I'd love to hear comments about this synth from Rhodiums site.
No POCl3, good yeild, easier than going through LSA?
LSD From Ergot Alkaloids
This was invented by Hofmann and is a superior method because you may proceed from the ergot alkaloids to LSD without isolating the lysergic acid. CA, 57, 12568 (1962).
Add 1.2 g of ergotamine hydrochloride to 4 ml of anhydrous hydrazine and heat 1 hour at 90°. Add 20 ml of water and evaporate in vacuo, to get d-iso-lysergic acid hydrazine. 1 g of the lysergic hydrazine is powdered well and added to 40 ml of 0.1 N (ice cold) HC1 acid. To this, cooled to 0°, is added 4 ml of 1 N Na nitrite, with good stirring. Over 2-3 min, add 40 ml of 0.1 N HC1 acid to get pH to 5. Let stand for 5 min, basify with 1 N NaHCO3, extract with 100 ml of ether, and then with 50 ml of ether. Wash the ether layer with water and dry, then evaporate in vacuo at 10°. Dissolve the resulting yellow azide in about 5 ml of diethylamine at 0° and then heat in a metal bomb at 60° for 1 hour. If a bomb is unavailable you may get by with heating for 3-4 hours at 45° in a vented flask under a nitrogen atmosphere. Also, I would flush the bomb with nitrogen before sealing and heating. Remove heat after time elapses and let stand (after bleeding off pressure for bomb method) for 2 hours and evaporate in vacuo to get 0.7 g of LSD and 0.15 g of iso-LSD. The iso-LSD will not do anything (good or bad) if consumed, so you may leave it in with the LSD.