Sphere's Extraction tek and isolation of Salvinorin A

This is an excerpt from his full document pdf. This particular part is the full detailed extraction with pics.

The following is an extraction performed on 250 grams of leaf.

In this sequence of photographs I show the water washes to the extract solids to occur directly following the complete evaporation of the extraction solvent

Dried Salvia divinorum leaf, when bought in bulk it isn’t very pretty but is plenty potent. To reduce the amount of
solvent needed to extract the leaf hand crush to a fine consistency, no need to powder it.

Extract the leaf with chilled acetone. Add enough solvent so that the leaf is entirely covered by fluid while stirring.
Extract the same leaf three times over and save the solvent together from each extraction. A screened kitchen
sieve with a large paper coffee filter inserted into it will help here. Because the paper filter always fills up with lots of
fine brown colored ultra-fine particles from the leaf you will probably have to change it out several times as you go.
Try as you may, even with your best efforts you won’t be able to get al of it out with paper filters.

Pour the solvent from all three extractions together into one bowl, cover and set in a dark place while waiting for the
ultra-fine particles to settle to the bottom. After a few hours the finely dispersed sediments will appear to settle from
the top down, let the fluid set still for at least 12-24 hours before pouring the fluid off of the brown material in the
bottom and into another container.

After the fine brown particles have been given enough time to settle to the bottom of the container, usually 24
hours, slowly pour the solvent off of the sediments in the bottom of the container and into another container for
evaporation.

After the ultra fine sediments have been removed through separation, completely evaporate the solvent in a clean
bowl or even better a wide flat glass cooking dish to maximize the area the fluid is exposed to air which will speed
things up considerably, especially if aided by airflow from a fan. Upon evaporation the thin yellow to green films
which usually deposit on the sides of the evaporation container are fairly high purity salvinorin so be sure not to
leave them behind.

This photo shows what the extract looks like after all of the acetone has been evaporated. If having rapidly
evaporated the fluid through the use of a fan rapid cooling often causes an amount of water from condensation to
collect in the bowl, as seen here. The extract in this photo of a chilled acetone extraction has far less dark waxy
chlorophyll and lipid compounds compared to room temperature extractions.

NOTE: Not part of sphere's tek: a little intermission. The tek now goes on about how there will be water left from rapid condensation. You can either pour off this water or evaporate it more (it'll take a little while longer) by putting it in the over at 150 degrees with the door cracked open or leaving it to evaporate out of sunlight. Now let's get back...

The above photo shows the extract solids after complete solvent evaporation and removal of water from
condensation. After evaporation the extract solids can be wet due to condensation created from rapid evaporation
of the extraction solvent with a fan. If wet, crush the solids as finely as you can before washing the extract with
water. If your extract is not moist from water the next step can be completed after the naphtha washes, as long as
all hint of naphtha has been evaporated out of the extract first.

First water washing of the crude extract. The water will take on a brown to yellow coloring which will be reduced
with each wash. The water can be yel ow to dark brown but should not be hazy or clouded as seen in the
photograph on the left or fine particles of salvinorin may still be stirred up into the water. Wait for the water to clear
of al cloudiness as seen in the right photograph before pouring the water off of the crude salvinorin extract in the
bottom.

After the water washes to the extract fully dry of all moisture and crush the solids into a fine powder & load the
extract into a 30-50 ml via for washes with naphtha. A larger glass can be used but should be fairly narrow
compared to its height

(The first wash is usually so dark you can't see anything). Last naphtha wash of the crude extract. The first wash may be difficult to see through to know if the particles of crude salvinorin extract have settled to the bottom of the container but shining a small bright flashlight close to the side of the glass will allow a view of the particles, even if darkly colored. Save al of the naphtha you pour off from each wash in one container as more particles will continue settle over a 24 hour period netting an additional ten percent or more of salvinorin extracted. The last wash of naphtha should be a lightly colored fluid but should not have so much cloudiness that you cannot see through the naphtha otherwise fine particles of salvinorin will be poured out when removing the fluid from the extract in the bottom. After all of the naphtha washes to the extract solids have been completed the extract may be from 50 to 75 pure, depending on how careful you have been with each step. In my opinion the extract does not need further cleaning with isopropyl, however further refinement can be accomplished by washing the extract solids with smal amounts of 99% isopropyl the same as had been done using naphtha waiting for the particles to settle each time, but be sure to use as little fluid as possible due to the solubility of salvinorin to this solvent which causes some of the salvinorin to be carried away by each ml of isopropyl regardless of waiting for all of the salvinorin to
settle during each wash of the extract.

If after initial evaporation of the extraction solvent the water washes were not completed you can now perform them
to remove more of the possible tannin contaminates. The extract solids must be completely evaporated of all hint of
naphtha and crushed into a fine a powder before adding water. The above photos show what naphtha washed
extract looks like after drying but needs to be crushed for further processing.
If you are going to further remove the dark green contaminates using 99 percent isopropyl the extract must first free
of fine sediments. You can remove the last of this impurity using the purity confirmation method by dissolving all of
the extract into acetone and waiting for the fine particles to fall out of the fluid and separating one last time before
evaporation. Whether the water washes to the extract have been done or not the purity confirmation step is a must
if you are going to try to refine the extract further using isopropyl. If you do not assure that al of the sediment is out
of the extract at some point continued washes of the extract will cause the solids to eventually start become a
sandy brown color instead of white, as more and more of the light salvinorin is washed away by the IPA in a futile
attempt to lighten the salvinorin to a white color by excessive washes of the extract which if carried out to an
extreme will end with nothing but light brown sandy sediments remaining in the glass.

99% Isopropyl washes to extract solids

The above lineup of photographs shows six washes to crude salvinorin extract using 99% isopropyl. One or two
washes to the extract with 99% IPA is enough to lighten the extract into a purity which is high enough for just about
anything without suffering additional losses to the final yield, because of this further refinement is not
recommended. However, the extract can be lightened to a white purity if you don’t mind loosing up to half of your
total yield from up to seven washes to the extract at a ratio of half extract to half IPA. Of course, as explained above
the salvinorin which is washed away can later be recovered but I don’t see the need to make the extract near
completely pure unless wanting to grow crystalline specimens or make standardized materials.
As can be seen in the left most photo the first wash of the extract causes the IPA to immediately take on a very
dark color, far darker than the naphtha had become after the last wash with that solvent. Isopropyl is far more
effective at removing the last of the dark waxy impurities from the extract than naphtha is able to do but also
removes a portion of the salvinorin with each wash. The level of extract seen in the above photographs does not
represent the amount of extract remaining after each wash of the solids because the photographs were taken at
different periods of time and cannot be used as an indication of the approximate amount of extract remaining in
each glass, as can be seen in the last photograph which is completely white without any coloration from impurities,
the salvinorin is still settling to the bottom of the glass, taking many hours to completely settle to the bottom when
this pure.
The isopropyl in the first three washes of the extract may be too dark to see if there is much cloudiness in the fluid
but can always be seen if shining a bright flashlight through the side of the glass. The last three cleanings on the
right side of the sequence of photos shows the isopropyl with a haze or cloudiness to it. For maximum yield, prior to
removing the fluids off the top of the solids whether pouring or using an eye dropper to suck the fluid out it is best to
wait for the fluid to completely clear of all cloudiness as the finer particles of salvinorin settle to the bottom with the
courser particles. However, this can take a full day of waiting, especially when the extract has become fairly pure. If
you don’t want to wait the amount of time it takes for them to all settle the fluid can be removed while still cloudy
and poured into a separate glass container to wait for the remaining ultra-fine particles to settle, or completely
evaporated and re-worked with more naphtha and or Isopropyl washes to recover the last of the salvinorin.

Purity confirmation

After completing either the naphtha and or isopropyl washes to the extract solids it is a good idea to confirm that all
of the sediments are is out of the extract. This can be done be dissolving all of the extract into enough acetone to
completely hold all of the salvinorin in the fully dissolved state. I call this the purity confirmation step but this last
step won’t tel you how pure the extract is, however it will confirm that every bit of the sediments which can easily
be separated from the extract has been removed and if present will allow a final removal at this point. The above
two photographs show what one and a half grams of slightly green but close to white isopropyl cleaned salvinorin
from a fairly large extraction dissolved into approximately 100 ml of room temperature acetone looks like before
and after settling of the fine impurities. The photograph on the left was taken minutes after completely dissolving
the salvinorin into the acetone and is clouded from fine brown particulates from the leaf which were stirred up into
the fluid.

The above two photographs show the salvinorin deposits evaporated out of the acetone from the above 100 ml jar
used to remove the last of the sediments. The four inch diameter bowl used for evaporation is rather small and
because of this caused the salvinorin to cake on the sides and bottom of the glass in a very thick layer.
As can be seen in the photo on the left nearly all of the dark impurities which colored the acetone yellow have
deposited in a ring completely circling the top of the bowl. As salvinorin containing solvents evaporate the dark
colored impurities always form a ring above the purer and heavier salvinorin below which can be used as a method
to further purify the extract. The photo on the right shows a magnified view of the bottom of the bowl where due to
the small size of the evaporation container the salvinorin has massed together into a nearly indistinct layer of
crystal ine material, as on the sides of the bowl too.

Warnings about smoking crystalline salvinorin whether pure, crude or infused into paper can be found at
www.sagewisdom.org/caution.html Smoke high purity salvinorin or enhanced materials or leaf at your own risk!!

Well, that's the exerpt with all the good stuff in it. Read the actual pdf for more information, but this covers everything you need to know, all the other stuff is just overviews of the extract procedure. Good Luck!

Dominaduro