i'll try and include some more information that might be of use.
All of the following comes from SST2 Some Simple Tryptamines by KTrout, second edition,
in the Trouts Notes series this is #FS-X7
I'll also note that, while reproduction and distribution are prohibited for this work, the work expressly states:
Trouts Notes
strongly encourages the dissemination of any and all factual information contained within these pages so long as proper acknowledgment of the authorships and original sources of data origin are maintained.
No one owns facts or factual data. the Shulgin and Shulgin ref, 1997 pages 573-574, entry #50
is used to cite the following:
vacuume distilled at 135-145*
yielding a while oil that formed crystals that darkened on exposure to air
Manske 1931 (still amazing after all these years!!!)
is used to cite:
Assays for NMTHeating the base in chloroform with a slight excess of phenylisocyanate, evaporating to a small volume and then adding ether will cause the formation of large elongated hexagonal plates of the phenylcarbamyl derivative of NMT, they melt sharply at 153* when recrystallized from menthol-ether and give an immediate red color with an orange cast with Erlich's reagent.
Now I assume that the easiest way to separate this out would be paper chromotography and recovery of bands
As for the form of the freebase when crystalized:
Manske 1931 reports mp90* stellar aggregates of needles with some individual crystals having a rectangular form
Fitzgerald & Sioumis 1965
mp 86-87* white prisms from light petroleum
I wonder, if you closed the ring via some PS type reaction, what is the betacarboline product?
Could the betacarboline oxidize? Harmine sure can... this would result in a color change as well. Could small amounts of the alkaloid be cycled into carbolines that oxidize resulting in the color change reaction? On this same note what is the betacarboline product of ring closure of DMT? Can it oxidize? lol this is the Pictet–Spengler reaction BTW, an easy test for this kind of thing would be to see if as a product gets darker, if it begins to glow under UV, DMT does not glow in a visible spectrum, despite being very fluorescent.
in plants where some betacarbolines co occur with NMT and DMT, doesn't it make sense that the tryptamines are precursors to the betacarbolines? How would GCMS of the betacarboline product of one of these alkaloids like DMT be different than the parent alkaloid? Did anyone read the ER article stating that 2meTHBC can be easily confused with DMT in some tests?
Sorry about the tangent, but it does relate to manipulations of NMT and potential artifacts.
As for constrasting it with DMT,
Chloranil
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChloranilNMT is listed as gray (light)-Gray, on silica gel
DMT is listed as not having a color reaction for the same test on the same medium
ref:
Heacock & Forrest 1973 Journal of Chromatography
TNB reagent on silica gel
for NMT goes Yellow--->light yellow
for DMT goes Yellow--->brown
same ref as previous entry
for TACOT reagent on silica gel
NMT goes Orange pink--->Pink
DMT goes Purple (light)
same ref as previous two entries
Also note that the method of preparation of TNB and TACOT is mentioned in the Heacock & Forrest paper.
I am just about done because I really do not want to type out the various RF data in this book though but DMT and NMT do have different RF values, however the RF values of their 5Meo forms, 5Meo-NMT and 5Meo-DMT are incredibly similar to their parent forms.
In addition to the Acacias i mentioned previously, Desmanthus species are also decent sources of this alkaloid.