I was inspired by a bluelight post and my tricolor pepper mill to consider the relative chemical properties of these two classes of organic compounds.
More specifically, how to separate a mixture of an indole and a phenethylamine. Here's why:
With the recent trend of neophytes using previously esoteric but now more accessible ayahuasa-inspired drug combinations and the spread of 5-Methoxy-DIPT and AMT in the MDMA-based rave culture, it doesn't take too much creativity to imagine that the street supplies of phenethylamines might in the future be knowingly enhanced/contaminated with indoles, or that effective combinations of the two will be explicitly marketed either as such or as some new drug altogether. That's not even considering the high potential for substituted research chemicals. I see all of these possible situations as capable of causing considerable harm to individuals and the entheogenic community as a whole, as evidenced by the bad press around AMT/MDMA cases.
Therefore, a quick and not-too-dirty method of separation could be a useful trick for the harm reductionist and educated consumer of the future, especially if it didn't react either species (or, given relative street scarcity and difficulty of synthesis, at least not the tryptamine's). I'm not talking about the experienced clandestine producer with equipment and experience, just an idiot-resistant method for the concerned citizen. It would be a nice gift from the Hive. A further criterium would be that the method work with most any indole and phenethylamine combination, given the blind nature of the exercise.
Alas, I've been completely stumped in thinking one up. Most tryptamines and phenethylamines have very close, if not overlapping, melting points--which are too high to effectively control outside of a laboratory setting--and are, to my knowledge, both reasonably soluble in common solvents.
I suppose my own creativity in organic chemistry is limited, but I found no mention of this sort of procedure with the search engine or in the canonical works. Any ideas?
