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Ayahuasca: alkaloids, plants & analogs
assembled by Keeper of the Trout
Section 1 :
O'Connell and Lynn. 1953
Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association 42 (12): 753-754.

Banisteriopsis inebrians stems from Colombia:

Moistened 700 grams of ground stems with 1 part stronger ammonia water, 1.25 parts alcohol and 2.5 parts ether. Macerated for 12 hours.

They first extracted with chloroform in a Soxhlet and then extracted the chloroform with sulfuric acid.

Basifying the acid solution with ammonia caused the precipitation of a fine brown precipitate.

This was recovered by filtration, dissolved in chloroform, extracted with acid and precipitated with ammonia.

They heated the mixture which caused the conglomeration of the precipitate into a brownish mass of needles.

These were removed by filtering and dried.

Purification was by dissolving in the least possible amount of methanol, adding activated charcoal and heating several minutes with a water bath. The mixture was filtered while hot.

Upon standing white shiny crystals were deposited. These were recovered by filtering, washed and dried at room temperature.

It should be noted that poor yields will be had if following a standard tryptamine extraction scheme.

The above is a good approach if performing acid-base partitioning due to harmine free base and similar compounds' poor solubility in strongly basic solutions.

Other successful approaches reported have included extracting in straight water, or in acidified water; using a crockpot for a prolonged gentle extraction and careful reduction of the liquid to leave a hard, resinous material.

The resulting residue was proportioned and used.