Opioids Questions about opiate alkoloid extraction.

[uniformsquare]

I was wondering if the morphine and codeine in dried poppy pods could be converted to a crude opium like extract by grinding the pods to a powder, then extracting the alkaloids into ethanol, and then evaporating the ethanol?

Is this a decent idea or am I talking out of my ass?

 

[Swerlz]

I think that'll work out, but you won't extract just the morph and codeine. You'll get the thebaine and other alkaloids also, I believe.

 

[Dr Pepper]

Yeah i'd look in to laudanum recipes and you could probably just evaporate the alcohol and be left with product

 

[uniformsquare]

I am assuming most of the alkaloids are soluble in ethanol. I wonder about the consistency of the extract considering the ethanol will evaporate quickly and the water in the everclear will take longer to evaporate.

My question has anybody tried this before?

Cool someone else from ATX on the this board.

Austin > every town or city in Texas!

 

[dorkchop]

there are lots of threads / info about this. It has been done lots of times and there are recipes / methods posted. Check this megathread:

http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/showthread.php?t=480294

and this link:

http://forum.poppies.org/index.php?showtopic=10089&st=0

p.s. the best way is to use water, not ethanol.

 

[uniformsquare]

The wikipedia article on laudanum says:

"Paracelsus, born Phillippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim (1493–1541) in Salzburg, Austria, a 16th century Swiss-German alchemist, discovered that the alkaloids in opium are far more soluble in alcohol than water."

This is beyond most layman such as us, but this patent is still interesting. United States Patent 6,054,584 Process for Extracting and Purifying Morphine From Opium


Update, I finally ground up 15 pods to a fine powder then I placed them in 12oz eveclear roughly 1 part powdered pods to 2 parts everclear by volume. I shook it every once and a while for about 24 hours then strained it with a bandanna and let the ethanol and water evaporate over night under an air circulator. I gathered the dark viscous like substance, but was displeased to find super fine poppy pod powder also in the mix. Next time I will leave the pieces large enough that there will be no way through the filter. The consistency is a not like hash oil from butane extraction and is very hard to handle.

 

[Dr Pepper]

I am assuming most of the alkaloids are soluble in ethanol. I wonder about the consistency of the extract considering the ethanol will evaporate quickly and the water in the everclear will take longer to evaporate.

My question has anybody tried this before?

Cool someone else from ATX on the this board.

Austin > every town or city in Texas!

Agreed! Get your post count up so i can shoot u a pm!
Are you currently at the University or what?