Cocaine extraction from coca leaves via butane

[smackem]

I msged a mod asking if this would be okay to post, he said go ahead.


What if someone could get a few KG of coca leaves. Could one use a butane extraction a-la BHO (marijuana) to get a cocaine-ish product? I know cocacola uses supercritical extraction via CO2.

[BilZ0r]

If you could freebase the cocaine then it could work, though otherwise I doubt it. The classical coca base extraction method involves freebasing the cocaine by soaking it in water and lime, then extracting with kerosene, pertrol, whatever.

If you could freebase the cocaine by soaking the leaves in dilutre NaOH, then thoroughly drying it; assuming there wasn't break down of the cocaine, then I could imagine it working via a butane method, though I wouldn't gaurantee it or anything.

[fastandbulbous]

If you could freebase the cocaine by soaking the leaves in dilutre NaOH,

Wouldn't do it for too long - alkaline hydrolysis of esters (cocaine being a double ester methyl benzoylecognine)

[BilZ0r]

^ Yeah, I was thinking about that; but if they can stand up to the lime in the coca pits... you know? But as I said "assuming there wasn't break down of the cocaine"

[smackem]

so if you just soak it in dilutre NaOH and dry the leaves. there is freebase cocaine in the leaves? I see no reason why a BHO extract on that wouldn't wrok.

[BilZ0r]

Give a try and report back then.

[phase_dancer]

^^ Make sure it's very dilute. Where a saturated solution of Ca(OH)2 will have a pH of ~12, the same pH is obtained with a 0.05% solution of NaOH.

My advice would be to use sodium carbonate or bicarbonate.

A butane extraction of leaf bound freebase should work ok. I assume you are fully aware of the dangers of working with a highly inflammable, supercritical fluid, in particular the possibility of static discharge occurring.

[smackem]

So you say sodium bicarbonate instead of NaOH? what concentration should it be at?

[phase_dancer]

So you say sodium bicarbonate instead of NaOH? what concentration should it be at?

That depends, soaking solution should be around pH 9-10 max

Bicarb from the kitchen, ~10-12g of this bicarb to each liter of water, then use a pH meter or strips to get it right.

If the bicarb was perfectly dry and had not deteriorated, at 25 deg C, a 0.1 Molar solution is pH 8.3

1 x mole of sodium bicarbonate = 84.1g

Hey smackem, I trust you realize the level of alkaloid in the plant...

[edit] it will be easier to get the pH to 10 using sodium carbonate, however bicarb in warm to hot water will cause more carbonate to be formed (carbonate being a stronger base)

[smackem]

heh, i got me a 4 tube BHO setup, I know it wont yeild much. But i figure i give it a shot.


and yea, im no stranger to BHO-ing.


I figure, 100grams of plant mater == ~ .5 - 1 gram of coke?

[Jamshyd]

I was always under the empression that cocaine was in free-base form in the plant.

Can someone please clarify on this? ie., if not freebase, then what kind of salt is Cocaine found in nature?

[BilZ0r]

As far as Im awear, you "Average" plant leaf is slightly acidic; pH 6.5ish. I don't know the pH of coca leaves, but I doubt the range more than 1 on either side of nutral. Seeing as cocaine has a pKa of 8.6 (if memory serves), it's going to be protonated. Things don't exsist as a "salt" when they're disolved. So it'll just be cocaine+

[Jamshyd]

Thanks for the explanation

Well that being said, I am wondering happens to that cocaine+ when it is dehydrated?

[phase_dancer]

If the pH of a solution is less than that of water, then to have introduced protons (H+) there will be corresponding anions also in solution.

Whether this is Cl- or (SO4)2- or something else, if a solution of an acid and an alkaloid is evaporated, an acid will be formed from the H+, and Cl-, (SO4)2- or whatever anion is present.

If the temp is raised sufficiently, the acid will also evaporate, and if this temperature is below the decomposition of the alkaloid, the freebase will remain. So, if any solution was to remain after all water is removed, it will be acidic in nature, or a salt if cations such as Na+ are present. Depending upon the pKa of the alkaloid, any present in the solution will be protonated.

[smackem]

I talkedtoa friend and he said:

All thatwasleft in the plate was a green sludge. Didn't look like anything at all. This was done after soakingin water/baking soda for afew hours, then drying.

[PsyGhost]

Coca leaves <-- best way to do cocaine

[DrugPhreak]

A well known insect has extracted cocaine many times and put together the following tips for other creatures that would like to experience pure cocaine, which is the only way it should be consumed in this insect's opinion.


1. The leaves extract much better when they are left in a humid area for a little while after the carbonate solution has been worked into them. It’s also good to leave them in a humid area before working in the solution.

2. Many times apliphatic carboxylic acids precipitates out of solution as the dilute sulfuric acid is being dripped in. This appears as an off-white powder and when this occurs a thick emulsion normally forms also so letting it sit longer than 30 minutes is necessary in this case. After the emulsion gets a little thinner pour off most of the non-polar and filter it. Then it can be placed into a sep funnel and the aqueous layer can be separated and filtered again. There is normally some crap floating around in the funnel that the non-polar layer likes to take up and after a few shakes it will all end up there. It takes a long time to gravity filter the emulsion and using a vacuum makes most of it pass right through the filter paper. If you let the aqueous layer sit for a day or so after you filter it again whatever small amount of emulsion/precipitate that should pass through will stick to the glass making it easy to decant leaving you with very clean aqueous fluid.

3. Washing the freebase off with a little water to remove the salts that also form is a good idea, but make sure the freebase is completely dry before adding it to the non-polar for precipitation of the HCl. If it’s not completely dry most of it will just stick to the bottom of the beaker. After water washing and letting it dry you can further purify it by adding it to some non-polar and decanting it from what clings to the glass (as there will almost always be some crap that doesn't dissolve in the non-polar no matter how dry the freebase is) and let it evaporate (no heat) as Myhero does.

4. It normally takes a while for the HCl to precipitate so don’t be alarmed if it doesn’t happen right away. It can take several hours up to a couple days for the cocaine to fully precipitate. Sometimes with smaller extractions it doesn’t precipitate at all even with some vigorous stirring so in this case you can let it evaporate (no heat!) and then scrape up the crystals… this won’t give the prettiest crystals, but that’s ok… you’ll have some pure powder and that’s all that matters.


And a few pics...


http://img157.imageshack.us/my.php?i...titled23vh.jpg

Freshly precipitated crude base, which is still very wet. This is from 1Kg.


http://img490.imageshack.us/my.php?i...itled133fl.jpg

As the HCl/acetone was being dripped in a small amount spilled onto the filter paper that still had a little base on it and after a few minutes beautiful crystals started popping up. They looked like little trees covered in snow. This insect wishes they had some type of magnification device... this picture hardly does it justice.


http://img51.imageshack.us/my.php?image=untitled9hu.jpg

Including what's on the mirror that's a little over 1.5gm... the insect got roughly the same amount from the other crystallization dish. There was also a very small amount of colorless prism-like crystals, which where more than likely p-xylene since the evaporation was done by an open window and it was cold outside that night, but of course this was washed away in the solvent washes.


Also, check these out...

1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZHUmyrwOXI

2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbuNCoXpOGE

[deko]

Only 1.5G from 1Kg of leaf ? Should be more like 5-7G from 1K ?


Where are the youtube vids ?

[wungchow]

Coca leaves contain anywhere from 0.3 to 1.5% cocaine... so the above poster was able to obtain a .15% yield of cocaine for every 1000 g of leaf....

[Limpet_Chicken]

I wonder what different the effect would be if one didn't clean some of the minor alkaloids like cinnamoylcocaine, tropacocaine, truxilline etc.

Would be interest to try.

[deko]

Those others left in result in jonesing and harsh come downs.

sorry my math was out, DOH i was thinking about a 5kg extraction I saw..

[Tech Kinetics]

And a few pics...

http://img157.imageshack.us/my.php?i...titled23vh.jpg

Freshly precipitated crude base, which is still very wet. This is from 1Kg.

^^^

That pic looks like a brain!

[Coolio]

Those others left in result in jonesing and harsh come downs.

How do you know that?

[donnyd4136]

can you write this in english please?

[pofacedhoe]

yeah i think the jonesing and harsh comedowns from cocaine result from how much you took and how long you had been taking it for.

e.g. the comedown from 1 moderate line will not be the same and the comedown from five large lines done over a couple of hours

even the best coke will have a terrible comedown if you take enough