• N&PD Moderators: Skorpio | someguyontheinternet

mushroom extractions

do you think it would be better to do an acid-base extraction over just an acid extraction?
and also if i used HCL would the end result (if crystalised) be psilocybin HCL salt? does turning it into the salt make it more stable? does the same apply to psilocin?
 
Unless you have access to proper solvents, labware, a bottle of N2, and a decent vacuum source, I doubt you'll have any more success than I did at getting crystals. I plan to try a soxhlet extraction next.

Good luck.
 
well of course i wouldnt get pure crystals but hypotheticaly speaking, would it be the HCL salt? or something close?
 
Ahh... indeed. You need to register it seems. I'll try to copy it, but there are some huge pictures worth checking out too. This one is by triptamine:

The following method described shows an easy method to isolate pure psilocin from fungus in less than 4 hours. If a more pure product is wanted, the fairly pure psilocin can be recrystallized to produce large pure crystals.

20 grams of dried fungus is powdered in a coffee grinder to a fine powder. This is added to a glass container (~500 ml) along with 200 ml of distilled water and 40 ml distilled white vinegar (5% acidity). ~200 mg of vitamin C was also added to keep the psilocin from decomposing. This mixture was allowed to stir at room temperature for 1 hour and then the container was placed in a bath of boiling water to heat the mixture to 70 degrees C. After the mixture reached this temperature, it is filtered through multiple coffee filters (3-4 is good) and the filtered (be sure to squeeze out all the juice!) liquid is set into a cold water bath to cool it down. The extracted fungus is recovered and put into another container along with 150 ml water and 20 ml vinegar. This is again heated to 70 degrees C and then filtered as before. The filtrate is again cooled down and then added to the 1st extraction. The combined filtrates should give somewhere around 300 ml of liquid. Add about 30 ml of chloroform (xylene should also work, as psilocin is solubile in this as well) and begin stirring gently (you don't want emulsions, do you?). While stirring, SLOWLY add NaOH solution (~10 % NaOH is fine). I would suggest a drop by drop addition, as the pH can raise raphidly after a certain point. Target pH is 8, just try not to go over pH 9, as the alkaloids can decompose pretty fast at high pH. After the pH is at 8-9, continue to stir gently for about 20 minutes (electric stirrers are nice) and the psilocin will migrate into the chloroform (or xylene) layer. This is poured into a separatory funnel (or something similar) and the bottom chloroform layer is removed and set aside. The water layer is again stirred and 15 ml of chloroform is added for a second extraction. After 20 minutes of stirring, this is again separated in a separatory funnel and the chloroform recovered. These two chloroform extracts are combined and put into a small beaker. To this beaker, anhydrous MgSO4 is added (just oven dry epson salts in an oven at 450 degrees F for about an hour) to absorb any water. Usually only a gram or so is needed. Stir the chloroform with the MgSO4 for a minute or so and then filter through a "good quality" filter paper so you catch all the fine particles. The resulting chloroform layer will have a light yellow color. Now you have two choices:

You can evap the chloroform quickly to yield a fairly pure psilocin powder, or let it evaporate slowly to get larger and more pure crystals. Recrystallization can be carried out with methanol or a 3:1 heptane:chloroform. The recrystallized material is very pure and 20 mg is equivelent to 4-5 grams of mushrooms. Average yield for this method is about 60 mg of pure crystals (after recrystallization). The crystals do decompose at room temperature over time. The yellow crystals turn green in about a week or so if left out. To preserve the psilocin, put ~50 mg of psilocin in a small container and add ~50 mg ascorbic acid and 20 ml water. The psilocin will dissolve, but it does so slowly. You now have a solution with 2.5 mg psilocin per ml. This can be stored for many months in the refrigerator (possibly longer). An interesting note is that this "psilocin water" can be evaporated to give white needle crystals which don't seem to degrade at room temperature. Perhaps this is the way to stabilization!

Yes, it is 60 mg, but this is after recrystallization. The "crude" material was 90 mg. I would estimate the extraction to be about 70% efficient, as it provides 3 ~5 gram trips. Also remember that psilocin is about 30% more potent than psilocybin by weight. It is somewhat hard to tell the actual efficiency, as it is all objective for now.

There is also a trip report off the extracted substance.
 
Yeah, that is almost exactly the procedure I tried twice without success. It's obvious that Triptamine and I were working from the same article. So far Triptamine is the only one I've seen report success by that method other than the original researchers (who used inert atmospheres and vacuum techniques). Maybe I'm just a bit rusty after being out of the lab for so long? In any case, it's clear that it's at least tricky.

To the original poster: if you do an acid-base extraction, you'll end up with psiloc(yb)in free-base, you'll have to add an extra step to form a salt. Theoretically, it should be more stable as a salt but whether the inevitable loss of the added step is worth it is up to you.
 
ChuangTzu, you used the vitamin C as well? That seems to be his entire secret.
 
is there anything that could replace the cholophorm/xylene in that tech?
 
I remember Dr. Fanaticus had what was deemed a pretty reliable method involving 180 proof grain alcohol and a nylon. The Fanaticus website got shut down. But you can still find a copy of the PF Tek book through obscure book dealers. There was like 8 or 9 updates to the book. Try to get a latter issue.
 
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