DOSE:

30 mg

insufflated

Virola spp.

(extract)

BODY WEIGHT:

250 lb

*** Extracting With Acetone In A Soxhlet Extractor ***

[ Erowid Note: One should not attempt to perform alkaloid extractions without first having an understanding of safe handling procedures for the chemicals and equipment required.]

I had about 118 grams of Virola Theiodora bark. I did a Soxhlet extraction using 600 ml of acetone. 118 grams of large whole pieces of bark were placed in a glass thimble with cotton balls on the bottom. The hotplate was set to 500 C. It siphoned about once every 20 minutes. I let it run for about 5 hours amounting to about 15 washes with distilled acetone in the Soxhlet.

After Soxhlet extraction was complete, the color of the extract was dark red with a slight orange tint. I dried the extract in a dish on a hotplate at 125 C with plenty of forced air overnight.

I dissolved the dried material in 50 ml of isopropyl alcohol and then added 100 ml of water and 150 mg of citric acid. After mixing for a few minutes, the pH was about 2.5. In a separatory funnel I defatted the extract 3 times each using 50 ml of xylene. The first defat with xylene was dark red. The third was clear. All the xylene was discarded.

After the defatting process was complete I simply dried the extract. Once dry, it was pretty hard to scrape it off the drying dish. After scraping it off the dish, I weighed it. It came to 195 mg of dry crystalline powder that was red with a hint of orange.

*** Activity Tests ***

I tested 10 mg intra-nasally. It produced barely detectable effects. There was a slight distant feeling felt after about 30 minutes, and then it started to fade. There were no other effects. This is similar to a 2 mg dose of 5-MeO-DMT in me.

Later I tested 30 mg intra-nasally (15 mg in each nostril). There was a very slight burn in the nasal passages almost immediately after snuffing the material. The effects started after about 10 minutes. Again, I felt an unusual distant feeling, sort of a dreamy feeling, reminiscent of dried Amanita pantherina capsules. After about 30 minutes it peaked. I felt really unusual. The effects of 5-MeO-DMT are more like Amanita pantherina than DMT. Although Virola theiodora is said to contain 5-MeO-DMT, DMT, and bufotenine, this is clearly a 5-MeO-DMT experience only. If there is any DMT or bufotenine present, it is so small as to have no noticeable effects. There were no increased color effects, geometric patterns, melting or swirling effects which are common with bufotenine and DMT. I experienced very mild visual effects that were similar to Amanita pantherina’s visual effects. There were mild sparkly firework-like visuals near the edge of my view and things looked a little cloudy or distant. I felt extremely relaxed mentally, but there was no drunken feeling like there is with Amanita pantherina. There was a slight bit of mental confusion, almost a stoning effect. There was no nausea or other side effects felt. Everything in my environment looked odd, not different, just somehow unfamiliar. This part of the experience is similar to LSD. Unlike most other psychedelics I felt almost completely detached from my environment. I also noticed that I could hear distant sounds very clearly. Judging by the effects felt, the extract is maybe 20% 5-MeO-DMT (about 6 mg 5-MeO-DMT). In me, at this dosage level, 5-MeO-DMT is very useful for meditation or as a social drug. During this trip, I felt emotionally withdrawn. As if the 5-MeO-DMT turned off all of my emotions, except my sense of humor. I found it easy to entertain people under its effects. I felt comical and could easily make other people laugh. I noticed how my chair looked like it was smiling as I was telling jokes. This was not a hallucination, just a realization that the contours on the chair made a smiley face. Everything around me looked unfamiliar. It was like I was looking at everything for the first time. Again, this effect is similar to LSD.

*** Notes About Extraction ***

The next time I try this extraction I’ll try to shred the bark first. This might help improve the yield a little.

You want to avoid extracting with alcohol if you’re going to defat with xylene. On another occasion I tried this. I extracted with alcohol, concentrated it down to 50 ml, added 100 ml of water, 150 mg of citric acid, and tried to defat with xylene in a separatory funnel. This produced thick emulsions that would not break down. I had to make the aqueous layer 50% alcohol in order to break down the emulsions. Alcohol pulls a lot of junk. Even after making the aqueous layer 50% alcohol, it took about 6 defats to remove all of the fats. Extracting with acetone seems to be the better route. It pulls less junk; and during the defatting stage (where I dissolved the dried acetone extract in 50 ml alcohol and 150 ml water), I only needed to defat 3 times with xylene, and I never had problems with emulsions.

*** Summary ***

Virola theiodora is a cheap natural source for 5-MeO-DMT. It doesn’t contain much on a gram for mg basis. Even when using a Soxhlet extractor for many hours, my yield was very small! From the 118 grams (118,000 mg) of bark, I only managed to extract about 195 mg of defatted material, and of that only about 39 mg was actually 5-MeO-DMT. That’s a yield of about 0.03 % 5-MeO-DMT. But because 5-MeO-DMT is so potent, active at about 5 mg intra-nasally, the yield in terms of doses is close to 8 mild doses. The 118 grams cost me only $16, so that comes to approximately $2 a dose (for a mild dose). That’s not bad at all.

5-MeO-DMT is a very unique psychedelic. Despite the name similarities, 5-MeO-DMT is absolutely nothing like DMT. Dibufotenoxide (or even plain freebase bufotenine) is closer in effects to DMT than 5-MeO-DMT is. 5-MeO-DMT is great as a meditation aid in mild doses. It has a stoning effect that relaxed the mind and makes you feel disconnected from your environment. It has perspective alteration effects very similar to LSD causing things to look different, unfamiliar, as though you are seeing them for the first time. This is the most interesting element of the 5-MeO-DMT experience. Unlike DMT, the experience lacks visual effects unless very high doses are used.

Exp Year: 2007	ExpID: 67329
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Dec 1, 2011	Views: 22,564
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Virola spp. (319) : Not Applicable (38), Cultivation / Synthesis (31), Preparation / Recipes (30), General (1)