Didn't quite know where to post this so I posted it here. Move to another
forum-board if you see fit.



The confusion concerning certain solvents is frustrating.

Alot of DMT extraction Teks will tell you to use "Naphtha" as the solvent.
It's not easy figuring out what exactly "Naphtha" is and under what name it's
sold in The Netherlands & other countries. Why not just buy a tin of VM&P
Naphtha from the hardware store you ask? I've never come across VM&P Naphtha
in any Dutch stores sofar. Perhaps I'm not looking good enough? Perhaps this brand
is just not available around here? I've looked for Naphtha in paintshops and
hardwarestores, but never found VM&P. Never seen any solvents sold as "naphtha"
for that matter.

When asking Wikipedia what Naphtha is you'll get a vague description of it.
That Naphtha is a group of solvents that consist of several liquid hydrocarbons
mixed together. Some "Naphthas" may be a mix of more liquid hydrocarbons
than other Naphthas.




VM&P Naphtha(as is often recommended in DMT extraction Teks) is Petroleum Ether,
according to Wikipedia. Yet a friend of mine once mistakenly used Petroleum Ether(ordered from a Dutch webhop) in a STB extraction from MHRB and yielded only a strange, white, mildly psychedelic crystaline powder that was defenitely NOT DMT. So this Dutch Petroleum Ether clearly can't be VM&P Naphtha, as opposed to what Wikipedia sais, or it WOULD have pulled
DMT. Either that or "Petroleum Ether" doesn't mean quite the same in Holland. Or Petroleum
Ether IS a Naphtha(liquid Hydrocarbon mixture), but 1 that is incapable of solving DMT?

Understand my confusion?
But it becomes more confusing.
My friend used to use Diethyl Ether in his STB MHRB extraction tek, but has stopped using it
since it became harder, possibly more suspicious to get in Holland. If anyone here has evidence of the contrary, please enlighten me.

So he then learned from a friend to use "Wasbenzine" in the STB extraction. When I heard this I though; "This will probably be this elusive Naphtha then!" but I'm still not sure.
The Dutch Wikipedia page-description of Wasbenzine seems to match Naphtha's definition: A mixture of liquid saturated Hydrocarbons.
This solvent is sold as here "Wasbenzine"; Sold for washing oil & grease stains away.
It's also sold here as Zippo lighter fluid. It is well capable of pulling DMT from
MHRB and does so quite cleanly(when using freeze precipitation at least)
But on Wasbenzine bottles there's no reference of "Naphtha" or exactly what liquid hydrocarbons are in this Wasbenzine, so I cannot with certainty identify Wasbenzine
as Naphtha.

All I really know for certain about Wasbenzine is that it's a mixture of liquid hydrocarbons
that pulls DMT from MHRB like a charm.






So now I'm left with these Questions:


-Would all solvents sold as "Naphtha" be able to dissolve DMT/usable in a DMT extraction?

-Is Wasbenzine, as sold in Dutch stores, Naphtha?

-If Petroleum Ether is VM&P Naphtha, like Wikipedia sais, then why did my friend's STB DMT
extraction on MHRB fail so miserably when using Petroleum Ether as the solvent?

-Could it be that the Dutch Petroleum ether is a mixture of different/less liquid
hydrocarbons than whatever they sell in the US by the name of Petroleum Ether?

-Since Naphtha can be a mixture of varying numbers of different liquid hydrocarbons,
which particulair liquid Hydrocarbon in Naphtha is capable of dissolving DMT?

-Is this liquid hydrocarbon in PURE form available commercially to the larger public?

-Would 1 litre of this liquid hydrocarbon be cheaper than 1 litre of Naphtha?

-If a STB extraction from MHRB would be performed using only the pure form of the afore-
mentioned liquid hydrocarbon as the solvent, would that not yield significantly
cleaner DMT than when using Naphtha as the solvent?

There are different grades of 'petroleum ether'. Pet. Ether usually refers to the lighter boiling fractions. Such as those from 30*C to 60*C iirc. There are higher boiling fractions commonly also found. Most commercial products are a mixture of these grades and more widely, hydrocarbon distillates. For example Ronsonal lighter fluid is about 1/3 light fraction and 2/3 higher boiling fractions.

Why would an extraction fail with Petroleum Ether? My guess is the same reasons why any other extraction may fail. I wouldn't blame the petroleum ether.

Always check MSDS sheets to get an idea of what you are working with. Wish I could answer more of the dutch oriented questions but I know nothing about that.

I understand the confusion, I also had trouble finding naptha since VM&P is not available in the UK.

I've used lab grade 40-60 Pet Ether (light boiling hydrocarbons collected between 40 and 60 degrees). This solvent worked excellently for me, and being lab grade meant no residue on evaporation. I'm not sure what problem occured for your extraction, but I did find it to be very selective for DMT over DMT-N-oxide (yellow goo). All the N-oxide was collected in a final xylene pull along with all the Jungle alkaloids. Perhaps your bark had aged, converting most of your DMT to N-oxide?

After trying several brands of petrol-based products (Zippo fuel, Ronsonol lighter fuel etc)
I settled on Coleman's Camp Fuel, available in 1L bottles from camping supply stores (yeomans) in the UK. It contains more heavy hydrocarbons than I would like but it pulls well and freeze precipitates cleanly. most importantly it leaves very little residue on evaporation.

It's also possible to distill the lighter fractions from colemans (up to 100 C) using a water bath based distillation setup (carefull - can lead to explosions if the pressure builds up)
The light fractions are very good for recrystallisation.