Well here it is my first post... When I separate my naphtha from my base water I'd love a faster way to get my naphtha down to an amount to freeze precip. What would happen if I distill the naphtha? Would the dmt stay in the flask I'm heating or end up in the receiving flask? Would the heat hurt the dmt? Would I not be able to use the still the reduce the naphtha to freeze precip? I was also hoping this would let me reuse my naphtha by doing this. That stuff gets expensive after a while. I only have a simple distillation setup, what if I had a fractal distillation setup? How about a vacuum for either of these setups? I was pointed here from other boards and told someone here may be able to help. So far from what others have said the dmt would for the most part stay in the pot and only a little would go to the receiving flask. I'm trying to get away from evaporating off naphtha, it seems wasteful with a still on hand. I haven't heard of anyone doing this and I'm not too chem savvy, but it seems like it might be doable .... When thinking this out for the first time I was figuring the dmt would vaporize before the naphtha leaving the dmt in my condenser(amlost like a sublimation unit). Once it was all or mostly out I'd add more heat to distill the naphtha, dissolving the dmt in the condenser sending it in the receiving flask. Any input is appreciated thanks in advance, time for me to check out the rest of your wonderful site

Using much smaller quantities of solvent for your pulls will reduce or even remove the need to evap before freeze precip.

This would mean more pulls the right? which means more time...I'm sure less than evaporating though. Thanks for the response, but not an answer to my question. A great suggestion none the less and I may have to try it sometime. At this point its a bit late...

69ron's imaginary friend distills his solvents, he'd be the one to ask.
He'll probably be responding on this thread before too long anyway, he's really good about sharing his info.

I hope he chimes in since the other answers from other places have only helped little.... I'm trying to finish post hast, but I don't want to fuck up. Everyone keeps telling me just evaporate which is what I don't want to do.... naphtha smells up the whole house and its just about winter here so open windows aren't as much of an option. It seems as though the spice would stay in the pot and I'd have clean naphtha in the receiving flask. I'm told I may end up with a bit of spice in my receiving flask(which is ok as it will be used for future pulls). I'm told my biggest risk is running the pot dry. I don't mind having to evaporate off a little naphtha, but liter(s) are getting time consuming, smelly, and annoying... How do you explain naphtha fumes....ummm... I was... uh, cleaning...yeah, thats it. I was just trying to remove this glue for the past three days..... If I get a vacuum there shouldn't be shit for smell until the still is opened. I'm figuring if the oder is a problem I can run tubing from the vacuum adapter and put it out my window. I'd only have to crack open the window then to get rid of all the smell.

DO NOT DISTILL NAPHTHA WITH DMT IN IT unless you are trying to distill the DMT too.

The boiling point of naphtha is much higher than the boiling point of DMT. All of the DMT will vaporize away with the naphtha.

You can distill DCM with DMT in it and you can distill acetone with DMT in it, because their boiling points are below that of DMT and the DMT will be left behind. But distlling naphtha will take the DMT with it, and maybe destroy it. It’s possible that the DMT will be unharmed and present in the receiving flask. But I have no idea. SWIM has never tried that.

If it works to distill the DMT and that's the intention, it sounds like a good way to purify it.

Distilling alkaloids is usually not a good idea. Many alkaloids get partially destroyed in the process, some completely, but some can survive it quite well.

Give it a try and see if it works for DMT. But just be prepared for a possible loss in product do to thermal decomposition.

Alkaloid distillation is sometimes the only way to purify an alkaloid.

You can distill the DMT, if it survives, by bringing the naphtha to 90 C. The DMT will vaporize and then solidify in the condenser and get stuck there. It won't make it to the receiving flask without a liquid solvent carrying it there.

When then naphtha starts to distill, it should dissolve the DMT stuck in the condenser and bring it down into the receiving flask.

You can use fractional distillilation to purify DMT, if it survives. The procedure is like this:

Bring the naphtha to a temperature just under the boiling point of DMT. Let the still run for about 1 hour at say 55 C. This will get rid of all the material that boils below the temperature of DMT. Then remove your naphtha with the DMT in it and wash your still with alcohol and discard the alcohol. (Or distill some acetone for 30 minutes to clean the still and discard the acetone in the receiving flask.)

Next bring the naphtha to 90 C. The DMT will start to boil away but most of the naphtha will not. Let it run for about 1 hour. Then remove the naphtha and distill some acetone in your system. The acetone will dissolve the DMT in the condenser as it distills and take in to the receiving flask.

Should work fine IF the DMT survives the process. I think it will.

If this works, its a great way to isolate DMT from 5-MeO-DMT and bufotenine because they all have very different boiling points.

Note that it's possible that the DMT will solidify in the still BEFORE reaching the condenser. This could cause problems. To avoid this, make sure your condenser is as close to the boiling flask as possible. That means NO distilling columns, no splash traps, etc.

WOW!!! you are the man, that the sort of response that Ive been waiting for. I got my Idea from smoking out of a bent test tube with a carb. At the top, the cool spots very pure dmt would recrystallize. I'm hoping the dmt will end up in the condenser, I was thinking a reflux might get it there but I've never done one and don't want to try it on good spice. It seems like this is something you'd need a two neck flask so you could put a thermometer into the naphtha, or a digital hotplate. I have neither, think I could pull it off with just a simple distillation setup with hotplate/stirrer?

That is how I hope it goes down I may have to give it a go but as I said in my last post I'll have no way of knowing the temp of my naphtha just the temp at the top f the still, before the condenser. Can I run my thermometer from the top of the three way adapter down into the naphtha?

If I set up for a reflux but never let the naphtha get real hot think I could just vaporize the dmt and collect it in my condenser? This may save a freeze precipitation. If it recrystallizes I may be able to just knock the crystal out of the condenser with a stiff wire or something. If not I could always wash the dmt out with minimal solvent, say heptane to freeze precipitate. what do you think?

It sounds like a fun experiment. I think it would work just fine as long as the naphtha is hot enough. DMT seems to vaporize pretty well without getting destroyed and could probably very easily be purified by this method because of its unusually low boiling point.

This technique is normally referred to as sublimation. Professionals use a cold finger (a type of condenser) and a vacuum for this procedure. But any condenser will work. A cold finger is just much easier to collect the alkaloid from.

You could also do this in a Soxhlet setup.

SWIM has often thought of using this technique to separate 5-MeO-DMT from DMT. The problem is, if the vapor doesn’t solidify on the condenser or cold finger, it will escape into the air and you might get an accidental overdose of DMT or 5-MeO-DMT when you enter the room!

DMT boils at about 80 C, 5-MeO-DMT at about 160 C I think, and bufotenine at about 320 C.

Actually, you should be able to do this directly from the bark. You put powdered bark in basified water, then heat the water to 90 C and the DMT should collect on the cold finger. It should be a very easy way to get DMT. But some other crap might also collect on the cold finger. It all depends on what else vaporizes at 90 C. It would be harder to do with bufotenine because you’d have to first sublime everything else in the plant, and then sublime the bufotenine.

This absolutely should work. I saw a tech for DMT synthesis and they used sublimation to purify the end result stating that it was the only way to produce 100% pure white crystals from the tech. They didn't mention any loss of product caused by sublimation.

Let me know how it goes.

OK I plan to give it a go in the next few days. I think I'll use my hotplate to heat an oil bath to heat a small round bottomed flask. I have not distilled with an oil bath yet but don't see it as a problem. I can't wait I hope it works. The only thing holding me back is getting the still cleaned, ran lots of alcohol through it....I may be a drunk but that's another story. Gotta do that first, the cleaning that is. Will post within a week and let you all know if I fucked up, if it worked, or not. I'm hoping for the best and hope you all are too. BTW should I use something like a boiling stone since I'm not stirring and using glass? From the reading I've done I've read that you can super heat in glass if not using a boiling stone of some sort. I would figure if the dmt were to be destroyed during this process super heating/lack of stirring would be the reason

still is heating up, fingers crossed

had some thoughts about the d getting caught in the three way adapter....

there were also thoughts of dmt/naphtha fumes getting out...what if the dmt didn't recrystalize and went in the air... so the small cup at the top with the hose is so I know if I'm letting fumes out, just a little water to check for air bubbles(dmt/naphtha)... so am I nuts or is this a much better way to try something like this with out a vacuum?

Btw I'm only attempting to catch the dmt in the condenser the rest of the glass is pretty much to keep this a closed system that can still breath if need be....