Dear community,

a few days ago I found a forgotten 30 gram bag of Salvia leaves. I harvested these about 5 years ago, but never felt like revisiting that place, since I experimented with extracts about 15 years ago.

Yesterday I decided to see if they are still potent. I think I remember reading somewhere that Salvianorin is quite stable.
I smoked half a gram and I could definitely feel the spirit.

Now that I got interested in extraction in general, I started to do some research on the topic. The thing is that I will move soon and will have to leave all these beautiful things behind, so I try to avoid buying new things of that nature till after the move.

I still got a bit of naphtha and 99% IPA. I found some teks that say that I can substitute IPA for Acetone. Is that possible? I just want to create a 5x extract to make it easier on my lungs.

I appreciate any input .

The actives are present on the glandular capitate trichomes outside the underside of leaf so a brief rinse or two of the leaf material as it is, using ice cold IPA, should get most of the actives into solution while minimising the amount of chlorophyll pulled.

Where you go with the extract from there, we'll get into later.

Hey downwardsfromzero, thanks for your advice. I had 90% of the leaves ground to a fine powder already which was probably a mistake, when I read the above.
However I took a saucepan put the powder into it, poured enough ice cold IPA into the pan to cover the material and stirred for 5 mins. Then I filtered the solution through a coffee filter into a jar. I then repeated these steps once with the material that got caught in the filter.

Now the jar with the IPA solution is stored in a dark place. Does this sound like I could be successful with my little project?

That's pretty much what I did with some salvia leaves way back when, minus the powdering bit. Mine were done at room temperature due to lack of information at the time but in the end I got a workable 10x product.

What colour is your liquid extract? And what volume have you ended up with? Did you only do the one pull on the powder? I'd have done a couple of pulls because of the hold-up of liquid in the powder. Do you have any distillation equipment?

So, you still have some leaves left that are in larger pieces than the powdered stuff. You'll want to evaporate the extract onto that to make your 10x leaf. Stir it regularly while the alcohol evaporates.

I just finished infusing the leaves that I set aside for this purpose. I hope it works and I guess I will find out once I feel ready and I am sure all IPA has evaporated completely.

I am a simple "kitchen scientist" who only recently got into extractions. But I am eager to learn and will refine my methods once I moved. Most of my tools are kitchen utensils, but I will eventually invest in some proper lab equipment.

I did two pulls and ended up with a greenish/yellow, thick fluid in which I soaked the leaves. Evaporation took place in a glas dish which was sitting in a hot water bath, while a fan blew on it. After stirring and drying the leaves the total weight was 2,59 gram. So after infusion the material weights ~0,09gram more than before.

... So this works. I just tried it and it did the most peculiar thing to me. I felt like a door that kept on opening and opening. And the funny thing is I "was hired to do that", but"was not very good at it". Hilarious!

I used 150mg.

Yep, it worked 😂🙃

That's something I've found the few times I got anywhere interesting with salvia - she has quite the sense of humour.

Glad to hear this has worked for you, Fridge (although, tbh, I couldn't have imagined why it wouldn't)

I was feeling foul after arguing with my wife for way too long last night and today, but the cosmically comic force of this has totally transformed my mood. Thanks Fridge! I don’t know if you know who Arthur Dent was, from the children’s book series Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, but your trip report is a dead ringer. I’m still laughing!

I just had to check if I actually posted this last night. I felt the need to post it immediately after the experience and I still felt a bit wonky.

It made me smile that I lightened up your evening, roninsina! I myself had an argument with my wife last night and I only decided to try my infused leaves, because we settled to an agreement in the end.

Salvia is so very different from everything else I have ever tried. Even each single Salvia experience is very different from each other for me. Last night was a bit different from the experiences that I had 15 years ago. After inhaling I expected to feel the gravitational pulling into different directions or the feeling of an invisible veil being lifted to make way to a familiar place that always exists behind our everyday reality. These were few of the common effects that I experienced during my Salvia experiences back in the day.
Not this time though. I inhaled and waited for something to happen. While doing so I initially didn't even realize that I am deep in the Salvia realm already. Only when I realized that I can't possibly be an ever opening door, I knew that it must be the Salvia.
I also remember that I said something to the others, whose presence I felt (I felt there were other doors, the ones who told me that I don't do a good job).
Interestingly the visual expect of the experience wasn't very spectacular. Everything was flat, in 2D.

Yes, I know Arthur Dent and I love the Hitchhiker's Guide To the Galaxy! I really enjoyed reading Douglas Adam's books in general.
I just realized that many passages of the book resemble something one could experience under the influence of Salvianorin. The sperm whale part comes to mind. Maybe people who think about trying Salvia should first read that book. If they enjoy it, they might enjoy Salvia .

Thanks again downwardsfromzero for the guidance, I have learned something new! Besides learning about the extraction, I also know now that five year old Salvia leaves that I "stored" in an open bag can still be potent. This molecule seems to be quite stable.