[Hippie3]

iceolated smokeables
by Ab Strak

fresh pods were freezed, then ground in a blender, with 3 volume equivalents of cold water,
and allowed to stand for 1 hour.
The resulting goo was stirred, then sifted crudely, to retain the biggest pieces.
The filtrate was allowed to stand for 1 hour at room temperature, after which the fairly clear,
light brown top layer was decanted into a bottle, which was not to be filled completely.
The filter residue was extracted again with water, fractions were combined.
The closed bottle was kept still, in a freezer at -5 centigrade until 2/3 of the solution was frozen.
The freezing solution was filtrated, after which the ice was discarded.
The filtrate was put back in the bottle, and the freezing procedure was repeated.
The resulting brown solution was allowed to evaporate on a hot water bath,
yielding a brittle brown substance which was potent and tasteful enough to smoke pleasurably.

Hypothesis of the success of the procedure:

The active ingredient, a morphine salt, is highly soluble, even in cold water.
Acid or base addition is unnecessary and unwanted because of possible decomposition of the salt,
into possibly less soluble constituents.

Heating is unnecessary and unwanted because of possible degradation of saccharides and peptides (inflicted effect explained below),
and additional dissolving other unwanted materials, like lipids.

The crystallization of water in the solution forces other molecules than water out of the matrix.
Small molecules, like morphine maleate move easily to stay in the liquid phase.
Large molecules, like (poly)saccharides and (poly)peptides can not move easily enough, and are included in the ice.
An additional effect may be that plant saccharides have a high affinity to water.
So, may be, small saccharides are included in the ice as well.

The freezing therefore accomplishes a separation between alkaloids and "nutritional" materials.
This statement is confirmed by direct evaporation of cold water extract.

It is important not to break the ice crystals during formation, because cavities will form, enclosing active ingredients.
This is experimentally confirmed.

Additional note:
The extraction can be accomplished from dried pods also, however, a third extraction step is required,
and more time to allow for dissolving.