Betal Leaf Oil, Safrole Sources, Etc..

[Bwiti]

In Strike's book "Sources", he mentions that betel leaf oil contains from 6.45 to 45.34% safrole. I feel that this would make a good source for safrole, because even though it's a little expensive, it's not watched and most essential oil companies sell it.
  Here's the fucking problem: Betel leaf oil contains many other compounds, and I don't know how hard of a task it would be to separate the yummy safrole from them. Here's a list of chems you may find in this essential oil:

safrole
a-pinene
b-pinene
1,8-cineole
camphene
p-cymene
methyl chavicol
a-terpineol
a-terpinyl acetate
eugenol
methyl eugenol
b-caryophyliene
(e)-anethole

  I think that alot of this shit can be removed by washing it with 3-5% NaOH, dH2O/acetic acid, dH2O, then heating it to 120*C for about an hour. After that, I think the biggest pain in the ass will be removal of the anethole. Without a vacuum pump, how can this be removed? Safrole freezes at
-14*C; what's anethole's freezing point? Could it be boiled off under normal pressure, without destroying the safrole?

  The licorice plant(glycyrrhiza glabra l.)? (clycycrrhizia lepidata)? smells like sassy oil, but it also stinks of fennel, so I'm guessing that it contains anethole. Here's something I know it contains: "Glycyrrhizin breaks down to glycyrrhizic or glycyrrhetinic acid; glycyrrhizin is an anti-inflammatory and inhibits the breakdown of the cortisol produced by the body." ->

http://www.puritan.com/healthnotes/Herb/Licorice.htm

. What else does this plant contain?
 
  It would be a fucking blessing if many companies in the U.S. sold brown camphor, but all the ones I know of only sell useless white camphor. If anyone knows of a foreign or U.S. source, could you PM me with the url? Peace and happy cooking to all bees!

  Love my country. Fear my government.

[Rhodium]

Most, if not all of the compounds you mention have their properties listed at

http://www.chemfinder.com

or in the Merck Index. Anethole has a mp of ~17°C, so it is easily separable.

[Antibody2]

> because even though it's a little expensive

a little expensive? the only place i could find that carry it  wanted $600USD/litre. Ouch!

>most essential oil companies sell it. i failed to find it listed on any NA EO ditributors list. The big ones anyways. Do you mean by special order?

[Osmium]

> Anethole has a mp of ~17°C, so it is easily separable.

That's only true for oils containing lots of anethole. I think you will have a really hard time getting the anethole out of that oil.

> I think that alot of this shit can be removed by washing
> it with 3-5% NaOH, dH2O/acetic acid, dH2O, then heating
> it to 120*C for about an hour.

I don't think so. You better take a few days off and distill the oil through a big ass 5 ft column with a high reflux ratio.

But at that price I'd look for another source.

[Bwiti]

"the only place i could find that carry it wanted $600USD/litre."

  Well, fuck me with a broom-stick and eat my paper-boy, that's alot of cash! Yes, most of the U.S. companies I contacted were ready to special-order it for me, but I obviously mis-calculated when I scaled-up the price/volume.
  I also asked a U.S. company if they could special-order brown camphor for me, and the dude said that I'm the only person that's made this request, so because of lack of demand, he couldn't; It would be a waste of cash to purchase a 25 kilogram drum from a dealer, just to sell 2 liters of it to some weird mother-fucker. I take it that this oil doesn't have any use besides making MDA.
  Which of these grows the fastest: ohba-kusu camphor, illicium parviflorum, ocotea cymbarum, or sassafras albidum?
  

  Love my country. Fear my government.

[terbium]

he couldn't; It would be a waste of cash to purchase a 25 kilogram drum from a dealer, just to sell 2 liters of it
Wasn't that your que to say "well darn, I guess I'll just have to buy the 25 Kg lot"?

[Bwiti]

I wish!
  Love my country. Fear my government.

[sYnThOmAtIc]

Bwiti, why not just move to where the trees already are?  In the mid-north central and eastern parts of the U.S sassafras albidum makes up to 70 percent of the vegetation in the hilly areas. And at least thirty in most all areas where pine, maple, and other similar trees grow. Plus once you have seen one they just stand out everywhere you go, not hard to find at allll.

[Bwiti]

"Bwiti, why not just move to where the trees already are?"

  That would be a very good idea for the future! I live in an area that has lots of pine/maple trees, but it's way up in the north/eastern U.S., and it's very cold in the winter. Who knows, maybe there are sassy trees and other safrole sources here? Another reason why I'd like to move is because I hate the cold. I've lived here all my life, and I know I'd get home sick, but the transition will be much easier if I move to South Carolina, which is where my sister lives. Peace!
  Love my country. Fear my government.

[sYnThOmAtIc]

"if I move to South Carolina, which is where my sister lives."

This is not far at all form where I am talkin about. I know of several places up around south Car,tennessee, and kentucky where the shit is just everywhere. Hell, even if you don't live there a roadtrip with some pots and a portable camping stove (or you could just bag the barkfor later) will more than pay for itself by the the time you've been back home a few days.  Not to mention the relaxing benefit of the whole process. (Oh and the damn blisters form digging so damn much) But that heals, as that rough bubba anal sex will scar you for life!

[Bwiti]

"Hell, even if you don't live there a roadtrip with some pots and a portable camping stove (or you could just bag the barkfor later) will more than pay for itself by the the time you've been back home a few days."

  Good idea! I always tag along when my parents take a road trip down there, so that'll work-out great. A bunch of us should start a sassy oil car-pool road trip. Imagine the cops pulling us over and finding hundreds of pounds of root bark in our moving van.
  Love my country. Fear my government.

[sYnThOmAtIc]

Yea your whole family has a genetic defect. You have to drink lots of sassy tea to stay alive...
I was just joking. The above and the camping trip shit. As a hundread pounds would probably only yield a liter ot two. Too much damn work.

[Bwiti]

Probably better off buying a bunch of pyrocatechol and synthing the goods.
  Love my country. Fear my government.