Hi,
Didn't know where else to put this - there are several herbs which I would like to concentrate or extract from, but I don't know quite how to go about it. For example, skullcap.
The main psychoactive parts are said to be water soluble - how would simply boiling 100g of tea, straining, and then boiling to a tar work? Then using as is, or extracting with alcohol... Baicalein is said to be the active component, and boils at 200 c, so it shouldn't be destroyed.

What about damiana, passionflower, wormwood?

Anyone have experience with this sort of thing?

Cheers,
Crisp

Not sure about any of the others, (however am interested) but there is a Passion Flower Tek. I have always been very interested in extracting from passionflower. However have never dedicated the time to actively pursuing the purchase of Ammonia.

If you carry out this tek. Or any other, please post the results.

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Crisp, let me take a step back to illustrate the thought process:

Lets say that the plant sample is of unknown biochemical make-up but purported to have X activity (an alien plant, for dramatic effect). The first step one would do is take different extraction fractions for example a water fraction, a methanol fraction, a dichloromethane fraction and send each for chemical analysis and/or check the activity. This will help you locate which fraction is active ,hence the solubility/nature of your compound and from there you can fine tune the procedure.

Good news here, is that the species you mention are not alien and totally uknown species. You can look at the molecules of interest for each and devise a way to extract them.

For wormwood ,if you are after its thujone content , start with an alcohol extraction taking hint from the absinth distillers. I think its a good start, thujone must be soluble in it. I dont know whats the extremelly bitter principle in the herb but in water infusions of the herb it is present.

For passionflower,start with a water extract unless someone more knowledgable suggests otherwise.