SUPPLIES NEEDED:
-Cough syrup (any size. If you're new to the procedure, start out with a
4oz bottle). Now - you want the syrup's active ingredients to be
"Dextromethorphan HBr" OR "DXM HBr" OR something similar to that only!
Many cough syrups contain potentially harmful ingredients (such as
acetaminophen, pseudoephedrine, etc) which will not be removed by this
method (i.e., you end up with them in your end product). I would avoid
using any product containing guaifenesin as well... this process does
remove it, but guaif. is known to cause problems during the extraction...
-Non-Polar Solvent - For most people, the easiest solvent to acquire will
be lighter fluid (AKA naptha). And that's cigarette lighter, not charcoal!
Zippo and Ronsonol both work. Whatever you choose, make sure it
evaporates cleanly - without leaving any residue.
-Ammonia - Normal, clear, non-sudsy ammonia. No lemon or any other
scented stuff.
-Citric Acid (better) OR Lemon Juice - While citric acid is overall the better
choice, you can use concentrated lemon juice as well... you know, like
those stupid little plastic lemons in the grocery store.
-Some Jars - Nothing special, just normal jars, like the ones jam comes
in. You'll need a couple larger ones and a couple small ones. Make sure
the lids fit well without leaks, or you'll be pissed later.
-Separatory Funnel OR Plastic Sandwich Bags - If you have a sep. funnel,
that's great. Otherwise, get ghetto and have a few ziplocking sandwich
bags on hand. Works great.
-Other Misc. Stupid Stuff - Scissors, paper towels or something in case
you spill something.
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make sure u do this in the kitchen by the sink and good ventilation, ammonia stinks.
1. Take your bottle of Robo or whatever and pour the whole thing into a
larger jar.
2. Add an approximately equal amount of ammonia (fill the empty Robo
bottle with ammonia, then dump that in - this will get any extra syrup that
was still inside of the bottle).
3. Robo+ammonia. It stinks. Literally.
4. Add your solvent (naptha). It will float on top of the syrup+ammonia
shit, so you can easily see how much you've added. You want the layer
to be about 1/2" thick or so.
5. Robo+ammonia, with solvent layer on top.
6. Now, put the lid on the jar, and shake the crap out of it. Shake it for
at least a few minutes.
Theory behind this - how it works:
All alkaloids (DXM is an alkaloid) can exist in two forms - as a salt or as
freebase. So Dextromethorphan HBr is DXM in the form of a hydrobromide
salt (you could also have DXM hydrochloride or whatever). Anyway, when
that salt comes in contact with a strong base (in this case, ammonia), it
will convert into freebase form which is soluble in oil (naptha - see where
this is going? Salts are water soluble, by the way).
So, you have basically just changed water soluble DXM salt into oil soluble
DXM freebase - and you now have a jar of ammonia, syrup, water,
inactives, and other shit with a layer of Naptha+DXM floating on top.
................................................................................................................
Okay, so now you have your layered jar. What you need to do now is
remove the solvent+DXM layer from the water (red) layer.
1. Pour the entire contents of the jar into one of the plastic bags. If you
want, you can add a little water to the jar, swirl it around, and dump that
into the jar as well to get any excess that was still in the jar. Let it settle
and the layers should be clearly visible.
2. Get over the sink or something, and snip off a VERY SMALL piece of one
of the corner of the bag. The bigger you cut it, the faster it'll drain, but
the less accurate you'll be later....
3. When the red layer is almost gone, get another jar ready.
4. Now here's where you need to be a little quick. You want to catch
the clear layer in the jar. Without getting any of the red layer.
5. Let all the solvent drain into the jar.
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By this point, you should have a jar with naptha+DXM freebase. If you take
a quick whiff (don't go huffing now) of the liquid, you'll probably still smell
a little ammonia and maybe a little essence of cherry as well. This is how
to get rid of that.
1. Add an amount of water equal or greater to the amount of solvent into
the jar. Put on the lid and shake the hell out of it. Dump the whole thing
into a new bag, seal it, let it settle. More than likely, after it settles the
water will be cloudy. Tada - impurities.
2. Get to your sink, and cut off another corner and allow the water to drain
out exactly like in the last stage.
3. Catch the solvent in a new, clean jar.
4. Repeat until your solvent no longer carries the smell of ammonia or
cough syrup.
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Now, once you have your clean solvent+freebase, here's what you do to
make it into water soluble DXM hydrocitrate...
1. Take your jar of solvent and add lemon juice (or citric solution, if you have
it). Add an amount greater than the amount of solvent.
2. Put the lid on and shake the crap out of it.
3. Pour into another bag, seal, and let separate. Note that sometimes a
bubbley layer forms, so separation could potentially take a few hours, esp.
if you use a syrup that contains guaifenesin.
4. Do the monotonous draining thing again... this time, you want to keep
the citric (bottom) layer, so drain into a jar from the start (Photo 4).
5. Now you have a jar with lemon juice + DXM hydrocitrate!.
6. Boil the mixture before you drink it, both to get the amount of liquid you
have to drink as small as possible, and to evaporate any remaining solvent.
This stuff tastes like crap - it must be the bitterest shit in the world.
Theory behind this - how it works:
You may have figured this out by now, but as a strong base will convert
salt to freebase, an acid will convert freebase to salt - which since it is
soluble in the water layer (lemon juice/citric in this case), will precip. back
out of the solvent.
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Now, as opposed to taking your DXM+solvent and turning it into DXM
hydrocitrate, you can also evaporate off the naptha which will leave
crystals of DXM freebase.
Pour the solvent into a bowl or something, and either let it evaporate
naturally (will probably take a long time) or use heat (like a blow dryer or
something) to speed it up. Once all the solvent is gone, crystals will be
left which you can scrape off.
Since freebase isn't soluble in water, it wouldn't really be that effective to
take the crystals/powder orally without mixing them with a little lemon
juice (hydrocitrate!) first. The crystals/powder are more useful for long
term storage...
