Hello everybody, I have a hypothetical question hopefully some chemical adepts can help me with. Normally when people extract alkaloids from say, a cactus, they first extract all of the alkaloid in a polar substance and then defat the solution with a organic solvent. This stuff makes me nervous and I would never use anything less than lab grade so heres the question. Could you use some kind of oil, from coconut, to olive, vegetable, mineral, etc. to absorb plant fats, chlorophyl, and other unwanted junk?

Hey dreamtime.

I know people who have had success with orange oil (d limolene) or parrafin wax as a defatting solvent for cactus extractions.
Heat is needed when using parrafin but is great to work with when separating the two phases as it solidifies easy.

Friends have thought of trying grape seed oil before however i suspect any vegetable type oil or the like will already be heavily saturated in fats/sugars etc.

Non of these work as efficiently or cleanly as a target pure solvent and for a clean a/b product your last wash will have to be with an aromatic solvent such as toluene to make sure all contaminates are removed.

My advice is dont be scared of organic non polar solvents, just repect them. They have been used safely for hundreds of years its just the reckless and stupid that blow themselves up.
Go to your local hardware store or paint shop and get a 4l tin of xylene or toluene, dont smoke or huff, use a non heat tek and youll be fine brother.

Please whatever you do! Dont tip your used solvent in the sink, toilet, garden, rivers or fucking anywhere! Put your solvent in used auto oil containers and dispose in your local tip as motor oil which is usally free.

why not use d-limonene (orange oil). No need to defat, just pull with limonene and salt it out. Check our wiki, teks like BLAB, q21q21, amorfati, 69ron tek, all of which work for both dmt or mescaline. Or spiceman's poor man's tek which uses other cooking oils to extract.

Thanks for the replies guys! So fast!

Herbintooth: I'm not so much worried about exploding myself as I am about volatile hydrocarbons = carcinogens
I feel like anything less than lab grade is not garunteed to be devoid of such things.

The parraffin wax sounds intruiging though! Any more details? I am not trying to crash anything out, I'm just trying to make an aqueous solution of tryptamines in slightly acidic water, and adding a fat-soluble solute to get at least some of the junk out. Will this work or am I being naive?

Endlessness: Orange oil (D-limonene?) I have heard of, but I also heard (I think?) its expensive and hard to find. I know exactly where I can get veggie oil! But I agree that It probably wont do much dissolving.

My basic plan is: Dissolve stock in 91 % isopropyl alcohol (mescaline freebase is supposedly highly soluble) Do three pulls over about 3-4 weeks, combine, evaporate. Dissolve in distilled H20, add a little acetic acid, and add paraffin and heat. Cool, separate, drink.

Would it be faster/cheaper to A/B? I have no purist fetishes, I dont mind eating gunk, as long as I can get it down and keep it there long enough.

I'm still a college student in a dorm so I dont have much to work with. Planning on spending a day cooking it in the woods over a propane (controlled) fire or at the rents house over summer vacation. (I'm 21)

Just saw you're last sentence Herbintooth... I am studying environmental science!
This is part of the reason I wont touch xylene that I bought at home depot.
I appreciate that you would add that piece of advice. Kudos.