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how do i make my tinctures have a high potency?

T

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Greenlighter
Joined
Nov 12, 2012
Messages
5
i've been making some tinctures of some entheogens just as a side project since i can't be having any dirty UA's. i've made a calea z tincture, motherwort, california poppy (my favorite) and, since i've recently gotten into smoking salvia and *attempting* quiding re-hydrated leaves, i'm gonna make a salvia tincture.

right now my method is basic:
1 part dried herb, 1 part 100 proof vodka. shake daily for first few days then leave for a month. strain and keep out of sun.

i was thinking about this:
1 part dried herb, 1 part 100 proof vodka still but when i'm done straining i'd just add that tincture back into the jar and and more dried herb. i don't know the science of how the alcohol would break down the salvinorum A (sp?) and if there would be a point in doing this process (possibly 3-4 times) to achieve a very high potency tincture.

i'm really just experimenting with this kind of extraction shit for fun. if i waste a little bit of money for fun then so be it.

i saw somewhere (probably erowid) about salvinorum A blotters. i'll post a link if i can find it but that really interested me.
 
Advantages of a higher potency tincture would mean you'd have to consume less of it, and therefore less alcohol, and it would take less space to store. Disadvantage would be that it would need more precise measurement and there would be less room for error when dosing.

Going to send this over to Psychedelic Drugs as maybe they know more about making salvia divinorum tinctures.

BDD -> PD
 
I've done what you are attempting. You need 100% alcohol (190 proof) to do a proper salvia maceration, and the ratio is 1 part plant to 2 parts alcohol.

What you're currently using is 50% alcohol which means the rest is water. Salvia's psychotropic actives are not water soluble, so you're really just going to get a bunch of polyphenols in that mixture but not the psychoactive compounds you're looking for - which is why you need 100% alcohol.

Also, you're doing 1:1 which doesn't give much solvent for the salvia to extract into. You would be wasting plant material at this ratio because the alcohol would become saturated with salvia extract before the plant material is spent, therefore defeating the purpose of doing a double extraction.

If you want to do a double maceration I would add a bit more alcohol (10-15% of total volume) once you add the new material. When using 100% alcohol, you should dilute the finished tincture with water before using it, at least to 50% alcohol. Anything below 21% and it will go bad.

Motherwort would do fine in 40%, but california poppy also requires a minimum of 75% alcohol to make a good quality extract.
 
How does poppy tincture not give you a dirty UA?

Also: for stronger extracts, try using the least amount of liquid needed to cover the source material but do multiple pulls to get all the good stuff. If there is no problem with heat degradation or getting nasty impurities, do the extractions warm. If you happen to know the actives are very soluble then cool and filter the crude tincture.
 
Foreigner said:
I've done what you are attempting. You need 100% alcohol (190 proof) to do a proper salvia maceration.
Click to expand...
I get your point, but just to be anal, 190 proof is not 100% alcohol, it's 95% (the proof number is just twice the percentage).

Also just wanted to point out that one should be making sure to use an alcohol that is safe to drink.

Never Knows Best said:
California poppies (aka Golden Poppies) are not of the papaver genus, but eschscholzia, and their active ingredients are not opiates.
Click to expand...
California Poppies do contain small amounts of morphine and codeine.

These alkaloids may contribute to the activity of Eschscholzia, but there are also a large variety of other alkaloids, including californidine, californine, chelerythrine, chelilutine, chelirubine, coptisine, cryptocavine, cryptopine, escholidine, escholine, escholinine, eschscholtzidine, protopine and sanguinarine. California Poppies are also contain the flavanoids rutin, quercetin and isorhamnetin.

California Poppies have been shown to affect opioid receptors, benzodiazepine receptors, and inhibit dopamine beta-hydroxylase and MAO-B.
 
^I knew they contained some morphine and codeine, but the amounts are trivial compared to other psychoactives present in them, or aren't particularly important overall. Couldn't find any good info on its pharmacological profile though, beyond the same that you posted.

Have you experience with this, or making herbal tinctures in general, or is it just part of your Encyclodia Briticannica like BDDer brain? I've been curious about this one in particular for some time (they're out of season right now, but hey, that will only last so long).
 
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Swimmingdancer said:
I get your point, but just to be anal, 190 proof is not 100% alcohol, it's 95% (the proof number is just twice the percentage).

Also just wanted to point out that one should be making sure to use an alcohol that is safe to drink.
Click to expand...

I always get the proof wrong because I deal in %. Thanks.

It's 200 proof ETHANOL and no other kind.
 
There is no such thing as 200 proof ethanol. The highest proof you can get is 191 IIRC (95.5% alcohol).

For the OP's purposes, 190 Proof (95%) grain alcohol (Everclear, etc) is appropriate. Do not use denatured alcohol or rubbing alcohol. Everclear is ideal because it can be diluted for drinking.
 
There is one such thing, only it's not possible to make it by distilling because of the water azeotrope.
The ethanol can be dried with desiccants though, for example.

wiki said:
Absolute alcohol
Absolute or anhydrous alcohol refers to ethanol with a low water content. There are various grades with maximum water contents ranging from 1% to ppm levels. Absolute alcohol is not intended for human consumption. If azeotropic distillation is used to remove water, it will contain trace amounts of the material separation agent (e.g. benzene).[59] Absolute ethanol is used as a solvent for laboratory and industrial applications, where water will react with other chemicals, and as fuel alcohol. Spectroscopic ethanol is an absolute ethanol with a low absorbance in ultraviolet and visible light, fit for use as a solvent in ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy.[60]
Pure ethanol is classed as 200 proof in the USA, equivalent to 175 degrees proof in the UK system.[61]
Click to expand...

FYI
 
but alcohol is alcohol right? could i just use more of my 100 proof if i don't wanna buy everclear? (seems like a waste of everclear to me)

could i use 1 part plant 3-4 parts 100 proof and then evaporate the water/alcohol in the tincture and leave behind the psychoactives?
 
^ No, adding more 100 proof does not increase the alcohol's ability to extract, it just adds more solvent. You need higher proof alcohol to "strip" all the plant material out. At lower percentages you will just get polyphenols. Adding more 100 proof just creates more room for the polyphenols to extract into, but it won't extract the psychoactive compounds. It's quality of alcohol, not quantity, that determines what chemistries are extracted.

You could put the salvia into a whole barrel of 100 proof and it wouldn't make a difference.
 
Thank you very much this has confused me. Looks like I'm gonna buy some everclear...
party at my place!
 
Alright, I don't want to start a new thread so I'll bring this one back.

Can I use this 90% alcohol mint extract? I can't imagine why it wouldn't work
 
Salvinorin A is soluble in ethanol but not really in water. Salvinorin A and mint extract are both kappa-opioid receptor agonists. Wonder how the buccal-sublingual effects of mint extract/ethanol/salvia and ethanol/salvia extractions respectively would differ? Extract cold as before, more shaking, changing material. If concentration is required evaporation is an option.
 
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