Hey all,
Newb here. SWIM is helping a friend who bought Acacia Confusa root bark. He is currently taking organic chemistry where he learned about acid-base extraction from organic compounds. From reading about the molecule on wikipedia, other colleges' acid-base extraction lab notes, eand the many, many, teks, I found that what I learned in class conflicts with what is explained in nearly all teks. The acid-base explainations are all detailed and well explained, as well as the overall procedure to the layman.

To get the most DMT and NMT while leaving behind all bad stuff, the best way to do that is remove all alkaloids (the stuff) from the paydirt using your organic solvent, in most teks it is naphthalene. DMT and NMT are akaloids which are insoluble in water. Whether you use an acid or a base, a weak acid or a strong base, there are still water molecules "floating" around in the liquid with the H+ and OH-. So, even though you acidify or basify the Stuff into a salt, this method is less efficient than first, soaking the paydirt in naphthalene.

HElP me, is there some reason the paydirt should FIRST be exposed to the acid/base Then the solvent (naphthalene)?

Further, SWIM does not have access to NaOH, but, has access to KOH, does anyone see any problems with this?
SWIM plans on using dichloromethane (can guarantee its purity) . Thoughts?

I am taking organic chemistry right now, so a technical explanation would help (as well as be interesting).

Source:
http://web.centre.edu/mu...ic/lab/24_extraction.htm
www.chem.umass.edu/~samal/269/extract.pdf

Hi there,

Alkaloids inside the plant cells are in their salt form, meaning that they are water soluble and that a non-polar solvent extraction on the plant material won't get you anything. It also means that you need at least a base to raise the pH and to freebase the alkaloids so they are soluble in a non-polar solvent. But if you need a base, then definitely need water, as pH is a property of water only.

The acid step is, in its crudest form, soaking the plant material in water. Acids present in the plant will give you an acidic pH even without the addition of extra acid. In fact, some people perform the acid step with water only. Others add some extra acid to aid in the extraction and possibly attack plant structures and release dmt. And many also use extended boiling to further aid in the damage of plant structures, assist diffusion and solubility of the alkaloids in the water. All in all, the acid step is to help moving all the alkaloids from the plant to the water.

Finally, I hope you didn't mean naphthalene, but naphtha!