sqykly
02-11-2007, 04:02 AM
So. I've got 200 g powdered kratom. I've also got 2 L anhydrous ethanol (NOT food grade), 3 L glacial acetic acid, 3 L chloroform, xylenes, acetone, ethyl acetate, isopropanol, any standard acid or base you can think of. I've got stir plates, hot plates, pH meters, macro & midi distillation setups, an entire room that doubles as a fume hood, scales accurate to four decimal places, sep funnels, a rotovap, something like 30 vacuum outlets, two sonicators, buchner funnels - you name it. Every night, I spend about 4-5 hours as the only human being in the same building with all this stuff.
Here's what I want to do. I want to produce an extract suitable for insufflation - or at least potent enough to achieve the desired effect using the contents of a single gel cap. This will not be for sale.
Here's what I know so far. The active principles of kratom are sparingly soluble in water, and with them come all manner of vegetable acids, mangled proteins and sugars, and tannins, which are equally gross and abundant in this plant. The actives are soluble in chloroform, but so are all those membrane lipids, and chlorophyll (ever wonder why they named it that?). Chlorophyll is soluble in acetone, as well, but I can't say whether the alkaloids are. The alkaloids are reportedly soluble in acetic acid, which I have not tried, but it brings up the interesting possibility of acetylating 7-HOM to 7-AcOM - but, then, how to get it out?
I haven't asked, but I'm sure the method for producing these fantastic extracts that are coming out is something of a trade secret. Those extracts are more expensive than they need to be, I guarantee it, and if anybody can help me out with info on alkaloids (particularly M, 7-HOM, and 7-AcOM) like boiling points, azeotropes, recrystallization solvents, solubility limits, reactivity data, etc, then I'd be happy to share my methods. Plus, I'll do my best to make it kitchen friendly, for those of us who have not had the pleasure of making Tang with a sonicator.
Here's what I want to do. I want to produce an extract suitable for insufflation - or at least potent enough to achieve the desired effect using the contents of a single gel cap. This will not be for sale.
Here's what I know so far. The active principles of kratom are sparingly soluble in water, and with them come all manner of vegetable acids, mangled proteins and sugars, and tannins, which are equally gross and abundant in this plant. The actives are soluble in chloroform, but so are all those membrane lipids, and chlorophyll (ever wonder why they named it that?). Chlorophyll is soluble in acetone, as well, but I can't say whether the alkaloids are. The alkaloids are reportedly soluble in acetic acid, which I have not tried, but it brings up the interesting possibility of acetylating 7-HOM to 7-AcOM - but, then, how to get it out?
I haven't asked, but I'm sure the method for producing these fantastic extracts that are coming out is something of a trade secret. Those extracts are more expensive than they need to be, I guarantee it, and if anybody can help me out with info on alkaloids (particularly M, 7-HOM, and 7-AcOM) like boiling points, azeotropes, recrystallization solvents, solubility limits, reactivity data, etc, then I'd be happy to share my methods. Plus, I'll do my best to make it kitchen friendly, for those of us who have not had the pleasure of making Tang with a sonicator.