Gaujac, A., Ford, J. L., Dempster, N. M., de Andrade, J., & Brandt, S. D. (2013). Investigations into the polymorphic properties of N,N-dimethyltryptamine by X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry. Microchemical Journal, 110146-157. doi:10.1016/j.microc.2013.03.009

So they found two potential polymorphism of DMT, each with different properties.

Does this open the discussion again about the difference that people experience with different extracts, that it might be due to having different forms of the DMT they extracted?

Also this post from this thread is interesting.


Kind regards,

The Traveler

From what I understand that should not affect psychoactive effects, only physical crystallization, or in other words, how it looks (and melting point, etc).. Once it`s ingested it will not be in it`s crystal formation, will dissolve in blood and attach to receptors the same.

they're citing two different enthalpies of fusion, along with their structural characterization by spectroscopy. this would indicate different structures and physical properties (m.p.). it does not suggest differing psychoactivities.

what they didn't propose is an structural representation of the other form.
I suspect it's similar to the serotonin molecule on the Nexus homepage, sans the hydroxy.

..glad you spotted that Traveler
it is my understanding that in some cases of initial tryptamine crystallization (incl. DMT), betacarbolines can be present as trace impurities, but re-x results in a purer form..
this could explain subtle differences..

I just noticed, it's a psilocin molecule.

DMT with a similar orientation, probably melts at 44-46 C. When the orientation is rotated about the alpha-carbon to 120 °, the m.p. is probably in the 57-58 C range, or as high as 67-69 C. Rotation about that bond is characteristic of amino acids like Tryptophan, and is characterized by Ramachandran plots.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tryptamine <- you can see which carbon is alpha-position

I have been doing some solubility tests recently and noticed that a lot of the samples exhibited characteristics of polymorphism. The sample that I held at 46C wasn't in melt, and on two occasions I was able to clearly see elevated MP temperatures - the first was a sample which began to melt at 54.1C, at 55.(~2)C there was melting in bulk and by 58.8C the sample was completely melted. The second sample began to melt at ~54.5C and was fully melted at 57.8C

The study produced several different morphologies in the end, with no clear correlation yet between those samples with the elevated MP and the shape of the dry solid. In fact, those samples each gave something different - crystals, needles, and a structure which resembles a spherulite.

There is no clear cut trend actually between any of the final forms with the testing conditions the respective sample was subjected to, and it's making my analysis difficult - the spherule shapes at first seemed to be formed from either rapid heating rates or else a rapid quench from high temperatures, but then they started appearing in samples that never got heated past 40C. I can't tell definitely if this is a polymorph but it seems so, since generally the structures are clear - to - white with a surrounding yellow amorphous portion around the bottom rim of the vial. A couple examples also seem to grow around an 'impure' inclusion which is nothing other than a small yellow crystal.
Regarding the needles, I haven't seen these before either. They are clearly different from the dendritic patterns produced from vapor along the walls of a glass, and seem to exist within some sort of temperature regime, from 36.5C - 68C in my study, with the longest needles formed at 46.0C.

I don't know how to tell for sure if these two are polymorphs or just exhibiting altered habits, but it kinda seems like polymorphism to me. The study from the article says the yellow amorphous mass is a polymorphic form, but what about these other structures.. I don't know.

I also would like to see a study which investigates polymorphism in salts, and what forms survive the conversion to freebase.


Pictures of some of these different forms below.