Hey Folks,

SWIM just completed his first extraction. It was great until the Naphtha became involved. The fumes were absolutely horrible and quickly filled SWIM's apartment. Only two pulls were done (and in a hurry) and SWIM was feeling extremely queasy from the fumes.

Is there a decent subsitute that could be used in lieu of Naphtha. Preferably without intoxicating fumes?

Thanks!

Alternative solvents (like toluene/xylene) will smell even worse so either do it outside or get some good ventilation.

Use Bestine(Heptane)Rubber Cement Thinner...Its also Best for recrystallization...

Yea it sucks because when i evaporated a little bit of my klean-strip vm&p naphtha in a bowl to test for nasty additives, it left an oily type substance behind that im pissed off about because ive been using that same naphtha for all my extractions

Im gonna look for a pure hexane for honey oil and extractions

SWIM disagrees with this, not just because they don't smell nearly as bad as naptha, but because the nature of using these solvents is that you salt the alkaloids out of them, there is very little evaporation going on. SWIM would choose toluene over xylene.

Never used toluene so I can't comment. Xylene is faaaar worse, XYLENE IS FOUL, IT IS THE PISS OF THE DEVIL, if you disagree with with that statement I'm just going to assume you have never used xylene and deal with the confines that preconception creates. There is no way you could actually think naptha smells less toxic.

peace
SB

At this point I need to confess that I totally totally adore the smell of xylene!

I'd imagine you have a much more suitable area to work with it than most though, right?

BWHAAAAAAAAAAAA?

Toluene is also very stinky, much more than naptha in my experience. What kind of naptha were you using?

Since naptha is usually freeze precipitated, I think its the easiest to deal with fume wise. Bestine doesn't smell as much, but it's alot less common and much more expensive.

Pokey

SWIM has experience with all 3 solvents (all in well ventilated areas), xylene is not nearly as bad as naptha in SWIM's opinion, toluene is better than xylene and naptha. Naptha spreads, quick, and will give you a horrible headache, and even weakened SWIM's immune system, causing him to get very sick for weeks following its usage. Limonene is by far the best, limonene will make you fall in love with the process rather than dreading it because of the sweet sweet smell of oranges. The only issue with limonene is the purity of the fumarates salted from it, which has now been addressed with boiling IPA, so there is really not much of a reason not to use it unless you are unable to obtain it.

i enjoy the smell of dcm, smells like progress...