DISCLAIMER: the talk of syntheses in this post is not meant to concern the actual synthesis of an illicit/psychoactive drug; it is intended to educate users as to what may be tainting their solvent, what may form (albeit most likely in minute quantities under room temperature and ambient light exposure) under extraction-like conditions, and alternate reactions and products one may see along with the desired compound(s) during an extraction procedure; these synths are coincidental, and are not to be attempted. Ever. The reactions mentioned here are done so for the sake of harm reduction and education as to what one may unknowingly be cooking up along with their alkaloid(s) of choice.


Benzene and its derivatives: toluene and xylene, make up 25-35 percent of most naphthas and are the go-to solvent when it comes to extracting mescaline from cacti. Albeit great solvents, these compounds are not immune to outside influences, and may be so inclined to react (albeit in trace amounts due to lack of proper conditions for rxn to occur at) very slowly to form certain minute products; some of which may be toxic and/or accidentally end up in one's final yield. Presented below are some possibilities which may occur if one uses sulfuric acid for mescaline back-salting:






Please note the vast synthetic utility of TsOH: an extraordinarily strong organic acid with the potential to initiate a galaxy of reactions with the sea of molecules all around it. Albeit not as toxic as radioactive, potent anti-cholinergic (and/or anti-acetylcholinesterase) or fragile explosive (e.g. nitroglycerin) molecules, this acid, which may be made in minute quantities when mixing sulfuric acids with toluene, can result in an ark of impurities in your final product, as well as amount of final product & chemical composition due to the vast synthetic utility of this, among other possible trace compounds inadvertently made by combining hydrocarbon solvents with concentrated solutions carrying an excess of -OH. The excess bass will catalyze the formation of this acid, which may (under heat and light) mold other plant constituents into lipophilic forms, thus allowing them to contaminate your yields.

If you used a halogen acid as your back-salting acid (eg HCl, HBr, etc.) you may be opening yourself up to accidental halogenation of solvent (although due to lack of excess heat and light, it wouldn't be very much, but it should be duely noted that, in the practice of organic chemistry, SP3 hybridized hydrocarbons, especially those branching off of aromatics, are very difficult to put into play; the most widely known method is halogenation; even if a minute amount of solvent is halogenated, the compound is fair game to morph into whatever comes its way--that isn't good or safe at all, let alone predictable). Again, I am being paranoid here as very little of solvent would be halogenated under these conditions; however, excess of haloacid (as I often end up adding) may favor the formation of halogenated hydrocarbons despite there being not enough free energy & light intensity necessary to drive reaction to total completion; although a minute amount is formed, it may be of concern, especially since halogenated hydrocarbons have different solubilities and cater to different crowds than unsubstituted aromatics go.

I looked over the thread you referenced, but it had no mention whatsoever of recycling or attempting to re-use aromatic solvents (e.g. xylene/toluene/benzene); I am glad that naphtha can be reused for future extractions, and will give it a go whenever the phone starts ringing again.

I would still like to know if one could reuse back-salted aromatic solvents (without the need for excessive reduction and fractional distillation/chromatography/etc.) in future mescaline extractions--those posts did not answer that question, which I find to be the most quintessential item in my inquiry due to the fact that cactus extractions (on average) consume approximately 1000-2000ml of aromatic solvent throughout the procedure, whereas mimosa extractions (DMT) IME tend to use 250-1000ml of solvent (only once did I use 1L of naphtha Long Story Shart, I have found that 5 200ml pulls are less efficient than 7 50ml pulls in a mild heat bath; less is moar!).

Xylene doesn't evaporate well at STP (PLEASE FFS DO NOT EVAPORATE HYDROCARBONS THINKING THEY'LL DISAPPEAR; YOU'RE ONLY FURTHER POLLUTING OUR ATMOSPHERE AND RAIN BY DOING SO); I have not yet tried recycling xylene, but may just do so in future extractions. I'm just a bit cautious about what other monsters may form in doing so, and if said monsters, when exposed to concentrated -OH instead of concentrated HCl, would transform into other hideous and/or other harmful beasts/big-bangs; I may be of a curious temperament, a test chimp of sorts, but most certainly not the guinea pig to test that theory out on....

Please lmk if there is any way to reasonably recycle back-salted solvents (AKA xylene, FASA'd naphtha, etc.) via reasonable at-home methods such that I may be able to save both on lab supplies and my impact on my local environment by doing so.

Keep me informed,
-God

what?
NPS has no electrostatic/h-bond groups, and most aren't chiral. limonene may undergo oxidation, but xylene is fairly inert.

if you're serious about the art of extraction, cough up some coin, and get a Gast and Rotavap.

Cleanup methods for hydrocarbons might include a simple polar wash, or a series with diluted vinegar, sodium bicarbonate solution and then plain water. Dry over magnesium sulfate. Of course we then have to decide how to dispose of the mildly contaminated wash water. It should be safe to evaporate in a well-ventilated place.

I've reported on this attempt at cleaning up limonene with aqueous IPA and sodium carbonate but results are thus far a little inconclusive. Interesting phase separations occur.

And, I'm still not convinced that shaking up toluene with dilute sulphuric acid forms any appreciable amount of toluenesulphonic acid.

Also:

The most reactive hydrocarbon routinely being used for extractions is limonene. It slowly oxidises in air to form carvone which can result in residues having a caraway/spearmint odour. Limonene is much more likely to react with dilute HCl than toluene or xylene are.

Or even a distillation setup for solvent aquisition. Dcm/chloroform/ethyl acetate, methanol, etd all become easy to come by.

found this from the FAQ, and really felt no satisfaction after reading the whole thing. So even though this is an old thread, I’m gonna ask more questions. not a chemist, but care about the earth and like to make decisions about stuff like this that I’m comfortable with.

my real question for those who say evaporating the solvent is just awful is this: what do those expensive solvent disposal services do? again, not a chemist so ignorant here, but my understanding is that once you pump oil out of the ground and refine it there’s no way to hit undo. did a tiny bit of research into hazardous waste disposal and seems like these places burn most of it in the end. so would it be so much worse for the environment for me to evaporate it? genuinely interested.