A recently attempted extraction with Escort brand Camp Fuel from Canadian Tire (cannot find picture) has yielded almost nothing but hassle. Contains: Naphtha Petroleum.

Various techniques used and several pulls have yielded very little, very yellow spice. After having gone through a few very annoying sessions, DMT was placed in a shotglass to which this camp fuel was added and even heated yet almost none of it dissolved in the naphtha.

This is partly a "Don't buy this solvent!". And partly a "Anyone know a good source of a NPS in Canada?", but not forgetting a "Is Naphtha petroleum just shit?"

Thanks in advance, would really like to know what the Canadians on this board use as and extraction solvent.

Did you check hardware stores for paint thinner? VM&P metal can.. I dunno what Canada has or doesnt, but hell jump across the states Naptha isnt illegal there is it?

HI 11:11, I know for fact you can get ronsonol lighter fluid in Canada and have heard of Canadians having good results with it. I use it too, but i live in the UK and i think they are very slightly different (not much though). I tried buying some BBQ lighting fluid ages ago because it said 'petroliium (hydrotreated light) which is "light naphtha". I then did an evap test and i was left with a yucky mess that wouldn't go, no matter how long i waited, so i checked the saftey data sheet (MSDS) online and found out it also had kerosene in it! My point is that you can not all ways tell exactly what's in the solvent by just reading the ingredients on the back. Did you try an evap test before using it? This can usually give you an idea of how clean the naphtha is.

Yeah, some naphthabrands do have low DMT-solubility. I'm for the moment using a light hydrotreated (what does that even mean?) one that works wonders for the price. I would recommend you get some pure spice and then try a solubility-test (after a evap-test of course) in the naphtha before you buy large quantities or use it in an extraction.

If it seems to dissolve spice it's good but there are other problems. Naphtha (more so than heptane) seems to dissolve everything from none to a hell lot of impurities along with the DMT. When I use naphtha I always wash it with sodium carbonate before freeze precipitation, and this is a must for at least the naphtha I'm using. If I do not do this, I will get quite impure spice. I loved not having to do this with the heptane (and getting great pulls), but it was just so darn expensive.

To-do-list:
* Check evaporation, if it leaves no residue then;
* Check solubility of spice, if it dissolves nice amounts of it in room-temperature then;
* Check colour of pull, if really yellow then wash with Na2CO3 + water and;
* Be happy!

I you can get pure heptane, then I would recommend using it for cleaning spice via recrystallization. It works great for that purpose and you need extremely small amounts. 1l will sat for a long while!

Thanks for the responses. I have access to Ronsonol, which definitely dissolves the DMT, but was given similar issues with very impure spice when using it. After a Sodium Carb wash I lost all that I had pulled. It just seemed to disappear, no idea what happened. I always do an evap test beforehand and in this case that wasn't an issue, it was simply that the naphtha would not hold any spice.

Also paint thinner here seems to be mineral spirits and that's it. I've heard of many people using mineral spirits with equally lame results. I may just use good old Colemans and distill it to get rid of the rust proofing chemicals.

Good idea to distill the naphtha to get rid of the anti-rust crap that's in it. That's weird you get impure spice from ronsonol. I have all ways had good results with it. Now and again i'll do a recrystallization, but that's usually after my final pull using warm naphtha to get the last of the goodies. As west-en said, you can all ways use heptane to recrystallize.

Heavy naphtha has aromatics such as toluene and xylene, which makes DMT very soluble in it and makes it almost impossible to freeze percipitate (also evaporating it takes forever). Light naphtha has less aromatics and a smaller amount of six-carbon rings attached to the hydrogen atoms. Basically means it doesn't grab as much spice out of the base mix, but makes freeze precipitating work like a dream. I am not an expert on the subject, so please correct me if i'm wrong