SWIM had a dream the other week about this and it brought up a question:

In SWIMs dream SWIM tried to extract buf from A. colubrina var. Cebil. SWIM was using Ott 2001 as a guide.

http://entheology.org/ed...nmviewer.asp?a=9&z=8

SWIM is curious how high can one boost the pH during the non polar extract before it gets too dangerous for buf? Also how low of a pH can buf handle?

Has anyone ever dreamed about the Ott 2001 method? In SWIMs dream SWIM was left with a dark brown oil which although using ethyl acetate to recrystallize can form crystals the crystals never get big enough to filter. SWIM thinks there may be too many oily impurities that are interferring with crystal formation. SWIM was dreaming about playing around with recrystallizing a few diff ways but then woke up at his desk and decided to post that question too. Either way the yield looks kind of low and SWIM thinks he may have worked too quick in his dream to fully extracting all the buf from the water which had a pH of 8.1. In other words SWIM was cranking through his CHCl3 pulls (did about 12 100mL each) before waking up.

Any ideas buf fans?

SWIM tried Ott’s tech but used DCM instead of chloroform. It was the first real tech SWIM tried for Anadenanthera. It works, but using DCM unfortunately extracts the toxins along with the bufotenine. If DCM is used, because of the toxins, the bufotenine usually won’t crystallize, and so you end up with an amber sticky mess instead of white crystals. But you can perform the 2:3 MEK:heptane method to clean up the amber goo and get actual crystals of very high purity (95%+ purity).

Bufotenine can stand low pH values all the way down to pH 1, maybe less.

Don’t let the pH go above 11. SWIM has done lots of tests on bufotenine and taking the pH too high for too long destroys it. The optimal pH for extracting bufotenine is 9.5. Any higher and you get no noticeable increase in yield. If taken to pH 12 and left sitting for a few hours, the bufotenine starts coming apart. If taken to pH 14, the bufotenine will be destroyed rapidly. It’s thought that it is transformed irreversibly into dehydrobufotenine by high pH values.

Thanks for clarification, it helps SWIM understand the dream much better.

How would SWIY compare ethyl acetate to the MEK:heptane for recrystallizing?

SWIM had another lucid dream the other night pH was the problem 9.5-10 works like a hot knife through butter.

The 2:3 mix of MEK:heptane works WAY BETTER than ethyl acetate. Don't even bother with ethyl acetate. Mix the resulting goo thoroughly in MEK:heptane, then pour off the solvent leaving behind the brown/amber junk, then evaporate the solvent. You should get crystals. Repeat this with new solvent until no more bufotenine is recovered from the goo.