Extracting alkaloids from
Psilocybe
Extraction Instructions for obtaining Psilocin and Psilocybin from
Psilocybe or
Panaeolus.
I have not tried this method; it is taken from the classic volume (in
French) and based on that used by Albert
Hofmann.
Le Genre Panaeolus: Essai taxinomique et physiologique par Gyorgy Miklos
OLA'H Laboratoire De Cryptogamie du Museum National D'histoire Naturelle
12, rue de Buffon, Paris. Memoire hors-series No 10, 1970. Page 97.
- Dry the mushrooms.
- This important step is most likely to cause the greatest loss of
yield depending on how it is done. Crush or grind the dried
carpophores or mycelium to a powder.
- Shake and allow to stand (e.g. 30 mins) in chloroform. Use maybe twice
the dry weight in solvents at every step, or enough to well cover the
powder.
- Filter and discard the chloroform.
- Shake the reidue and allow to stand with acetone.
- Filter and discard the acetone.
- Shake residue and allow to stand with methanol.
- Filter.
- Shake residue and allow to stand with methanol.
- Filter.
- Shake residue and allow to stand with methanol.
- Filter.
- Discard residue.
- Combine methanol extracts.
- Evaporate methanol to dryness, preferably in a vacuum, although low
heat will do.
This will yield a crude extract containing the active tryptamines,
suitable for most purposes. This can be further chromatographed on
cellulose etc. to give pure psilocin and psilocybin. The recommended
solvents are n-Butanol saturated with water, and n-butanol:acetic
acid:water (24:10:10). Anyone wishing to do chromatography should check
the relevant texts for more detailed instructions.
The Sputnik Extraction Pages.
The Sputnik Drug Information Zone
http://nepenthes.lycaeum.org/
