mean anything. Would DXM sulphate likely be healthier, avoiding the risks associated with bromine?
Thank you for putting your 2 cents in Ylide. I'll admit, the physics stuff goes over my head (i guess it's still chemistry maybe, i'm not really versed in either).. usually I'd look it up, but I am and .. from a beginner's point of view, I don't know how well I can understand it without going back to school and taking more classes in the sciences.. lol
So now your idea nuke is basically either
A:
Add limonene to milled polystirex powder till dissolved, add acidified water, the acidified water would pull the polystyrene out and hope the DXM stays in the limonene.. then discard the water, add regular water in, then hope the DXM pulls out of the limonene into the water.. save the limonene for future use or discard..
or
B:
Add limonene to milled polystirex powder till dissolved, add a basified solution.. then.. let the layers separate.. discard the water with the polystrex.. then add acidified water to the limonene, mix and separate, then the water would finally end up with the DXM?
Or maybe with the basifying you're trying to make the DXM non-sulfate so it will separate from the polystyrene more easily?
lol excuse my ignorance if any of that sounds outright stupid. I'm working with the amount of knowledge I have, and looking up covalent bonds and .. anions and stuff didn't do me any good.. Somehow my school didn't make chemistry necessary to graduate, and I heard lots of horror stories from other people in the grades ahead of us. Half the people who took it seemed to fail, so I opted for easier science classes. Back then I wasn't good at the sciences at all. Now I've learned more about physics and chemistry since leaving school than I did in school. I would wish I had taken more science classes but.. I didn't have the ability back then.
Anyway, thanks for all the input people. In any case it's an interesting topic.