Spice Extraction-The FASA Approach

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This page is a transcription of Spice Extraction-The FASA Approach by Infundibulum. The content is to remain accurate as such.

SPICE EXTRACTION – The FASA approach

Two DMT molecules forming a complex with one fumaric acid molecule to form DMT Fumarate.

Introduction

This document outlines recent advancement on the extraction of alkaloids from DMT containing material making use of fumaric acid. This method is used in conjunction with a standard A/B or STB tek and it has the following advantages:

1. It requires no defatting of the plant material. Even leafy material that is notoriously high in oils requires NO defatting. Pure white DMT has been extracted from Diplopterys cabrerana using FASA with the same easiness and defat-free steps as with MHRB.
2. It requires no recrystallisation of the product neither any freeze precipitations. One may however try to crystallise the final product if one wants to create big crystals
3. One knows exactly when to stop pulling when using the non-polar solvent
4. The NP solvent can be used again and again and again. That is, there is no need for evaporation of the NP solvent. This saves money, it is minimally smelly and more eco-friendly.
5. The initial product of this extraction is a stable dmt salt (DMT Fumarate) that can be used as such (snorted or orally in conjunction with a MAOI), stored for long periods of time or freebased for smoking.

The Theory

This method is using fumaric acid to salt out freebase dmt from non-polar solvent(s). The DMT-fumarate is totally insoluble in non-polar solvents as well as acetone from which it precipitates out almost instantly. These properties can help get the DMT (and other alkaloids) out of non-polar solutions in salted form while any fatty impurities present stay behind. DMT-fumarate resulting from this step can be easily freebased as a 2-step process.

Materials

1. Fumaric Acid. Fumaric acid is not difficult to obtain. It is sold as a health supplement as well as a psoriasis treatment. Depending on the source, it may be a bit pricey but it is definitely worth the money. 1gram of fumaric acid is enough for salting 3.25grams of DMT.
2. Acetone. 100% pure acetone is required. Presence of water in the acetone can mess up with the process.
3. Calcium Hydroxide OR Sodium Carbonate. These are used for freebasing the DMT-fumarate
4. Xylene or Toluene as the non-polar solvent.

WARNING
Non-polar solvents other than xylene or toluene have not been tested yet. There are some issues with using non-polar solvents other than xylene/toluene. These will be discussed below.

The TEK

Before one starts, FASA (fumaric acid saturated acetone) needs to be made. This is simply done by mixing an amount of fumaric acid and acetone and leaving it for a day or so to saturate completely. Acetone can hold ~20mg of fumaric acid per ml. It is not necessary to weigh the fumaric acid before mixing with the acetone as the excess is just going to fall on the bottom and can be re-dissolved in fresh acetone if necessary.

As long as one has FASA handy, the next steps are:

A)	Do an A/B or an STB on some plant material using any other teks that can be found around. In the case one chooses to do A/B no defatting of the acidic solution is really necessary.

B)	Make the first pull using xylene/toluene. After the layers have separated, withdraw the xylene/toluene.

C)	Add FASA dropwise in the xylene/toluene pull. One cannot add too much FASA. On the contrary, it is advised to add more FASA than necessary, just in case. Immediately clouds of precipitation will form. This is DMT-fumarate.

WHAT IS HAPPENING INSIDE THE NON-POLAR SOLVENT?

The xylene/toluene pull contains the freebased DMT, the freebased DMT-n-oxide (in the case of old material where part of DMT has oxidised), Jungle Spice (in the case of MHRB) as well as any other lipid impurities that are picked up by the solvent. Addition of FASA introduces fumaric acid in the xylene/toluene and this reacts immediately with the freebased DMT, the freebased DMT-n-oxide and Jungle Spice to form their respective fumarate salts. DMT-fumarate, DMT-n-oxide-fumarate and Jungle spice-fumarate precipitate out since they are insoluble in xylene/toluene as well as acetone. In contrast, any lipid impurities and any not interesting compounds will be left behind.

D)	The fumarate salts will take some time to precipitate on the bottom. Shaking vigorously the xylene/toluene that contains the fumarate salts will help them precipitate faster. They seem to coagulate with each other, form bigger clumps and falling to the bottom much faster when left aside.

E)	The precipitates are then collected and washed with acetone 1-2 times. This helps to remove residual non-polar solvent and any unreacted fumaric acid. The washed fumarate salts can now be dried to a rock hard consistency.

NOTE
The fumarate salts of DMT, DMT-n-oxide and Jungle Spice tend to be a bit hygroscopic, that is they have a gooey consistency upon drying. Given time however, they dry to rock-hard consistency. One is fine drying the salts in the oven at 50 Celsius, this makes things much faster.

F)

(Optional) After the precipitation of the fumarate salts from the xylene/toluene pull, solvent can be reused. It needs to be washed however since it also contains traces of acetone and any unused fumaric acid. One can simply mix the xylene/toluene with excess of water, shake it vigorously and let it sit. Fumaric acid and acetone will move to the water, while the xylene/toluene will float on top of it. It will look yellow like urine, but it is fine to use for the subsequent pulls. Again, this guy I vaguely know is using the same xylene for 20-30 pulls before he eventually throws it away.

G)	The whole process can be repeated (with fresh or used xylene solvent) until one gets pulls out of which no precipitation is observed after FASA addition. It usually takes 5-6- xylene pulls for this to happen.

That’s it! One now has the plant’s alkaloids in fumarate salt. They can be eaten, snorted or freebased for smoking. Note that the use of xylene/toluene pulls more things out of the plants, such as DMT-n-oxide which is insoluble to naphtha. The next session describes how the fumarate salts can be freebased.

A REMARK
Theoretically any non-polar solvent can be used with the FASA tek. However, it has been observed that some brands of naphtha cause the precipitation of the fumaric acid when FASA was added to them. If one wishes to use a non-polar solvent other than xylene/toluene he/she is strongly advised to test whether fumaric acid from FASA precipitates when added in clean, unused solvent.

Freebasing the fumarate salts

This is a fairly straightforward tek that results in freebased alkaloids ready to be smoked. In this step one requires calcium hydroxide or sodium carbonate as well as acetone.

A)	Mix well equal parts of the fumarate salts and calcium hydroxide or sodium carbonate.

B)	Add enough water to make it into a paste, but it is still fine if it gets more watery. Both calcium hydroxide and sodium carbonate are bases. Under these wet conditions they react with the fumarate salts and release the alkaloids in their freebase form.

C)	Let the paste dry out completely. It should be totally dry before continuing to the next step.

D)

Cut the paste into a powder and mix it with acetone. Let the powder precipitate. Acetone will pick up the freebased alkaloids leaving back calcium hydroxide (or sodium carbonate) plus any unwanted fumarate salts (calcium fumarate or sodium fumarate) that have formed during the process of freebasing.

E)	Aspirate the acetone and let it dry. Now one has freebased alkaloids.

F)	Step D can be repeated 4-5 times just to make sure all the freebase had been picked up.

G)

The freebase that results is a mixture of all the different alkaloids that can be pulled using xylene/toluene. This may take some time to get solid, especially if plenty of DMT-n-oxide is present. DMT-n-oxide is a yellow oil and albeit perfectly smokable and pretty active it can hinder the solidification of the end product. But given time, it does get solid. And it provides a very intense experience. Alternatively……

H)	(Optional)…..one may wish to get pure white DMT out of this mixture. In that case the freebased alkaloids can be washed with naphtha. Naphtha will pick all DMT leaving back DMT-n-oxide and Jungle Spice (if MHRB had been used).