Extraction of Bufotenine (5-OH-DMT) from Anadenanthera colubrina

It seems this TEK could be made shorter, but might require some validation. But you might still try the shorter route, which will directly give Bufotenine Benzoate, which is not combusting like Freebase Bufotenin and therefore much better to smoke. Check here.

This TEK will produce pure Bufotenine from Anadenanthera colubrina seeds, using a minimal amount of steps and non-toxic chemicals. This TEK was developed based on all the 37 pages of the other 2 sticky threads and combining the most useful methods, but it adds some tweaks and new ways and therefore will finally lead to a solid, crystaline product. In 3 steps all compounds with lower polarity will be removed, then all fats will be divided from alkaloids, then all more polar alkaloids will be removed to give pure Bufotenine.
In the end there is a section of a GC/NMR-Analysis to prove purity and validate the effectivity of that TEK.
The first post is in detail with pictures and the second post is a short version. If any pictures are offline, you can download them at the end of the post with a .RAR file.

For general information about Bufotenin click here.

For a chemical look into the harsh Bufotenin smoke and how to make it more pleasant click here.


What do you need?

- 100 g of Anadenanthera colubrina seeds ("Vilca", "Cebil" )
1 Seed ~ 180 mg, 100 g ~ 555 seeds
- 1200 ml dry Acetone
(put 50 g of anhydrous MgSO4 or Na2SO4 into Acetone and let it sit 1 night)
- 1000 ml Naphtha
(preferred: Hexane/Heptane isomers, "C6-C7-Alkanes", boiling Range 60 - 80 °C)
- 100 ml Xylene (if you want to evade Xylene you can use the Ethyl Acetate-Naphtha-Mix. See solubility table for how much solvent to use then)
- 400 ml of FASA, Fumaric Acid can be replaced with Citric Acid from a Grocery or Benzoic Acid (for Benzoic you must evaporate Aceton down to < 50 ml before adding the BASA = benzoic acid saturated Aceton)
(prepared from your 1200 ml dry Acetone, according to this source 0,92 g Fumaric Acids dissolves in 100 ml at 20 °C and 1,7 g at 50 °C)
- 1 package of soda/Na2CO3

- Cheap kitchen grinding machine like this - a coffe grinder may also work

- do this in a country where this is legal

- Yield ~ 1-3 %


1. Preparation of the seeds

Prepare your dry Acetone + FASA before starting this TEK to save time. Lay out 100 g of your seeds in a pan and turn the pan on the hottest setting. After the first seed pops open, turn the heat down to the lowest setting where you still notice more seeds popping. This is the sound of pressure building up and breaking apart the seeds, while volatile components leave the seeds. The smell is like tasty caramelized nuts, but dont forget to turn the heat to the lowest possible setting, or it will smell burned and all Alkaloids get destroyed. When you dont hear any more seeds popping, this step is completed.
This defat step will remove ~ 6 % of unwanted compounds aka. fats and/or water.

Important: If fumes visibly arise then you already know that it is too high, as the release of those contaminations wont form visible fumes.

Important: place a cover on your pan, but dont close it completely or else the heat will quickly rise up inside of your pan and still destroy your seeds on the lowest heat (depending on your stove, again)





2. Freebasing the Alkaloids

Now place your popped seeds in the milling machine and create a fine dust. Then add 25 g of sodium carbonate (Na2CO3, but not NaHCO3 which is too weak) aka. Soda (1:4 to original seed weight) and mix both to a homogeneous powder. Now add water to the dry mass until you reach a dough-like consistency. While doing this a strong freebase-smell will develop.
Optimal ratio: 1,5 ml : 1 g original seed weight, which means 150 ml on 100 g Seeds.

Important: If you use Hydroxides like Lime (Ca(OH)2) or Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) it may destroy the Bufotenine at high pH ranges from 12 onwards due to the irreversible oxidation of the 5-OH-Group to an Enone. Carbonate can only raise the pH to ~ 11 and should be used without exceptions.




Let this mixture sit for 60 minutes and mix it from time to time. Afterwards the mixture needs to be dried. Either put it in the oven at 75 °C and turn on maximum ventilation or lay it out in a pan, turn heat on a LOW setting and use a fan from the side - this is much faster than the oven method. But heavily check temperature to not destroy any actives. Fumes should not arise, these indicate decomposition. The paste will shrink in size and form blocks. Crack them up to increase surface area and accelerate water removal. At the end use the milling machine again to form a fine powder again - greatly improves the extraction step!

Important: Note the weight of your dry mixture so you know at the next step when you have removed all the water.





3. Defatting the Alkaloids with Naphtha

This step is used to remove all the unwanted alkaloids aka fats that are less polar than Bufotenine. Place your freebased seed/soda mix in a container and add 150 ml of Naphtha. Boil the mixture at 60-65 °C for 5 minutes in the Naphtha while preferably stirring - no need to be exact with temperature, just make sure that it is boiling. Wait for the seed powder to sediment down to the bottom, also shake the vial gently to make the paste form a solid packed layer. If the layer is very dense you can decant the Naphtha without spilling over any seed paste. Repeat 3x, better be safe, Naphtha is cheap and this step is essential.
This defat step will remove ~ 8 % of unwanted compounds aka. fats.

In theory this step would contain all the DMT or 5-MeO-DMT from the seeds. By applying FASA to the Naphtha no clouding can be observed. It seems either it evaporated at step 1 or there is indeed nearly none of these in the seeds. You may check yourself.

Important: As you may not fully prevent spilling over seed material you may filter the Naphtha through a sneeze tissue while decanting.




Important: After this step the seed powder is basically the same as the traditional Yopo / Cebil / Vilca Snuff used by south american shamans for their visionary effects. I strongly recommend NOT using them as a snuff if you used an electric milling machine, as this produces particles ranging down to extremely fine dust which WILL also get dragged into your lungs when insufflating. As they are not soluble in your lungs it may cause the same unhealthy effects like any other fine dust sources.


4. Extracting the Alkaloids with Acetone

Now the target Alkaloids are extracted from the freebased seed powder. Place them in the same container from step 3 again and pour 300 ml (to 100 g seeds) of your dry Acetone on the powder. Boil the seeds at ~ 60 °C for 10 minutes in the Acetone while preferably stirring - no need to be exact with temperature, just make sure that it is boiling. Wait for the seed powder to sediment down to the bottom, decant the Acetone and repeat 2x times with fresh solvent.
Again, shake the vial gently before decanting, this will solidity the mass and make life much easier.
This extraction step dissolves 8 % of alkaloids and fats from the seeds (Bufotenine will be ~ 1-2 % of these).

Important: Close the container while heating, but dont let pressure build up. You may use cling film and a rubber band to prevent air (and therefore water) to get inside of your dried acetone. Huge water take-up would reduce the yield later on.




Now to separate the Alkaloids from the other fats FASA will be added to the solution. (If you have Benzoic Acid by Hand you can also just use this.) By assuming that the Alkaloid content of the seeds is around 1-4 % (reports of 13 % just sound unrealistic) you can expect 3 g of Fumaric Acid to be more than enough to fully precipitate every last Alkaloid. Add 300 ml from the 400 ml of FASA to your combined Acetone extracts.
This precipitation method will separate 3,75 g of Alkaloid Fumarates from the Acetone Extract, which equals equals ~ 2,4 - 2,9 % of Alkaloids extracted, depending on being Mono- or Disalt Fumarates. (Bufotenine will be ~ 1-2 % of these)




Important: Even though the clouding is very intense it takes many hours for full phase separation and crystalization of the Alkaloid-Fumarates. So close the container and let the solution sit over night (at the stage of being fumarate salts the alkaloids have a very long shelf life just like any other fumarate alkaloids). Pay attention that even after full crystalization the solution will not turn clear, so dont wait for this moment. To be safe, decant it and keep the liquid to check if more precipitation is forming while proceeding the next steps with the Fumarate-crystals.

Important: Fumaric Acid + Acetone can be replaced by Citric Acid + Acetone, as Citric Acid can be bought from any grocery. Instead it will form a blob then, which looks like this and will settle down immediately instead of having to wait. But it will contain a lot of Acetone, which will slowly drip out. Wait for 2 h while tilting the blob in a closed vessle, so Acetone can rinse out, while no water can stick to the Alkaloid-Citrates - they are quite hygroscopic in contrast to Fumarates.




Important: Dont rinse the Alkaloid Fumarates with Acetone. This will break up the crystals partially and you cant decant the Acetone without loosing too many material. Still, it is not even needed for purity.


5. Extracting Bufotenine from the Alkaloid mixture

Dissolve your Alkaloid-Fumarates in 25 ml of hot water. Discard what does not dissolve. Then create a solution of soda/Na2CO3 in 25 ml hot water, use a ratio of 0,5:1 Na2CO3:Alkaloid-Fumarates. You should not use excessive Na2CO3, as Bufotenine may dissolve in water if you used too much Na2CO3. Decant to get rid of any non-dissolved soda. Slowly pour the Alkaloid-Fumarate solution into the soda solution. You should use a vial for the soda solution that you can use for heating in the next step.
You will recognize brown clouds of freebase Alkaloids form and settle to the bottom after a few seconds. Upon stirring they form a big clumpy ball.




Now the Alkaloids of the seeds are reverted back to their Freebase form and can be extracted with an unpolar solvent. Decant the water, all the Alkaloids are present in the brown sticky blob. Dont worry if the water is still light tan, it still does not contain any Bufotenine. Pour 25 ml of Xylene into the vessel and boil it while stirring strongly (T = 140 °C). Take care to be in a well-ventilated area. If you dont want to use Xylene, use the next mixture down at the solubility table, which would be a 1:3 Ethyl Acetate:Naphtha heated to 70 °C and use portions like 100 ml per pull, as solubility is much lower). At the moment of creating this TEK I still used that EA:Naphtha mix, so if not otherwise stated, pictures are generated from using those solvents. Still Bufotenin is much better as it is more selective and precipitates all your product at room temperature again. Now while stirring the blob will form a round ball. If the defat step was very thoroughly, then it should solidify to a hard ball after ~ 1 minute, if not it may stay sticky. This wont be a problem, if so just continue as normal. But if it solidifies you will need to stop stirring and crush it into fine dust. This is also a sign that Bufotenin migrates into the solvent. After 5 minutes of stirring, wait for the dust to sediment to the bottom, then decant into a new container. Repeat with fresh 25 ml Xylene until you have the feeling that the powder does not get less anymore - you may weigh the vessel after every Xylene pull for that. A brown or even black solid residue will be left at the end.





Now I guess Bufotenine is open for collaborative research.

TEK in short:

1. Place 100 g A. Colubrina Seeds in a pan, turn setting as high as needed for seeds to pop but still as low as possible

2. When no more seed popping is noticed place grind seeds to a fine dust

3. Add 25 % Na2CO3/soda compared to seed weight and mix homogeneously

4. Slowly spray water on the mixture until a doughy paste is formed - optimal Ratio = 1,5 ml : 1 g of initial Seed weight

5. Dry the paste with a fan and optionally low heat

6. When dry (check by comparing weight to end of step 3) defat with 3 x 150 ml boiling Naphtha, decant

7. Extract with 3 x 150 ml DRY Acetone, filter through a funnel with facial tissues

8. Add FASA that contains at least 3 g of Fumaric Acid slowly and under vigorously stirring

9. Let it rest for 12 h, then decant and watch if the Acetone precipitates more, also check if adding more FASA causes further clouding
and
let the Alkaloid-Fumarate crystals dry off any remaining Acetone

Alkaloid-Fumarate yield: 1,5 - 4 % to seed weight

10. Dissolve the Alkaloid-Fumarate crystals in 25 ml hot water. Slowly pour this into a solution of 1,85 g Na2CO3 (0,5:1 Na2CO3:Alkaloid-Fumarates) 25 ml water.

11. Extract the brown precipitating freebase Alkaloid blob with 25 ml portions of boiling Xylene. Do this until the freebase blob does not shrink anymore. Black powder will remain. Place them in a freezer for freeze-precipitation.
The freebase blob may solidify to a ball upon stirring within this process. Break it apart, if it becomes hard, to speed up extraction. If it remains a goo, still just proceed extracting.

12. Collect your precipitated freebase Bufotenine.

Bufotenine yield: 1-3 % to seed weight

Bufotenin recrystalization

The best solvent to form crystaline Bufotenin is Xylene. Actually it would be way too unpolar to ever dissolve Bufotenine. But according to 69ron the reason is as follows:
As you can heat Xylene above the melting point of Bufotenin, the latter suddenly becomes soluble while liquifying, while the more polar 2 % dark impurities will remain undissolved. This way you can create 100 % purity Bufotenin from 98 % purity Bufotenin retrieved by the former mixture. See the following pictoral:

1 = Break up crude Bufotenine chunks (if even solid)
2 = Heat in Xylene > 140 °C until only brown powder is leftover (see solubility table how much to use)
3 = transfer surfactant Xylene into new Jar and let it sit until surfactant is clear
4 = dry crystaline Bufotenine - much faster if you wash it with low-boiling Naphtha

Bufotenine solubility table:

Awesome write up!! Thank you Wasser!!

Wow dude... great post!

Waiting trip report of 20 mg vape !

Thanks a lot for sharing all of your experiments, excellent thread!

I gotta go now but I'll come back to this thread soon.

Please do keep sharing any further experiments you make with this or other plants/substances, very appreciated!

I not sure if it's ok to ask a question about sourcing seeds , so if not ok mods feel free to edit this post . I checked a few vendors for seeds . i priced seeds from several venders the best price from a vendor with a good rep was $10 for 100 seeds or $40 for 500 seeds . is this a reasonable price ?
Thanks
BEZ

Thanks so much. A few years back I performed an extraction and obtained a crude product. I mixed it with dmt as per the instructions for bufojam changa but other than some vasoconstriction the effects I had were mainly from the dmt. I have always wanted to experience the bufotenine journey after reading Jamie's wild tales. This write up has fired me up again and i'm really looking forward to trying out the extraction. Please do keep us updated with your bioassays.

no one chimmed in on my last post . guess i might guess and buy a few seeds. ...to uuuumm germinate heh

Interesting info THHANKS




was there a link for mentioned Second #2 post with this for purification or re crystallization . or did i miss it DOH ?

Thank you for sharing your skillz!!! This is great.

[Obsolete ...]

Thank you dyoode

I read some things about that substance but you made it a little more
comprehensive for me.

One day

Thank you so much for your work

Holy mother! Big thanks, this is highly appreciated.

Great write up and a solid A for the work that went into all of this; I'm anxious to see future results from this TEK popping up soon enough!

Swim could have used this like 3 months ago as he managed to waste like 300 seeds.

He may try something like this next time. Thanks so much youre a hero.

TEK is finally complete!

New analytics, new HD Pictures, shorter TEK, new Solubility table for Bufotenine.

Actually it was finalized just after the initial post, but I was still waiting for the Analytics department to be able to do some measurements - because there should be a proof that this TEK indeed works and produces pure Bufotenine. Apparently the person that measured it forgot to set the 13C-NMR-measurement, but it would have rather been cosmetic. Maybe I will add it in future myself.

If you read the *old* TEK you saw that the TEK split into 3 alternative routes after about half-way. This was due to the reason that I either did not knew if these possible ways would work and they were just hypothetical or that these should just be alternatives, used based on the personal preference of anyone that wants to try it. Now I finally tested everything out and chose the most efficient way, which was further cut down in length. Now only this single way is used for this TEK as it works perfectly and and I guess it makes more sense to just focus on 1 way, if this should be a general TEK that will work without any restrictions. Now the whole procedure uses the bare minimum amount of steps to achieve a pure Product.

Also now solubility data for Bufotenine in all relevant solvents / solvent systems for all common temperatures is added, for anyone trying to do either extraction or any other handling with it. See 2nd Post for this.

Hope it will provide help to anyone not to waste more A. colubrina seeds, but gather a product with great use.

Excellent work!

Thank you very much for this great contribution

How does pure bufotenin compare to yopo or cebil?
I have only got some experience with yopo myself, but i realy like the stuff.

I made Yopo Powder not too long ago and got more nausea than psychedelic visions, so it was not that pleasant : /

With Bufo I haven't tested much so far, 60 mg intranasal were already much in terms of material to ingest as my nose is not really trained for this So I did not go any higher ... more interested in oral ingestion then, which sadly always produced the least impressive effects compared to other ROA. But so far haven't eaten anything, maybe starting with 100 mg + 200 mg Harmalas. 100 mg DMT seems still okay so probably its not already too much for Bufo.

I've heard bad things about oral ingestion. Very bad things.

About yopo i can say that i have experienced the most side effects when i smoked it, but i didn't smoke basified yopo because i feared it would be more damaging to the lungs.
The other method i used was taking it sublingually, wich ofcourse requires basifying, and i did not experience any serious side effects then.

I found yopo by itself not that interesting, but when i took it with shrooms or LSD, the effects where very impressive.

If you want deep visionary experiences with it, you probably need to dose higher, wich goes hand in hand with more nausea. But if you've taken another hallucinogen, you don't need to take that much, and then you can go realy deep with relatively tiny amounts.

Smoking is probably the most powefull ROA with bufo.

Please be careful and research this one. Ott's paper from 2001 seems informative (if, as always, rather wordy) on this matter. Attached below.