DMT Extraction

[Hinckleyforpresident]

So far as I can tell, no thread here discusses the extraction of dimethyltryptamine (DMT) from naturally occurring sources.

The goal of these extractions is not to peddle the product but to weaponize it into a psychedelic knockout agent.

There is an extraction I read about (from erowid), about converting the alkaloids to salts: http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/dmt/extraction_guide1/dmt_extraction_guide1.shtml

What methods would you guys use and how well would it work? I would not try such a thing in the US as it is most likely illegal, but other countries may not have such a dim view of natural products.

[Lewis]

Hinckley, it's always good to see you have all our best interests in mind when you remind us this is not some idle fancy for getting high as a kite, but rather will be put to noble use as a proposed "psychedelic knockout agent", as you so aptly put it. :rolleyes:

I assisted a friend of mine with a DMT extraction project not long ago. I recommended he used the above process, but he instead opted for this onehttp://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/6667657/page/0/fpart/1/vc/1/nt/2

He had a surprisingly large yield, and after several botched recrystallizations, obtained a fairly pure product.

[nbk2000]

From what I've read, DMT has a 'burnt-plastic' taste/smell, which wouldn't scare people like a funky chemical smell would.

If anything, they'd likely start sniffing around, trying to find the source of the 'short'. ;)

[Lewis]

From what I've read, DMT has a 'burnt-plastic' taste/smell

While I haven't deliberately exposed myself to vaporized DMT, I've noticed this smell when others were partaking. The odor has a waxy quality, and while not overtly unpleasant, it would be difficult to hide.

[Hinckleyforpresident]

Ideally, by the time they smell it it's to late.

[nbk2000]

It's supposed to have almost immediate effect, and be a powerful disassociative hallucinogen, so if you put enough out there, they won't be able to do a damn thing about it by the time they smell it. :)

[Red Beret]

For any Aussies out there, acacia maidenii (maidens wattle) contains DMT in the bark. It's easy enough to find if you need it.

In relation to administering DMT, are we assuming it would be heated and the vapour rapidly pumped into the target area in large quantities? Perhaps lock the doors from the outside to prevent escape.

Would it pass through the filters on an air conditioning unit? I know pepper spray/tear gas does...but thats a different kettle of fish.

[Hinckleyforpresident]

I believe one could extract N,N-DMT and 5-MeO-DMT from reed canary grass. It's really incredible that such a powerful psychedelic can be extracted from damn swamp grass. It's everywhere, but there is the matter of drying, crushing, and extracting. Too much work for me, especially since I don't want to have anything to do with drugs, or drug users.

[Enkidu]

It's supposed to [...] be a powerful disassociative hallucinogen

Just to be picky, DMT is not a disassociative psychotropic substance. It is simply a 'psychedelic.'

[nbk2000]

I've heard otherwise, and it also depends on which type of DMT you're referring to.

The 5-Me-O version most certainly is a dissociative drug.

[Enkidu]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychedelics%2C_Dissociatives_and_Deliriants

The sections on psychedelics and disassociatives would be most useful to you, nbk.

Tryptamines are psychedelics (LSD, DMT, 5-Me-O-DMT, etc.).

[nbk2000]

User reports in THIKAL at Erowid (http://www.erowid.org/library/books_online/tihkal/tihkal38.shtml) says dissociative.

(with 15 mg, smoked) "At about 60 seconds after I smoked this free base, I beheld every thought that was going on everywhere in the universe and all possible realities while I was wracked out with this horrible ruthless love. It scared the hell out of me. When I could see again (15 minutes later)


(with perhaps 15 mg, smoked)...My normal physical perceptions dissolved away from my awareness...I was simultaneously losing contact with my body, I could not tell if my eyes were open or shut

(with 25 mg, smoked)...In perhaps 10 more seconds these feelings built to an intensity I had never experienced before. The entire universe imploded through my consciousness...There was no distance, no possibility of examining the experience. This was simply the most intense experience possible; a singularity, a white-out (as opposed to a black out), I have little memory of the state itself. I have no memory, for example, of whether my eyes were opened or closed. After some seconds or minutes , it started to fade and came to resemble a merely intense psychedelic state.

[Lewis]

Both Enkidu and NBK are right, in their own way.

Firstly, while DMT compounds ARE classed as disassociatives, they do not affect the subject in the same way as a substance like GHB would. Both forms of DMT are easily powerful enough to incapacitate the subject and cause unconsciousness.

The main difference is that at a predicable level GHB will always cause complete incapacitation, whereas DMT is more hit-and-miss.

With substances like DMT and smoked salvia, there have been numerous reports of users acting out irrationally or violently, even though they have suffered amnesia from the whole experience, and would probably have just assumed they passed out (although that would cause some confusion as to how they ended up on the roof of their house:p).

[Enkidu]

DMT compounds ARE classed as disassociatives

Exactly where did you read this?

Please enlighten me, because I'd like to know the definitive answer. (I'm 99% sure tryptamines ARE NOT classified as disassociatives. However, I don't mind being wrong...)

Let us start from the beginning. My understanding is that disassociatives and psychedelics are classified as separate subsets of hallucinogens. Just because a person has 'true' hallucinations does not mean that the drug he's taken is a disassociative.

Anyway, look up DMT, LSD, ketamine, and DXM in Erowid's psychoactives vaults. Under DMT and LSD it says psychedelic only, while under ketamine and DXM it includes disassociative. To me, that's the end of the story. Maybe you have better information?

[kurtz]

Those experience quotes are a little, um...

Let's just say that it is quite strong and rapid-acting, and a good strong dose could make inexperienced people think that the smoke is some sort of nerve agent and they need to lie down now, and they're going to die. It is intense, in its way. It does not interfere with thought much, and has only so much affect on vision and hearing. It is without question incapacitating, but only to a certain point, and it is short acting.

[Lewis]

I'm officially retracting my statement on DMT being a dissociative, I've looked around and there is no indication that this is true. To be fair, though, the term psychedelic (which they are classified as) is something of an umbrella term describing a huge range of effects.

The fact remains that DMT compounds do cause dissociative effects in some, weather or not these effects can be replicated on a target reliably.

[kenneo]

dissociative
(adj.) tending to produce dissociation

dissociation
n
The psychologically induced, distinct partition of separate mental functions (e.g., identity, memory, and awareness) from normal behavior or consciousness.

If dissociation is a distinct partition of separate mental functions from "normal behavior or conciousness", I would conclude that N,N DMT is exactly the opposite of "dissociative", as it has the distinct effect of melting one's existence into and becoming a part of everything, LITERALLY.

But in context, I don't believe the real question is whether DMT is dissociative or not as much as it is incapacitating when used for the purpose implied in the first post.

The fact is it would most certainly be effective when used in this manner. BUT getting someone to the point of "Knocking Them Out" is a whole nother problem with this substance IMHO, as it usually takes considerable effort to get one's self to "break through" when attempting to do so consciously. As LEWIS stated, it is mostly "hit and miss" for all but the most experienced users.

[Hinckleyforpresident]

The fact is it would most certainly be effective when used in this manner. BUT getting someone to the point of "Knocking Them Out" is a whole nother problem with this substance IMHO, as it usually takes considerable effort to get one's self to "break through" when attempting to do so consciously. As LEWIS stated, it is mostly "hit and miss" for all but the most experienced users.

They don't need to "break through", the idea isn't to get the adversary high, you want them unable to function properly. Visual and auditory hallucinations are enough, they don't need to warp to a different galaxy.

It shouldn't take all that strong of a trip to terrify any adversaries simply because they don't know what's happening. The sudden realization that they are tripping on an unknown (to them) chemical would scare most people enough to retreat.

Also, it's a good thing the cops aren't experienced users, then they might be able to tell what's happening. You should never even think about using something like this on cops, they are great people who keep us safe from unspeakable evil.

[ciguy007]

If you want to go dissociative, why not just use free-base droperidol (free-base haloperidol would probably also work). And there's xylazine, widely used in vet medicine which can be converted to a volatile free base. I've never treated a human xylazine exposure, but I've witnessed what it does to large animals <zap!>.

[Hinckleyforpresident]

DMT is suggested because it is convenient. It occurs naturally in plants that everyone has access to. With a weekend or two high quality DMT can be extracted from backyard plants. Also, it's free.

Naturally this is all theory considering I have never used, seen, or heard about anyone actually making or using DMT. This is just commonly available knowledge that any medical website or textbook would inform you of.

[W4RGASM]

Both of those extractions are yucky - Freeze precipitation from naptha? You'll lose 5% product right there.

[Lewis]

Both of those extractions are yucky

Do you know of a better one?

Also, bear in mind that 5% is not a huge margin of error when you consider that many plants may be grabbed by the bushel for use in extractions.

[W4RGASM]

The basic theory is sound, but their choices of solvent, for instance, are too ghetto for a decent work up.

Just swap for xylene, toluene, Et2O, heptane... Any decent NP solvent should do fine. Xylene is my personal fave, because it's so damn easy to get.

[kurtz]

The product from naphtha is no different than the product from ligroin or heptane. The very reason why warm aliphatic alkanes were chosen over aromatics (that are also easy for everyone else to get as well) is because the DMT preciptates in the freezer and leaves a lot of crap behind. Maybe you do lose 5% in solution. Welcome to crystallization, that's how it is.

The product obtained from more polar solvents like toluene and xylene is loaded with colored crap, and the alkaloid is more soluble in it, which kind of defeats the purpose of crystallization.

[Genocyde]

Xylene? That shit will stink up your house/lab for 2 weeks. With all the current publicity meth is getting, you'll likely get the pigs knocking on your door.

Naptha is great for extractions and doesn't stink, not ghetto at all. Coleman fuel would be ghetto.

[nbk2000]

A potential hazard of using naptha, if the product is inteded for non-weaponized use.


In a quest to determine if you can use 'naptha' as they call it safely (by my standards) to extract lipophilic solutes, I took one quart of lighter fluid (coleman) (plain, no plant materials present...this is f*cking plain lighter fluid for all of you ATF bandelaros out there) and placed it in a flat rectangular glass cookie/cake dish, then half way submersed this dish in an improvised water bath (kitty litter pan with water and two "tea" maker heating elements) and used a thermometer to keet this contraption at 150 degrees farenheit for twenty hours... (adding water as needed), and lo and behold although the majority of the lighter fluid evaporated in the first five hours, now at twenty hours there is a gummy/oily residue in the bottom of the pan that is not evaporating... I believe that this is a fraction of less volatile hydrocarbons in the mixture, and quite frankly I dont know if it is ever going to evaporate.

Bear in mind that I am verrrry cautious when discussing what you can and should not ingest, but my personal opinion is that this crap would be harmless if ingested orally, but I would not smoke it since heavy oils deposit in the lung and may stimulate the alveolar macrophages (white cells) to try and ingest them, and failing to do so, the macrophages lyse, spilling the oil and cellular digestive enzymes in to the lung tissue where they kill the lung cells, therefore the undigested oil is still there, and the process gets repeated over and over....so a little crap in your lungs that you can't get rid of will keep working for the rest of your life to lead you down the road to emphysema. (worst case scenario)

I am going to try and evaporate some windshield wiper fluid (mostly methanol) and see if there is a residue after that.

Sorry if this little empirical info rains on anyone's parade, but for anyone out there actually doing extractions, it is much better to embark on a quest knowing the risks than to blindly deny that there are any just because it suits your purpose to do so.


http://users.lycaeum.org/~sputnik/Extraction/naptha.html

[Genocyde]

He states it is coleman fuel... That's naptha, plus some additives. Naptha will evaporate completely. I know this from personal experience, and lots of it.

[nbk2000]

Fractional distillation is required then.

[Enkidu]

The solvent is 'naphtha' not 'naptha.'

I always clean my OTC solvents before use through distillation.

Not all 'naphtha' evaporates clean. Additionally, some naphtha distills at a much higher temperature than you'd want it to. (I just got a can of KleanStrip's VM&P Naphtha that boils at 140*C... I'm not buying that brand again. :mad: )

[Genocyde]

If one was going to go to the trouble of distillation then no naphtha is needed. The DMT could be distilled directly from the water/base.

[W4RGASM]

I've always used xylene, for general a/bs and I've never got much more then about half an hour of lingering fumes, and that's without an extractor fan running.

When I was referring to 'naphtha' I was referencing most of the OTC brands that the tek's target demographic would be buying - Coleman's, Zippo fluid, VM&P... And yes, my point was exactly that it had higher-boiling fractions that can really make a mess of you.

@Geno: You'd also get anything else that was dissolved in your water solution if you're just running it through the rota. It's far more efficient to do a liquid-liquid workup, rather then trying to sublimate or otherwise seperate impurities from your residue.

[logp]

I've heard otherwise, and it also depends on which type of DMT you're referring to.

The 5-Me-O version most certainly is a dissociative drug.

I think some confusion about the dissociative nature of 5-meo-DMT arises because while it doesn't have the same mechanism of action as 'classic' dissociative agents (ketamine, phencyclidine, etc), its lack of overt visual effects makes it seem subjectively different to nn-DMT (which it undoubtedly is).

NN-DMT appears to be active at 5HT2A and 5HT2C receptors, which as most people will know are the same receptors that are involved in the majority of psychedelics, where as the classic dissociatives' are predominantly active at NMDA receptors (ketamine) or GABA and/or glutamate receptors (GHB).

In terms of use as an incapacitating agent I would imagine ketamine, or other similar agents would be more effective, as the effects do not immediately appear to be 'trippy' in most people, but seem much more subtle and 'broken'.

[sbovisjb1]

From what I've read, DMT has a 'burnt-plastic' taste/smell, which wouldn't scare people like a funky chemical smell would.

If anything, they'd likely start sniffing around, trying to find the source of the 'short'. ;)

I asked around and it costs about $500 a hit!!

Also you will find this interesting. http://home.graffiti.net/neurochemajor/DMT_Med_Hyp_2005_Jacob___Presti.pdf

[Enkidu]

I asked around and it costs about $500 a hit!!

Haha. DMT does NOT cost $500 a hit.

[megalomania]

No drug that expensive would ever make it to the street. Very few life saving pharmaceuticals come close to that price tag, and even then people bulk at the price.

[sbovisjb1]

I asked a drug dealer. It was either he was bullshitting me or I forgot the quantities he was talking about or misinterpreted them.

[The_Duke]

Your average drug dealer has never even heard of DMT.

I confirm the burnt plastic taste and smell from first hand experience.

[sbovisjb1]

They have. They don't usually sell more than the usual. But people do buy it.

[Unsunghero]

K, where I live DMT is anywhere from $12.50-$15 a hit..Just to put a little bit of a perspective on the price tag.

Anyone who tells you $500 a hit has been misinformed.

[rangegal]

And a hit is around 50mg. You theoretically get about 2 grams of DMT from half a pound of mimosa hostilis rootbark (~$35).

Just to give a perspective on the profit margin....;)

[W4RGASM]

That's a very generous estimate...

[Horus]

If you're really talking about mass quantities, it's far more economical to synthesize the DMT yourself. It's not a very difficult synth, none of the required chemicals are watched afaik. Here's a link in case you don't already know about it: http://www.erowid.org/library/books_online/tihkal/tihkal06.shtml

[rangegal]

That's just what I got from http://www.dmt.20m.com/.
He says 20 g of MHRB should yield around 200 mg.
That times 10 (yes I know that equals less than half a pound) is 2 grams.

BUT now that I read it again he says that method only produces a crude extract which can then be purified with heptane. Guess I missed that part first time over.

I wonder what the purified yield is?

[mike-hunt]

Pure 5-MeO-dmt is available from chemical suppliers and Is not illegal alough the source of this information "the encyclopedia of psychoactive plants 2005" may be out of date as I found it illegal to import into Australia. I segest you check out local laws and availability before you consider synthesis or extraction. Any one interested in dmt should also look up ayahuasca witch is the traditional use of dmt containing plants witch are mixed with annother plant containing (harmaline) an MAO inhibitor witch allows DMT to be absorbed when drank or eaten. Harmaline is also available in a pure form from chemical suppliers as little as 50 mg of both harmiline and pure dmt is said to produce a strong helusenigenic state.

I have tried ayhuasia using brews of naturally occurring plants and they have all tasted disgustingly bitter and been almost impossible to keep down the effects only mild alough they are suposed to vary greatly from person to person.

For the perpousos of druging someone Datura metel is a traditionally used for drugging by many cultures it contains potentially halosenigenic tropane alkaloids and a high percentage of scopolamine a drug witch brings on amnesia the seeds are easily available online and are the strongest part of the plant.

By making a tincture mixing plant parts with strong liquor like vodka or rum then removing plant parts after 2 to 4 weeks (,use the liquid ). This will be up to 10 times stronger then plant parts alone and easier to use for drugging people. I don't sergest any one trys taking this as I tryed and wile I am pretty shore I tripped out I was also very ill for about 4 days and still slightly stoned 2 weeks later I will never try datura again.

[TheBlob]

First, I agree with megalomania saying a drug that costs 500$ a hit would't ever make it to the street, although, as someone else said, your drug dealer probably has never heard about DMT, so it's still pretty hard to find. I don't think anyone would want to get through all the trouble of extracting it (I think the demand should be extremely low, if you ask me, as nobody ever heard bout it).

Second, I would like to try the erowid's extraction, and, needing some naphtha, I bought some Home brand Camp Fuel and checked for its purity. I filled half a 100mL beaker with it and let it evaporate, after maybe 3 days there was an oily residue, but, 2 days later, it was completely dry. I was thinking that, if it dried out completely, it shouldn't contain any impurity but, as I remember, no organic solvant has an oily feeling. What do you think?

[Enkidu]

Probably anti-rust additives...

[TheBlob]

Can you think of an easy way to remove them from the naphtha (except a distillation, as I don't really have the means to do one) or should I just find another source of naphtha?

[Enkidu]

No, I don't even know what the the additives would be. Distillation is the surest way to go, and it's the only thing I know of. This would better be discussed via PM or a on a lesser board.

[rangegal]

I can't confirm the theoretical yield I said earlier yet. But this person I know knows somebody who knew a guy told me NN-DMT (from mimosa hostilis rootbark) is not very incapacitating, even on his first hit when he didn't know what to expect. He said he didn't get hit as strong as he's read about, but from what he's read it seemed like whats usually described as a "moderate" dose on erowid after 3 hits from a methpipe style vaporizer. He said he felt a huge rush inside him, not like amphetamines or cocaine or anything, but it still felt very good. His vision became sharper but things started swaying and breathing. When he let himself space out and stare at something (which felt good to do... it made him feel lazy... kind of like being drunk) he started to see fractal patterns. On top of this there were visual distortions described as being slightly similar to salvia (the only other psychedelic he's done), but more noticeable and "there".
He got up soon after and felt very good, kind of floaty, and he had to concentrate a little more to walk straight, but it wasn't very debilitating.

He thinks that if you could get a strong enough dose into a victim fast enough when he's unsuspecting (maybe a strong DMSO mix put on a silicone coating on your hand given to somebody to shake:p) it would defiantly have a negative effect on defending himself from an attack, even if they didn't "break through" like some users report doing with fast, big doses. If they did "break through" to the point where all they see is hallucinations, they'd be helpless, but they wouldn't just lay there... they'd probably flip the fuck out.

He has not however tried 5-meo-DMT (derived from reed canary grass) which as stated by NBK is usually described as having an more disassociating effect. From what he's read it is usually a very tiring high with a "body load". Some describe it as having the feeling of an elephant sitting on them (it is also said to be very emotionally confusing, and more likely to leave permanent mental damage). That sounds a little more "incapacitating" if you ask me, and I think that's the one you would want if you were to be using it as a knock out agent. But keep in mind they wont just wake up from a dream. When they come to it will probably be like waking up from a fucking nightmare, and they will probably freak out, which I think is something to keep in mind.

Don't worry, this distant friend is known to be very reliable. He doesn't make shit up. But don't let that keep you from commenting on his reasonable assumptions.

[kurtz]

A single obviously barely-threshold dose seems to me to be little to pronounce judgement on DMT with.

A moderate dose is not far from being hit upside the head. Read Rick Strassman for experiences with the higher doses in the NM clinical study. Best book on DMT around.

Yields are between .5-1%, most people getting the low end.

[mike-hunt]

I have scanned and uploaded some useful information on D.M.T from the Encyclopedia of psychoactive plants it contains extensive lists of plants from witch D.M.T may be extracted
And other information I thought may be of interest to readers of this forum.

http://www.4shared.com/dir/6712975/c55b97fd/sharing.html

As a weapon D.M.T would be hard to administer the only use I can imagine for it would be in getting someone out of the way. A large dose and a phone call to a psychiatric hospital would have some one hospitalized for weeks showing the signs of mental illness any complaints about being poisoned would be put down to paranoia. Drug tests most properly would all come back negative it is unlikely any one would think of testing for D.M.T.

[MrSamosa]

Before I get to my main point:

I don't think any test exists for DMT. Our bodies produce it naturally. When we die, or are near death, we get a massive rush of DMT--but I'm sure I'm just stating common knowledge here.

I have seen this extraction done, although it was buggered up even using the highest quality materials. This was some time ago, and so I will have to go off of memory (No notes or records were taken for obvious reasons):

Reagents: Dichloromethane, Sodium Hydroxide (1 M), Hydrochloric Acid (1 M), Activated/Decolorizing Charcoal, Mimosa Hostilis root bark. [All chemicals were reagent quality]

Other materials: separatory funnel, glass funnel, large glass beaker, kitchen blender, stirring rod, hot plate, pH paper

The exact sizes of the equipment used and the amounts of chemicals used escape my memory.

Procedure: Regular liquid-liquid extraction. Mimosa Hostilis was chosen to eliminate the "defattening" step. Dichloromethane was used because a) it is non-flammable b) it has a high vapor pressure.

[The choice was between Diethyl Ether, DCM, and Chloroform. Ether is too flammable, esp when working in doors with a hot plate, and Chloroform can be deprotonated NaOH].

The Mimosa Hostilis root bark was put into the blender and was easily ground into a pinkish/purple powder. This powder was then soaked in water, to which 1 M HCl was added until it turned litmus paper a strong red color. After some hours, this initial batch of acid-water was poured off and saved--it had turned a very dark color, like tea. The powder was covered with fresh acid-water. Again, after some more hours, this was poured off and saved in the same container as the previous liquid extract (although this extract was markedly lighter in color). The extraction was done a third time, after which it was determined the Mimosa bark was depleted.
*This should have contained aqueous DMT.HCl .

Activated Charcoal was then added to this aqueous extract to decolorize it and remove any large plant impurities. It was filtered off, leaving a transparent liquid.

The aqueous extract was then basified with NaOH until it turned Litmus paper blue. At that point, it was transferred to the separatory funnel in batches (it was a small funnel). DCM was added to the each batch in the separatory funnel; the separatory funnel inverted gently a few times, and the layers allowed to resolve (it didn't take long). The aqueous layer was poured out and discarded, while the organic DCM layer was saved and poured into the large beaker.

When all the batches of DCM were collected in the large beaker, it was placed atop a hot plate and the hot plate turned on. The dichloromethane readily evaporated leaving behind...nothing! Well, something. Piss poor yields. Light orange crystals were observed, but they were baked onto the walls of the beaker and could not be recovered in any decent amount.
-------------

Looking back at this hapless adventure, what do I think went wrong?

1. The activated charcoal should not have been used during the initial extraction. Additional purification and decolorizing steps should have been done during a recrystallization after the extraction.

2. The Mimosa bark was not allowed enough time to soak in HCl. Instead of replacing the layers every few hours, it should have been done every day or so.

3. The hot plate was unnecessary; or it was turned up too high.

4. Any other observations? Don't repeat mistakes that have already been made...

[Hinckleyforpresident]

Could you give us a rough idea of how much bark you used along with more specific numbers on pH?

Folk usually use >250g of bark to extract from because the alkaloid content isn't terrible high, and people like to get an observable yield for all that work.

Also, there are specific pH's that the solution must be brought to in order to get a decent yield. "Acidic" or "Basic" simply isn't enough, you need to be able to determine pH down to at least .5 +/- accuracy. IIRC, the ideal extraction pH for the final basification is somewhere around 9, although a pH between 9 and 11 is sufficient in this case. Search WD for the exact numbers, they've got an excellent thread on DMT extraction from MHRB (with pics).

I'm not really sure why you chose to use activated carbon instead of simply waiting for the gunk to settle, and then filtering. The activated carbon might have screwed up the extraction in some odd way that I'm not aware of.

On a slightly different note, DCM is quite flammable ;).

[MrSamosa]

I don't remember what the mass of root bark was, but 250 g sounds about right.

Similarly, the pH was not measured with much precision--the paper wasn't very high quality. HCl was added until the indicator paper turned a strong red color--I would estimate a pH of 1.0-2.0. Then NaOH was added until it displayed a strong blue color, maybe a pH of 12-13.

In previous experiences doing liquid-liquid extractions (caffeine) and other acid-base purification/recrystallization processes (lidocaine), once the solution turned from acidic to "strongly basic" in aqueous solution, crystals precipitated out almost instantaneously. I was unaware of an optimum pH for extraction of DMT; but in retrospect, that could have a lot to do with low yields:

The N-H in the Indole ring of DMT has a pKa in water of 17 (vs. water's 16), which a strong NaOH solution would have no problem deprotonating--yielding a charged compound that wouldn't dissolve in the organic phase. So most likely, one would have to add base carefully so as to only create the freebase, but to not further deprotonate it. Maybe Sodium Bicarbonate in this extraction.

On the side note: I know DCM will break down to Phosgene in flames, but it didn't have a high flammability rating on the bottle; in any case, it was not a bad solvent to work with.
Reagent quality chemicals are just nice in general. :)

[TheBlob]

I may be wrong, but a strong NaOH solution wouldn't have a higher pKa than 15,74, because all its ''deprotonating power'' would be used in deprotonating water, leaving OH- in aqueous solution (which have a pKa of 15,74), so, since DMT's pKa is 17 and NaOH (aq)'s pKa is 15,74, the sodium hydroxyde solution would more likely act as an acid (a very weak one, because of the minimal difference between the two pKas).