Hmmm .... that’s funny .... ??

A lot of argument as to whether Isaac Asimov actually said that or an equivalent phrase, supposedly more meaningful than the “Eureka - I have found it". Some may prefer the rewrite of “Hmmm ... maybe I can make a few bucks out of that". Replace “bucks” with “quid” and that betrays my Yorkshire background.

Hello Nexians - after three years procrastination and deep lurking and absorbing all the data possible, which is freely presented here by the erudite members, recently felt that tug on the conscience I couldn’t ignore any more because it was time that I should introduce myself and also contribute.

I am very fortunate to be retired and can indulge my interests in following all my hobbies including chemistry, electronics, perfumery, plant and human biology, epigenetics and extensive reading. I am an awkward git as never accept things at their face value, quite the contrariwise thinker, I have to experiment to prove - how is it said, “there is many a beautiful elegant thesis, savaged to death by an ugly fact”. Case in point is the panic generated when a layer of an immovable emulsion with the consistency of sludge is presented. My way of thinking is - this is possibly not as bad a thing as perceived. That emulsion is, in my view, providing a good interface between the two dissimilar liquids - depending on the constituents then increasing the base layer Ph with more base, adding salt to the base and then gently heating the lot prior to a boiling point might remove the obnoxious. Some agitation also helps to dissipate the sludge - finally, filter and discard the sludge as it normally is less than 5 percent of final amount and you do not want to waste any more of your time.

My greatest achievement so far is giving up smoking, over 50 years of nicotine addiction and a couple of years plus of replacement therapy which hasn’t removed the addiction - it still lurks in the recesses, I just do not smoke. I love a pint and have strong views what constitutes a good bitter, but my drinking days are in decline - just the occasional pie and a pint with friends.

I am growing Phalaris brachystachys which I have extracted from but screwed up along the way. Thankfully the remnants are held in about a litre of Xylene for which I will eventually present a full and detailed breakdown of a fresh extraction complete with measurements and photos and the same for a Syrian Rue extraction. Oh yes, partial screw up with the original Rue extraction - one should not use carbonate as a basifier when the extract is highly acidic, I could have had a foam bath - amazing how much foam expands out of a litre and Rue is incredibly soapy. One learns from ones cock-ups, managed to recoup everything.

Also growing Acacia acuminata (Narrow Phyllode) though several plants are overcrowded in the pots, it is going to be a couple of years before they can be a source of DMT from when they produce some flowers. On my first extract of Phalaris I evaporated a small amount of the Xylene in a saucer (doesn’t Xylene stink vile?), the green residue on smelling was a revelation - it surfaced some strange memories which I could not place as to where I had smelt it before, an evocative enticing perfume. This must have been the tryptamine, the smell is mentioned a few times here in the Nexian but it was quite a surprise as to how delightful that aroma was and a heap of encouragement despite screwing up with trying to basify the fumarate salt with lime.

Now comes the Questionnaire, this should be retitled - “A RED PILL” - I wont forgive you Traveler as I am still falling down the rabbit hole. Initially, I cynically assumed the senior members were polishing their egos and applying some Darwinism rulings on membership, hmmm, I am a little enlightened now as to how ignorant I was and still am - what the hell is an NBOMe ?? Never heard of any of these esoteric drugs before, blithely innocent.

What a rabbit hole this question has led me into, recreational chemicals, certainly a testament to the ingenuity and inventiveness of the chemists creating these designer drugs. It would help if some of that inventiveness was used in applying some decent naming conventions. Ignorance is bliss but it is known to kill, and so I have forayed into the realm of testing reagents. I have successfully done the synthesis of Ammonium metavanadate from the Pentoxide - only a couple of grams to set up some Mandellin reagent. I have a kilo of 4-dimethylamino benzaldehyde and it is sad that I can spell it, pronounce it, but in chasing the Ehrlick’s reagent formulation it took ages to find the variant mentioned here in the Nexus of Ehrlick’s-TS - Google is just about useless in this respect but, not knowing that the TS stands for Test Solutions is the missing clue. The link for several test solutions is:-

http://www.pharmacopeia....sp29nf24s0_ris1s126.html

Few of the standard reagents are detailed, Google is quite helpful in digging these out, the following links give really good colour tables for the two basic reagents.

http://www.dhpforum.nl/w...p?title=Marquis_Reagent_(English_Version)
http://www.dhpforum.nl/w...php?title=Mecke_Reagent_(English_Version)

Closing this intro with back to the starting reference of Isaac Asimov - he mentioned that “para dimethyl amino benz aldehyde” could be sung as if you were a native Gaelic speaker and sing it to the tune of “The Irish Washer Woman” - there is a very bad Youtube version floating about but here are the verses that will win you notoriety and acclaim if you learn for your next party.



I have yet to visit the Elves, but this is something I will not rush into until I have certainty on the purity of what I have extracted. Making my own TLC plates for starters.

Regards everyone, critique very welcome as I will enjoy immensely any dialogue.

WhiteDragon

Welcome mate, good job on giving up the cigs
Have you tried emu bitter? It's the only beer I've found you can bury in the desert and still enjoy.

Welcome friend

Nice song there,

Nice batch of foam you have there too, rue is a pain to work with and very time consuming.
Very nice that you have a lot of free time to do all those things that interest's you. Congrats on stopping smoking!

PS- yes xylene freakin stinks, does evap super fast though.


Peace
SO2

Hummm, xylene does evap fast compared to water but very slowly compared to aceton or naphtha.

Xylene is considered med/fast just like naphtha when it comes to evaporation. Methanol is faster yet to acetone what's your point?

My point was it stinks to high heaven and then evaps fairly quickly then the smell dissipates, thankfully. Too stinky as opposed to naphtha. But naphtha stinks too.

Thank you to Sphorange and to Spaced Out 2 for the welcome and to DansMaTete for the observation.

Forgive please as I reminisce about the speed of evaporation - from the 50s to the 60s we had Carbon Tetrachloride sloshing around without a care from dry cleaners to Industry because it was a great cleaner and evaporated fast.

Whilst in the Army the teleprinters were regularly cleaned with Tet until it was decided to be unhealthy and replaced Tet with the Glue Sniffers Friend Toluene - Urgh, both are exceedingly evil and I dislike intensely the smell but Toluene does not evap as fast as Tet. After the Army I came across a product called Genclean manufactured by ICI and used to clean the ink from line printers - it smelt exactly like Carbon Tet but was not that fast to evap.

In the race stakes nothing as far as I know beats DCM - it has disappeared before you have got to the starting block, it is extremely volatile - yet I can not remember what it smells like at all!

THF (Tetra Hydro Furan) definitely unhealthy with a lovely ether like aroma, damned good solvent but is polar and water miscible, evaps pretty fast, but rather expensive despite that it can be sourced from renewable bio materials.

How sad that Ethyl acetate is polar and water miscible also and like most esters it smells wonderful - I remember very well the pear drops aroma of Amyl acetate from the ladies in my life using it on nail varnish - Yes, fond memories tied in well with aromas.

Regards all,

WhiteDragon