Yes, i've considered that before. But it's a common solvent with a high bp. (somewhere in the 190°C's), so why wouldn't i give it a try. Does cyclohexanol's OH group give the same problems? Yet it gives very good yields.
You don't really need a ketone catalyst too, i 've got tryptamine from heating tryp under fridge pump vacuum, until CO2 evolution begins (shit turns orange and melts a bit, while bubbling vigorously). Resulting goo is washed twice with a sat'd NaHCO3-sol, filtered, and dried.
Next thing will be cleaning the red crystals by sublimation.
How about using a higher boiling ketone from natural sources,
like isopinocamphone from Oil of Hyssope ?
Want i'm trying to do is to find a good yielding consistent way to decarboxylate, and i'm willing to test on smaller (gram) scale:
I) Different solvents, ketones and T°
II) Decarboxylation of tryp under vacuum with a catalyst (eg. barium oxide)
I have most things lying around and am tryp-unlimited (to a certain extend) so i will report my results here every time, so i expect your ideas, comments and criticism on this, bees.
later,...
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