Also place a few drops on clean glass, allow to air dry and look for residue, hopefully there will be none.

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/Gadget

"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there always is."

BiO.

I haven't used methanol, so I cannot vouch for it, but be careful when using methanol... make sure that you evaporate it COMPLETELY. Then it is okay.

Oh yeah, make sure to use 100% undenatured alcohol (be it methanol or ethanol). Denatured alcohol contains benzene (to make it more stable), but benzene is VERY poisonous.

That's all.

Anno- the reason we use solvents is to breakdown the cellular membranes of the mushroom, so that as much of the chemical constituents are released as possible. Water doesn't break down phospholipid bilayers that well.

I highly recommend doing the 'residue test' mentioned by Gadget, just in case. I have never come across commercial methanol which had anything other than methanol in it. However, CLEAR denatured ethanol (NEVER use the purple shit), which can be used instead of methanol if you absolutely can't get it, sometimes has bittering agents added to it to make the stupid fucks that drink it get even more sick/poisoned. Not all types of denatured alcohol contain benzene, in fact, I'd be surprised if any denatured alcohol did nowadays, since exposing your customers to a known potent toxic carcinogen is generally bad PR. Definately do the 'residue test' if you can't get methanol, and even if you can, it never hurts to be safe.

BiO: you're right, methanol IS poisonous and methanol extractions of mushie alkaloids should NEVER be drank/drunk/whatever. They should be evaporated FULLY on a mirror or such, scraped up, and put into capsules.

Hmm.. I wonder if such extracts could be snorted? Extracts of higher purity would be desired for snorting, of course, so perhaps a simple methanolic extraction isn't enough.. however, people snort speed and coke cut with all sorts of noxious crap, so I doubt further purification would be necessary for a 'one time' thing.

Water usually isn't used in psiloc[yb]in extraction because, IIRC, psilocybin gets destroyed by enzymes. For an overall alkaloid assay, methanol is the best. There's an article somewhere.. here: http://www.erowid.org/plants/mushrooms/mushrooms_journal1.shtml

Here's the abstract (emphasis added):
"The occurence and extraction of indole derivatives in six species from four genera of higher fungi were investigated. By using pure methanol for extraction of the mushrooms analysis revealed the highest concentrations of psilocybin and baeocystin. The psilocin content of the species was higher by using aqueous solutions of alcohols than with methanol alone but was an artificial phenomenon caused by enzymatic destruction of psilocybin. The extraction with dilute acetic acid yielded better results than with the water containing alcohols. The simlpe one-step procedure with methanol for the quantitative extraction is still the safest method to obtain the genuine alkaloids from funghal biomass."

[This message has been edited by Pyrotechnist (edited June 27, 2000).]

This is a link to an extraction method based on that used by Albert Hofmann.

Methanol can be obtained at 'Napa' (or any other) auto parts stores. It is used to flush moisture out of break lines of trucks and cars.

Do a residue test.

Evaporate FULLY.

it's difficult to get pure methanol because of it being far more dangerous than ethanol. I've done extractions with 96% drinkable ethanol and it worked ok. Of course i didn't produce chrystals or such a thing, I just drank maybe 40 ml of the alc...

Like someone else wrote psilocybin is very water soluble, but one shouldn't forget that psilocin is almost not soluble in water, but in org. solvents like ethanol. If you use water to extract you'll be loosing a lot of the psilocin, which is, at some shrooms, a big amount of the alcaloids (e.g. Pan. cyan).
Good luck,

Elektrolurch