Using amonia and nafta for codeine base

[DCBA]

Is it possible to substitute sodium hydroxide with clean liquid amonia (like 40% or so) and substituting cloroform with nafta (maybe the one from zippo brand..) in order to get codeine base from codeine phosphate pills?
If so what would be the ph?

[Woody Bear]

Don't use ammonia or sodium hydroxide to raise the pH, as opiates are very sensitive to mineral acids and bases. Instead use organic acids and bases to adjust the pH. Mineral acids are fine to use as long as the pH stays in range, but if the pH goes too high or low, it will cause substantial breakdown of the alkaloids.

It's very easy to over acidify or basify with mineral acids and bases, so it's better just to stick to using organic acids and bases instead. So use vinegar to acidify, and washing soda (sodium carbonate) to basify (raise the pH).

The pKa of codeine is 8.2, at this point, 50% of the codeine is freebase, and 50% is ionised, so you'd have to raise the solution to pH 9.2 to convert 90% of the codeine to the freebase, and raise the solution to pH 10.2 to convert 99% of the codeine to the freebase.

However I'm not sure what pH is high enough to break down the alkaloids, but I've seen it happen with poppy tea solutions at moderately high pH 10 or 11. So it might be better just to raise the solution to pH 9.2, which will only freebase 90% of the codeine, so you'd have to do multiple solvent extractions to get it out.

Codeine freebase is still fairly water soluble, so even if you'd raise the solution to pH 10.2, you'd still have to extract multiple times with organic solvent.

I'm not sure if codeine is soluble in naphtha or not, but it would be quite soluble in toluene if you could get it.

I've never tried this, but I think it would be best to raise the pH of the filtered codeine solution to pH 9.2 with sodium carbonate solution, then extract it 6 times with toluene. Dry the toluene with magnesium sulphate (baked Epsom Salts), then filter it, and gas with dry HCl gas.

[jacky]

I have recieved inquiry in the past from people that have moderate to large amounts of molded pods sitting on their property.
I think its smart to not consume the black mold poppy pods that seem to consist of roughly .5 % of the ornamental pod supply...sometimes more.

the idea is some way to drop the alkaloid out of solution, or utilize a specific solvent to extract, that would be easy in the feild and not technical.

I say, just feed those pods to the pigs.....but,.....I would hate to kill a fine hog off with too much doda!