I'm looking to make my first batch of Changa having read so much about it on this site.

I have my carefully prepared spice, fairly high purity by the look of the lovely white crystals (some of them about 6mm in length btw). I also have some suitable soft tasting herb to put it onto, chosen from trying out various herbal cigarettes on sale. A friend has also given me some peganum harmala extract HCl.

I just want to get this one clear before I proceed.
I'm presuming I've got to convert the harmala:HCl to its base?
If so, can I simply do this by shaking it with excess warm sodium bicarb solution, letting the freebase settle to the bottom, drain off all liquid and dry it out on some blotter?

Let me know if this would be the right way to go about this.
Many thanks

You need something a bit stronger than bicarb. If you bake the bicarb in the oven for a bit or dissolve it in water and boil it well in the microwave it will convert in part or in full to sodium carbonate, and then it'll be strong enough.
Dissolve the base in water, and the rue.HCl in water before mixing them for easy and fast reaction.
Dont mix them hot, or some freebase may be dissolved in the water you pour off.

...and if you make too much boiled bicarb dont dump the extra. When its hot its great for making coffee stains soft enough to scrub out of coffee cups

Oh I thought basically anything alkaline would neutralise the HCl component

I could use lye and then wash the precipitate with weak bicarb solution after if that was a surer way to get the freebase. What do you reckon?




Great advice for coffee stains

When freebasing alkaloids you need to use a base thats stronger than the alkaloid base your trying to free.
Bicarb is strong enough to freebase harmine, but not very good for harmaline. That difference is the basis for a popular separation procedure.
Thoroughly boiled bicarb (somewhere from sodium sesquicarbonate to sodium carbonate), baked bicarb (sodium carbonate), or yes, lye will all be strong enough to get the harmaline precipitated too.
I wouldnt personally bother with lye, caustics are best reserved for when theyre really needed.

That great, Auxin. Thanks for the clear explanation