Q. I don’t want to chew quid or to smoke, how can a soft extract for sublingual use be made?
A. Strong preparations have been made using ethanol and using 91% isopropyl alcohol. Please note there have been no studies of the safety of sublingual soft extract. It is theoretically possible that the material might contain some harmful substance, either extracted from the plant or produced by reaction with solvent or in the oven heating phase of the preparation. Users have not reported side-effects from sublingual soft-extract but long term dangers (if any) are unknown. Since this material is waxy, it might not be a good idea to smoke it because one might be inhaling wax vapors into ones lungs. Various solvents can be used to make a soft extract. Extracts made using both ethanol and 91% isopropyl alcohol have proven effective.
The following recipe worked to prepare an isopropyl alcohol soft extract. The final product was a greenish black waxy substance about the consistency of beeswax. It looked like tar but had a tealike aroma and slightly bitter taste. It proved highly effective sublingually in a dose of 1/4 tsp.
1. Grind up a large amount of dried salvia leaves. Grind them finely. You need not weigh the starting material. The more leaf material you start with the more soft extract you will get. So use as much as you can spare.
2. Place the ground up leaves in a polyethylene container with a well sealing polyethylene top. Polyethylene will not dissolve in isopropyl alcohol. Neither will glass but the rubber seals on glass jar lids may, so stick to polyethylene containers.
3. Add enough 91% isopropyl alcohol to cover the leaf material twice over. 91% isopropyl alcohol is available in pharmacies over the counter. It is used by some diabetics to sterilize reusable insulin syringes, and is pharmaceutical grade (very pure).
4. Shake the alcohol leaf powder mixture twice daily for at least a couple of days. The longer you do this the more complete the extraction will be. Leaving the material sit in a closet for weeks or even months will not hurt the final product. But two days with good shaking may be all that is needed.
5. If all the leaf material has not settled to the bottom of the container you will have to filter. Filtration is possible using cheese cloth for preliminary filtration followed by filtering through a coffee filter. If you left the container sit long enough you can skip the filtration step as all the leaf material will have sedimented out. If it has just decant the alcohol which was now greenish black in color.
6. Pout the more or less particle free green black isopropyl alcohol crude fluid extract into a Pyrex baking dish.
7. If weather permits evaporate it outdoors. Just cover with a clean aluminum screen and let it evaporate at ambient temperature. If indoor evaporation is necessary set it next to an exhaust fan for 48 hours.
8. Once all the alcohol has evaporated the mixture will no longer smell like rubbing alcohol but may contain water and be slimy. Expect a wet slimy greenish-black material to be coating the Pyrex baking dish. Once it no longer smells of alcohol place the pan in a 150 degree oven for a couple of hours. You may want to crack the oven open about an inch to let any residual alcohol vapors escape.
9. At this point the material in the pan should be a crust of film coating the pan. Open the oven and remove the pan from the oven and let it cool some but not down to room temperature.
10. With a plastic spatula scrape the black tar-like material off. There will be a lot of scraping. The scrapings are the stuff you want so don’t throw them out! Place these scrapings into a plastic bag. When there is no more that can be scraped out of the pan take the scrapings in your hands (make sure they are clean first) and using your fingers roll the scrapings into a ball. Your fingers will become coated with the tarry soft extract.
11. Place the ball back into the plastic bag and let it cool to room temperature. As it does it will become stiffer.
12. The material can be stored at room temperature in a sealed plastic bag. It will probably keep a very long time.
13. To measure a dose, scoop out a tiny piece with a small measuring spoon e.g. 1./4 tsp size. Fill the measuring spoon with the extract. Since this is strong stuff and 1/4 tsp. is a large dose so you may want to use an 1/8 tsp. measure, or alternatively measure 1/4 tsp. and then cut than in half to get approximately 1/8 tsp.
14. To use, place the dose under your tongue. Lie down in a quiet place with dim lighting. Chew the waxy material occasionally, parking it under your tongue between chews. Keep the Saliva formed in your mouth so salvinorin can be absorbed from it. Swallowing the material won’t harm you but swallowed salvinorin is not effective. Once you want to come down, spit out the material remaining in your mouth and brush your teeth to rid you mouth of the remaining extract. The effects develop gradually, but can become quite strong in sensitive individuals.