Updated Ibogaine TA/HCl Extraction Tek (Feb 2010)

Copyright © 2010, Helpful Hopeful
All Rights Reserved

Reproduced by Permission of the Author

(Original Publication: MindVox Ibogaine List)

I have posted the whole extraction a couple times, but I will add it in it’s entirety again, with some added notes on purification from an old email from Howard Lotsof at the end.

It also contains even better measurements than the original tek I posted, when it comes to using the acetone and hydrochloric (aka muriatic) acid.

The extra purity for pure ibogaine HCl, may need a couple more supplies, but IMHO, is not needed, unless someone just really wants to be sure and use 98%+ pure ibogaine HCl.

So here it is again:

Okay, new UPDATED tek with added tips:

The Extraction:

What you need: Plain white distilled vinegar, a stainless steel, ceramic, HDPE 2, or non-reactive container, janitorial strength (10%+) non-sudsy ammonia, distilled water, a funnel, coffee filters, old t-shirt, and the iboga bark.

A clear, non-reactive container for performing the extraction helps a lot, when watching the reactions, BTW.

Optional for added purity: Acetone, muriatic acid (28-36% HCl), and Everclear (95% pure ethanol), (maybe anhydrous epsom salts aka magnesium sulfate or anhydrous calcium sulfate, which is not 100% necessary).

1: Take the bark, and make sure it’s as fine of a powder as possible.

2: Add enough vinegar to thoroughly cover the bark. A good measurement for the vinegar is about 5 times the amount (volume) of vinegar to the weight of bark.

In this instance 40g of bark times 5 would be about 200 mls of vinegar per soak. One may need slightly more in the first couple extractions to thoroughly cover the bark, and excess can be used safely, however it will lengthen the time of filtering later, so try and keep the volumes minimal.

3: The bark can be stirred occasionally, and left to sit for at least one hour.

Adding heat makes the bark harder to filter, and isn’t necessary.

4: After an hour has passed, one needs to filter the bark from the vinegar with a cloth t-shirt. Squeeze out the bark to gather all the vinegar and save this.

The bark is then returned to the container for another soak. This should be done 4 times to be sure to get out all the alkaloids. (One can taste the bark when dried to see if any bitterness remains, however, after 4 soaks, it seemed to remove nearly all the bitterness from the bark for me.)

5: While letting the bark soak again, as in the previous steps, filter the collected vinegar through coffee filters.

This can take a long time to filter, since the coffee filters clog easily, and may need to be replaced often. Have patience though. If you can leave it sitting in the funnel, with a filter, the juice will eventually pass through. This extra filtering isn’t 100% necessary but it will help remove all the finest plant particles from the solution, so the initial extraction will come out cleaner, so it’s a good idea, IMO.

6: Once all the vinegar has been collected and filtered through a coffee filter, you have two options.

The first would be to evaporate the vinegar a bit, by using low heat and a fan. Under boiling (do not boil!) is fine to reduce the vinegar, and will make it easier to deal with less liquid. A fan blowing over a heater vent worked well for me. You don’t want to evaporate it to thickness, though, just enough to make it easy to work with in a smaller container.

The second option is to skip the evaporation and proceed directly to the next step, which can save time.

7: Once you have all your vinegar collected, and evaporated a good bit, if you choose, you are ready to add the ammonia. You can slowly pour ammonia into the vinegar, to make it basic. pH papers/pens aren’t needed, but if used, just make sure the pH is above 10.1. Ibogaine’s pKa is 8.1. (from sources on the internet)

As you add the ammonia, the solution will heat slightly, and you will see cloudy precipitate forming. You can add more ammonia, to be sure, as too much won’t hurt, it will just add to the amount of solution that needs to be filtered, which can take awhile.

8: Now, if left to settle (can take a few hours), the precipitate (freebase total alkaloids) will sink to the bottom of the container. The majority of the clear solution at the top can be siphoned off, and filtered to be sure no precipitate is in it.

If it looks clear (tea colored, still), not cloudy though, all the precipitate should have sunken to the bottom. By removing a large portion of the upper clear (tea colored) water, this will allow you to have much less solution to filter out your alkaloids.

You can save everything you siphoned off and add more ammonia later, to be sure you got out all the freebase alkaloids, but it didn’t seem to make any difference for me.

9: Now you can filter the muddy, alkaloid containing solution through coffee filters.

Filtering this can take a good bit as the precipitate begins to clog the filter, but again, be patient, as the solution will eventually pass through the filter completely. This may take overnight, so don’t worry if it takes a long time. Once you have filtered the solution, you can set aside the clear tea colored water for later, to add more ammonia, just to be sure you collected all the precipitate.

10: You should now have a coffee filter with all the brown freebase precipitate stuck to it. You should then add a liberal amount of distilled water to the filter in the funnel. You will THOROUGHLY rinse the precipitate with the distilled water to wash away any extra impurities (ammonium acetate).

Again, waiting for the water to pass through the alkaloid coated coffee filter may take awhile, so just have patience.

11: This precipitate can then be placed in front of a fan with a warm air current, away from UV light, and left to dry.

This is now your crude (estimated from Chris’ notes at 40-50% pure) freebase total alkaloid extract. This can be capped when dry and used as is, and should be much cleaner than the simple vinegar extraction. However, for those that want it more pure, there are two options.

First option:

1: Take the filter with the dried crusty precipitate and break up the precipitate to a fine powder. You can use the same filter, or take a new one and place it in a funnel that is plugged (I use a two liter bottle with the bottom cut off for a funnel, so capping the opening can seal it, but a finger may be used). Add the crushed precipitate to the plugged funnel and saturate it with vinegar to dissolve as much as possible.

2: Let the vinegar sit in the filter with the precipitate, maybe stir it around a bit in the filter, then let it drain through, and save the vinegar.

Be careful not to poke a hole in the filter while stirring/agitating.

3: You can repeat with fresh vinegar another time, and collect all the vinegar.

4: Add ammonia to the vinegar again, to precipitate the alkaloids, which should be even cleaner this time.

5: Re-filter out all the alkaloids, rinse thoroughly with distilled water, and let dry as above.

This can now be used as is and should be even cleaner.
Second (more involved) option, for much more pure TA:

Okay so you have your brown precipitate in your coffee filter, now dried up, from the first portion of the extraction.

1: You now, take your acetone and add 15-18 mls of acetone per gram of freebase TA extract (brown freebase powder), and soak freebase in the filter with it. You can stir around the precipitate in the filter (again be careful not to poke a hole in it), and wash it two or three times with the SAME acetone. Do not go over 18 mls per gram of brown TA freebase, but be sure to soak as much color from the solid as possible. The filter should contain any bark crud, and any other impurities, when finished.

This will remove the alkaloids from the solid filtrand (insoluble plant gunk that’s left in the filter), since the freebase is soluble in acetone. Chris Jenks says about 50-60% of the crud is left behind as insoluble plant material.

2: Take your muriatic acid (hydrogen chloride in a water solution, aka hydrochloric acid in solution), and add it very slowly, to the acetone. You must do this drop wise, and watch as the precipitate forms. (One milliliter for each six grams of TA) is added in small portions, slowly, until the precipitation of the solid begins.

If you own a pH tester, when the acetone is at pH 6.1, 99% of the ibogaine should be converted to the HCl salt form, and precipitate out, or be caught in the tiny amount of water that the HCl is mixed with (with 1 ml of muriatic acid, the water is negligible). This can be filtered out, and the tiny bit of water separated, and left to evaporate to be sure to recover all the iboga alkaloid HCl salts (wasn’t necessary for me).

Adding too much acid with water can start to redissolve the iboga TA HCl. You can add a few drops at a time, and watch as the precipitate forms. When it stops forming, you can place this into the fridge, to chill for a few hours (overnight may be better), before filtering, and this will increase the yield.

3: Filter out the iboga PTA HCl.

This is nearly pure TA HCl, but there may be a bit left in the acetone, and other residual alkaloids will also be in the acetone.

You can evaporate some of the acetone with a fan and low heat (no flames please), then remove any acidic water from the acetone, and let it evaporate to collect anything there. (Drying the acetone with anhydrous epsom salts, aka magnesium sulfate, or anhydrous calcium sulfate, then filtering them out by pouring the acetone through a coffee filter can be done instead of separating and evaporating any extra water but doesn’t increase the yield much, according to Chris.)

Then treat the reduced (possibly dried) acetone with the muriatic acid again (a drop or two), and harvest any more crystals of iboga PTA HCl that precipitates. Filter it out as well and add it to the first precipitate.

Another option would be to gas HCl acid though the acetone to precipitate the iboga PTA HCl crystals, but this can be covered later, if anyone is really interested. I haven’t tried this with ibogaine HCl, but am pretty sure it’d work fine, although it is more difficult and requires a few more supplies.

4: (Optional and only needed if going for pure ibogaine HCl) If you would like pure ibogaine HCl, without the other alkaloids, you can take the iboga TA HCl crystals, and dissolve it in boiling ethanol.

The boiling ethanol should be added drop wise, just until all the ibogaine HCl has dissolved.

5: This ethanol solution is then left to cool in the fridge and the ibogaine will recrystallize.

This will make the ibogaine HCl form much more pure crystals and can remove some of the ibogamine/ibogaline if still present in the precipitate.

It is not necessary unless going for 98%+ purity, and repeated recrystallization can yield very pure ibogaine HCl, but can cost a bit of yield. The ibogaline and ibogamine have very similar action as ibogaine and may also provide similar effects, so are fine for using for a session.

(There are more added notes below for those chemistry nuts that want PURE ibogaine HCl.)

When this is dry, it is ready to take.

6: (Optional, for those who would like the PTAA) For those who want to recover all the alkaloids, so they can take a complete total alkaloid extract (or Purified Total Active Alkaloid extract, aka PTAA) of high purity, they should take the acetone that they salted/precipitated out the ibogaine HCl, and evaporate it in front of a fan with warm air current.

The resulting leftover alkaloids will be an unstable oil.

7: Dissolve this oil in distilled water.

8: Add ammonia to this water with the oil dissolved into it.

You will again see the freebase residual alkaloids precipitate out of the water/ammonia solution.

9: Filter out the freebase alkaloids, and rinse again thoroughly with distilled water.

10: Let the freebase residual alkaloids dry completely.

You can then add your freebase residual alkaloids to your PTA HCls, and capsulize it. Freebases will be converted to the HCl salts in your stomach, so turning them into the HCl salt before ingesting is probably unnecessary.

This Purified Total Alkaloid extract, or PTA, should be considered very pure, and a 15-20 mg/kg dose of this (mainly for addiction treatment at this level) is just as powerful, if not more so, as the pure ibogaine HCl, so estimate your dosage with this extract accordingly. This is powerful medicine and going higher than 25 mg/kg could cause complications, so don’t be a hero. This also lasts in the system for months, so it’s recommended not to take another flood dose within 60-90 days minimum, to be safe.

This is optional and has not been tried by myself, so if Chris or anyone out there thinks there are any updates, more details, or improvements, please feel free to add them, as the final purification to pure ibogaine HCl, was not my goal, just a much more pure TAA.

Further purification notes, for those wanting pure ibogaine HCl, without the added alkaloids, from here: http://www.puzzlepiece.org/ibogaine/032899.html

Purification of ibogaine from the total alkaloids.

The total alkaloids from the extraction step is dissolved in ethyl acetate (minimum) and treated with norite (measurements anyone?), filtered and evaporated to dryness. The residue is dissolved in hot ethanol. After chilling for two or three days, the crude ibogaine is filtered and the filtrate is evaporated to half volume, chilled for one day and a second crop of ibogaine is collected.

The crude ibogaine is recrystallized from ethanol. This product is dissolved in toluene and filtered through three times its weight of neutral alumina (activity 1), and the column washed with toluene. Evaporation of the solvent crystallization of the residue from ethanol yields a pure sample of ibogaine.

Ibogaine hydrochloride

To a stirred solution of ibogaine in minimum acetone is added aqueous HCl
(1:1) dropwise (excess). The crystalline ibogaine hydrochloride separates
immediately. The product is filtered and washed with acetone. It is
recrystallized from ethanol yielding a white salt.

Extra tips:

Norite: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norite

Ethyl Acetate: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethyl_acetate

Also, this further purification requires a chromatography column, neutral alumina to pack the column, and toluene, so it may be a bit more difficult for the kitchen chemist without the proper tools.. It also lacks measurements, and details, so I’d need to play around to find them myself.

Honestly, the added purification is not really needed, especially if one only wants a Purified TA or PTAA. It is only necessary if 98%+ pure ibogaine HCl is desired.

BTW, freebase TA is total alkaloids (actually the ibogaine, ibogaline, ibogamine and residual alkaloids), PTA is purified total alkaloids (ibogaine, ibogaline, ibogamine in HCl salts), PTAA is purified total active alkaloids (all active alkaloids from tabernanthe iboga including, but not limited to, ibogaine, ibogaline, ibogamine, tabernanthine, (?), in HCl salt and freebase mix).

Hope this has everything anyone needs, but I can help out if anyone has any questions, up to the further purification, as I don’t have a chromatography column, and didn’t have enough bark to waste any of the extra alkaloids from the root bark.

I haven’t tried to extract pure ibogaine HCl since the PTA/PTAA that comes out, looks plenty clean, removes all the plant material, makes the dosage easy to calculate, and may be easier on sensitive stomachs, although nausea is still common with even the pure alkaloids.

I have read that the pure ibogaine HCl is even more gentle on the stomach, but haven’t had the experience myself, so I can’t give a personal account.

If any experts out there have any critiques for the updated tek, please feel free to add whatever you can. Big thanks to Chris Jenks!! Also, thanks to panoramix over at the DMT-Nexus.com for helping add some measurements for the purification.

I’ve tried to make this as clear and detailed as possible, and watching Chris’ presentation from the ibogaine conference can help with pictures, for those who are visual learners..

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/4730969 (This one has the extraction by Chris Jenks, with pictures and his description. He starts 1:00:00 in, but plenty of good info before hand.)

Best of luck to everyone, and please use this with utmost respect and responsibility, as we don’t need to lose ANYONE (else) with this medicine!

Okay, that is the final draft as of now. I hope that incorporates any of the things that Chris brought up, and I hope it is more clear in each step with better terminology.

I will explain later how to make a little contraption to bubble HCl gas through the acetone to precipitate the iboga alkaloid HCl’s without having any water, which might improve purity and yield from the start, but this will be when I can get around to finding more time to type it up in a decent manner.

PS. Also, in a side note from another email to the list from Chris he adds, quote:

I took a portion of the acetone that would have been used in the extraction of the TA and added the proper amount of HCl solution to it (determined by previous runs) and then dried the solution with anhydrous calcium sulfate. The dried solution of HCl in acetone was then used to acidify the acetone extract of TA. The yield was 38% of PTA HCl from TA, compared with an average yield of 37% for the previous nine runs, so there was no significant improvement by removing the water.

Also, if you are trying to make TAA, you shouldn’t have to be so careful with the measurements of acetone and HCl, as long as you use enough acetone to extract the TA completely, and enough HCl to acidify the extract. Instead of filtering out the PTA HCl you could just evaporate the acetone and continue as usual in making RA, which is this case would give homogeneous TAA base.

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