Recently I made a thread about shroom tea. It it, the topic of extraction came up and I became interested. Please critique my plan:

I currently have just over 30 grams of crushed and mostly powdered mushroom material soaking in enough everclear to cover all the material (under 200 ml) in a jam jar.

Sometime tomorrow or in a few days, I will heat the jar in a hot water bath for a couple of hours, and then filter out the ethanol while its still hot. I plan on doing at least one more wash on the mush material with clean ethanol, heating and filtering it the same way.

I plan to combine the resulting extracts and either:

A) I would prefer to evaporate the ethanol completely and be left with a crystal material/residue which I could vaporize.

OR ...

B) Reduce the combined extracts down to a shot or so, to use the ethanol as a preservative and administer doses sublingually or orally.

I have some pictures but its late and I'm tired. I'll upload them later. What do you think of my plan? Which option would you go with? What would you do differently? Do you think I will have good results if I do the above?

I would concentrate it, but leave it in solution, especially for a first time. When psilocin is exposed to air, it degenerates, keeping it in the ethanol will prevent this from happening (not sure about psilocybin, although I think it does too).
By keeping it in solution, it is also alot easier to measure doses, you'll need a highly sensitive scale to measure out the pure form.

From what i've read, psilocybin starts degrading in air and heat...maybe try evaporating the alcohol with a low heat instead of very hot water.

here is something from erowid,
http://www.erowid.org/ask/ask.php?ID=2984

http://www.cognitiveliberty.org/shulgin/adsarchive/extraction.htm

Have a read of that. :)

which I could vaporize.

No...

No...

I have read that it is possible in the erowid archive.

Although leaving it in ethanol and heating it to redissolve the crystals before administering doses is sounding like the best way to go, now.

Collect the crystals and IV it.

For all those interested, I finished my extraction. I have not yet had an opportunity to try it , although I am hoping to this weekend.

I could have concentrated it further into a single vial, but instead decided to use 3 vials and there is some extra in a shot glass. Keeping these all in my fridge. The ethanol has become yellow/orange. Small crystals form on the sides and bottoms of the vials.

Can't wait to try it.

Edit- oh, i took lots of pictures too. but im lazy. i'll get to it in a day or two

I would go with option B, I would concentrate it down to about 2 oz, keeping it in an ethanol solution. This way you could create a very potent tincture.

Also, considering psilocybin's degradation at higher temps, I would have forgone all heating entirely, and left the ethanol to evaporate with a fan blowing over it, in a dark place.
Once its concentrated enough I would store it in an amber glass bottle in a cool, dry, dark place...administering doses either sublingually or with food, etc.

Edit - Nvm, making a wet tincture of psilocybin/psilocin would be very inefficient, as it oxidizes easily and ethanol is poor at extracting the alkaloids....I'd make a dry-powder extract, using methanol to procure the psilocybin, and use it accordingly....

Forgot about this thread. Great success! I will post the pictures later on if I can find them.

Judge the degradation of the extract. How many doses do you think you got out of thirty grams? After you take a few of these doses, see if they are as potent as your standard of a mushroom tea dose (assuming less degradation with the tea (heat degradation?)), regarding the ShroomLove's comment about the methanol.

considering how similar it is to dmt, i think you might be able to concentrate the tincture via evap and then place it in the freezer to form crystals. wash with some alcohol while it's all cold or they're going to redissolve. then store it in the freezer.

I think you should try both ways you listed. The crystallization/vaporizing idea sounds interesting. I haven't looked into it myself to see if its actually feasible to get effects that route, but vaporizing psilocybin/psilocin would be fucking badass if it actually worked. In the name of experimentation you shall do this!

1. heat = bad, as everyone has already said.

2. there are mixed reports on vaporizing, but think about it. the psilocin will largely be destroyed, and if you managed to successfully vaporize the psilocyben, it wouldn't get you high as it has to reach the liver to be broken down into psilocin. unless that did happen, but it would take much longer. make sure if you do do it, you report back your findings.

3. also, you are more likely to be left with a goo than crystals. and it's a good thing you didn't use methanol, as it contains an unevaporable oil that you definatly do not want to be smoking or eating.

interesting idea...

throw them in the freezer and see if anything more precipitates...

interesting idea...

throw them in the freezer and see if anything more precipitates...


iirc, you would have to use naptha/similar np, and iirc psilocybin isn't very soluble in most organic solvents.

but it might work if you used plenty of your np, as it seems lowering temp would lower solubility quite a bit, so...

iono if i would want to vape it.

iirc, you would have to use naptha/similar np, and iirc psilocybin isn't very soluble in most organic solvents.

but it might work if you used plenty of your np, as it seems lowering temp would lower solubility quite a bit, so...

the cold might still force the solubility in alcohol lower...

but yea, naptha is the typical solvent used for this sort of thing...

What method did you use?

I want to post my pictures, but they're still in my camera. Sorry.

I soaked the mushrooms in everclear for days. Then I had the mixture heating in its jar, within a hot water bath. Filtered and repeated.

The combined extracts were then evaporated down to fill 3 vials worth. Crystals appear on the bottoms and sides of the vials if left alone.

3. also, you are more likely to be left with a goo than crystals. and it's a good thing you didn't use methanol, as it contains an unevaporable oil that you definatly do not want to be smoking or eating.

Its not that hard to find pure methanol that evaporates cleanly. Also, the alkaloids are more soluble in methanol than ethanol.

okay dude. thanks for gettign intrested in this, its a fun world trying to perfect yoru baby crystals.

you wont want to heat it at all, and prolly shouldn't have used everclear. every store(home depot to walmart to michaels crafts) carries denatured alcohol. its 100% alcohol, but they add 15% methanol(same thing, just different arangment of the molecule) so they don't have to pay the consumable alcohol tax.

even if you dont heat it hot enough to destroy it, any amount of heat is a catalyst, and being suspended freely in a water solution with heat applied WILL speed up the oxidation of the psillo.

Another note on extraction, you will not have a clean product, you will be left with a solution of alkaloids, pigments, and tannins(maybe not since its not foliage). now since these are shrooms there arnt nearly the levels of tannins and pigments as there are with say salvia, but they are still present. you could do a titration process but with how weak psillo is id be weary without prior acid/base experience.

okay so psilocybin is highly soluble in water, and psilocin no so much. the two are roughly soluble in 20 times their massof water, slightly less for ethanol. methanol is preferred over ethanol and water as the two are more soluble in it. psilo is more soluble in polar solvents, because the amine holds a positive charge while the phosphorus group is negative, making it esentialy neutral. the fact that non polars(naphtha, chloro) dont work well causes some problems.

normaly one would extract it from water in methanol then from methanol in naphtha to further isolate the alkaloid from the contaminants. this leads me to belive that acid base titration is nessisary for a solution viable to form crystals, but if your not looking for crystals, your ready to rock.

...

SO! you want a polar solvent and low heat. even room temp causes psilo to break down.

Here is my best bet for you outside of acidification: take your ethanol/water solution, place on dish, place dish ontop of a pile of calcium chloride then cover this. this will help suck the water out faster than room temp evaporation will. the ethanol will also evap.

this will leave you with a dry, desicated powder wich will still be slightly dirty but for all pourpuses oether than crystalization this is of high purity.

IF you wish to continue onto further purity dissolve this powder in 15-19 times its mass of METHANOL, not ethanol. then using a seperatory funnel(or just a ziplock hung up to settle), try to decant as much of the dirty solvent(save it for later :D ) as you can without wasting too much of the total. do this a couple times, then evap.

its is important to remember to filter your solution too. before any of this. thats the most basic way to purify anything :D use 1 lab filter or 2-3 coffee filters.

it would have been easyer to ask before you mixed it with the everclear but your alright as its soluble in water.

another thing to consider, if you have the psilo in powder, it breaks down much faster than it does in solution. it is a good idea to store it in solution... kind of making the process of isolating it pointless. but nothign is totaly pointless now is it?

get ahold of me at ziellos . ein @ gmail.com if ya wanna talk more, extractions are interesting. aim: ziellosein


"3. also, you are more likely to be left with a goo than crystals. and it's a good thing you didn't use methanol, as it contains an unevaporable oil that you definatly do not want to be smoking or eating."

this is a purely false statement. methanol is ethanol with a different arrangement.

"Denatured alcohol is ethanol which has been rendered toxic or otherwise undrinkable, and in some cases dyed. It is used for purposes such as fuel for spirit burners and camping stoves, and as a solvent. Traditionally, the main additive was 10% methanol, which gave rise to methylated spirits. There are diverse industrial uses for ethanol, and therefore literally hundreds of recipes for denaturing ethanol. Typical additives are methanol, isopropyl alcohol, acetone, methyl ethyl ketone, methyl isobutyl ketone, denatonium,[1] and even (uncommonly) aviation gasoline."

all of these evap. sometimes chemicals to make it bitter are added or a benzate, but they rarely are, and even if so, they are in tiny amounts. the blue and red cans sold most places are eth and meth.