Hi everyone.
SWIM really really needs some opinions, well he hopes for as many as possible, hopefully from people with some great experience or even better some chemist. SWIM has been researching for months to make a safe extraction and I will describe what he tried, results and so on.
So, before he even started to get everything needed, the first and biggest problem he stumbled across was getting a VM&P naphtha, which is supposed to be most preffered.
Considering it is impossible to get it in EU, he was researching for alternatives online for weeks, if not even months. He couldn't even get a "petroleum ether 40/60" which is supposed to be a good alternative.
He then remembered a guy he went to a psy festival together, who had some experience with DMT and extracting his own, he also went to several ayahuasca seasons and knows some "Shamans" so he figured it would be his best and only choice to ask him.
The guy said he should get a "Medicinal benzine" at pharmacy. So he went for it. But that stuff was very expensive (6,5€/100ml). He went for it, made few extractions and yielded very little(Less then 0,5% from inner MHRB) before he gained some experience and was able to get better at it.. He wasted over a litre which costed a lot, do the math yourself. And he didn't even get half a gram out of it.
He then also went to buy some coleman's fuel, transparent liquid, on bottle it says: Naphta(Petroleum), hydrotreated, light; n-Pentane, Heptane. The product was much cheaper. But the smell was way worse then with medicinal benzine, and it evaporated very poorly, he had to make a heat bath and let the water boiling for quite a long time for it to evaporate. It left a residue and smelt bad. When he touched it, there was an oily residue on his fingers. So he decided that is a NO GO.
He then tryed a cleaning benzine avaliable in paint stores, which is stated to leave no residue after evaporation. This one smelled similar to medicinal benzine, with a hint of some other smell. It is cheaper because it is ment for cleaning and not to use at hospitals so it is not as pure. It evaporated much better then colemans, but also left a residue, not much but there was, and was also a bit oily to the touch. So he decided he wouldn't use that.
Searching for other options, he wasn't able to get anything more pure then medicinal benzine from pharmacy, which is basically petroleum ether, also called WUNDBENZIN in germany, and it's used to clean around wounds, removing adhesive of patches from skin..
He then found 2 sellers online with wundbenzin from germany, where anyone could order it, other offers didn't allow normal people to order it. Most common is wundbenzin 40/60, but he decided for wundbenzine 40/65. It has a lower boiling point then the one from local pharmacy, but by smell it was almost identical, maybe even a bit softer smell. Here is the link to the product:
https://www.medicalcorne...c24-surgical-spirit.htmlIt is not actually a spirit, it's just the translation, on german website its wundbenzine. It's been made by DIN and DAB ( Deutsches Arzneibuch ) standards. It is supposed to be used for medical ablutions, pharmacy, medicine, industry, cleaning sector, detergent industry, hospitals and to remove adhesives. It's stated it is a pure product. It has an UN3295.
After researching, SWIM figured many people in EU use wundbenzine, and some say its way superior then VM&P naptha.
The result of evaporation test from both local pharmacy product "Medicinal benzine" and "Wundbenzine 40/65" was the same. There is a bit of transparent residue left after evaporation, but there is no smell left after it evaporates and when he cleaned the residue with a finger, there was no oily feel or anything on finger and also no smell. If needed, i can post a few pictures he took of a residue. It is similar as if you left water to evaporate, but transparent, no white stuff like limescale in tap water. It could easly be removed with a finger with few scratches.
So what do you guys think, is he good to go? It is his only option and he always does freeze precipitate, so i guess even if there is a trace of residue, it shouldn't be precipitated out with crystals or in really really small quantites?
When it comes to extraction, same results were with medical benzine from local pharmacy as with wundbenzin 40/65 from online pharmacy from Germany where he ordered it, only the second one evapored at lower temps(Boiling at around 60°-70C).
In both cases when doing cold extractions, yields were low, but crystals were almost totally white. With adding some heat to solution, he got way better pulls, but a bit more yellow tint to it.. Still way more white then pictures online from people using VM&P naphtha. He only used A/B first time, took a lot of time for cooking and yielded very little, and most was yellow spice, similar to those photos of people using Naphtha, and 1/4 of yield was snowy white. He then used STB for further extractions and results seemed way better and it took very little time compared to A/B tek for extraction.
Another thing is that solvent never came clear out of freezer, even after precipitation and putting yellow solvent back to refreeze, almost no crystals came out anymore but solvent stayed pretty yellow. He is pretty sure most of plant oils and fats stays in solvent. Very little yellow/orange goo was extracted, just on a small spot, and everywhere else around there were white or slightly yellow crystals. Mostly crystals very really pretty and fluffy. He rather throws away the remaining yellow solvent after few uses just to be sure.
SWIM thinks that most products stated as "wundbenzin" would be much the same, as mostly all are made by DAB german pharmacopoeia standards.
Unfortunately he could not get his hands on data sheet, as there was problem with communication with both sellers with wundbenzine online, where anyone can order it. He did send them another email just today, used google translate and is hoping to get the document.
SWIM really wants to be safe, it is about 2 month ago first extractions were made, and he didn't bother to test it yet, he doesn't want to rush into it until he feels safe and the "call" to do it.
He didn't even bother to re-x, because it looks so clean, at least by colour, and most of crystals seem to dry up after freeze precipitation very quickly with the fan blowing over them. Of course he left them to dry for a day or so, to let any remaining solvent to evaporate. And after packing the extract, when he checked it after few days, if there was still some slight smell of solvent, he left the pack open for some more possible evaporation of solvent.
So what are your opinions?
I hope this post isn't way too long. SWIM has read all he could find online, but he needs a more direct answers to his specific situation and worries.
Hoping to get some good experienced answers. Please help him be safe