So basically I'm looking at aqueous methanol extracts in various drug studies that generally involve the dried plant component being dried, crushed, then an extract created by percolation after being placed in an alcohol/water solution, which is then concentrated via evaporation. What I'm wondering is why so often methanol is used for this. Is there a reason as far as reliability goes here or is this just a cost/availability matter? Is there any reason ethanol should not be considered in extractions like this?
Comments
a) it works better
b) ethanol is illegal in some states ( and denatured alcohol they sell in these state will kill u)
1) methanol will also kill you and make you blind so alcohol is better
Methanol has a very high alcohol content and you can evapourate it off at very low temperatures. I am confident that there will be residues of the methanol left; but if your putting drugs in ya body why would you care.
To be honest I'm curious about this more at the pharmaceutical level than just getting high, although it could certainly be used for that as well. Not everyone can or would be willing to acquire methanol but something like Everclear (North American brand) or abroad equivalents are common in the 80% range, not denatured, low in congeners, and seems like it would make some ideas I have smoother for others to replicate and confirm rather than simply using lab grade methanol.
Inspiration for this method are recent studies such as this that show interesting results and would be an available drug to a lot of people. If nothing else, the studies would be more interesting than rehashing methods over and over for controlled substances, right? And being a nature freak, it's cool to think that if you absolutely had to, you could potentially make an equivalent to morphine for whatever reason you might have in an emergency situation. It's potential fresh content, and as I'm diving deep into botany and natural poisons, medicine, and foods anyhow this connects. Not to mention that unless you live in an area with really flexible laws on what constitutes an illegal drug, nobody can say anything about possession.
Now obviously, this is because the drugs are so new and experimental that they're not even named. There are inherent side effect concerns in using any of them. But I'd like to experiment - not necessarily on myself - but somehow.
In the old days; you'd just man up and do it - consequences be dammed. But for the product to have a wide application we need to know that it doesnt cause kidney failure after 2 weeks or something similar.
You wouldnt struggle too hard to find people willing to try you're free morphine though.
I'd also be cautious of what you are actually buying when you buy the methanol - check the ingredients and understand the acutal values of the solution; it may already be diluted beyond 80:20.
Thanks for the input man.
This^
I've seen MoMT make some good posts, and I've said as much in TS. It's just a shame every so often he ruins it with so obvious a drama starter post.
Leave the drama in Totse2 and keep posting like this here.
I just read the paper's discussion again in a bit more detail and you need to be careful about the other toxic organic compounds. I'm not an American so I had no idea what the plant species was.
Do not ingest this substance. I cannot stress this enough. You are risking death.
Phytolaccine and Phytolaccotoxin are alkoloids and they will be extracted by the methanol. They will not be neutralised. They are highly toxic.
The triple methanol extraction helps to create a solution that wont kill you instantly but your liver would start crying after you're first use and leave you if you decided to abuse this.
Aside:
This is confusing as all hell because i think i am a consistent poster.
I catch flak for drama starting but im begining to think that perhaps the definition of drama is a bit too broad here; I will happily conceed that posing rhetorical questions or disagreeing with people can be provocative but with a mature mindset it really cant be called drama. If anything im more likely to go off topic than i am to go on drama.
Note the differences and know what the implication is.
I'm all for backyard science and it was from home tinkering that industrial chemistry was born; but removing the alkoloids with methanol isnt really doable. I havent done any lab stuff for at least a year or so i cant readily think of a catalyst to bind and extract the toxins - but id say that doing this would be my goal before testing the effects of the final solution withouth the toxic alkoloids.
If at the end of the day if I can't reach a final product where both LD50s of the toxins and usable extract are much higher than an effective dose than fuck it. I'll just scrap the idea.
Like warming the solution up and mixing it with some lipids for several hours/a day and then stratifying it with an ice bath or centrifuge.
It cannot be done with methanol alone though.