Using alkohol or acetic acid to extract Psilocybin/psilocin especially from
P. cubensis leads to an instable product. To get a more stable product the use of
pure methanol is recommended.
CAUTION methanol is VERY VERY toxic!!!!!!
Else use it as soon as practicable.
The following are excerpts from:
http://www.erowid.org/plants/mushroo...journal1.shtml Journal of Basic Microbiology
Vol 34, 1994; 17-22
by Jochen Gartz
...
Comments:
The abstract says it, if you are planning to extract the alkaloids from either dries
and pulverisized fruiting bodie sor from mycelium it is best to use pure methanol.
Superior to aqueous solutions of alcohols (which is wet alcohol, the one you are likely
to have!) is dilute acetic acid which means simple vinegar (better: vinegar essence
diluted with same amount of water) which is quite nice because there is no problem
obtaining it.
The problem with wet alcohol is that the enzymes which dephosphorylise Psilocybin
to the instable Psilocin are also extracted from the biomass. This also occures with
acetic acid but to a smaller amount and does not occure at all with pure
methanol (ethanol?). The recommended extraction time (magnetical stirring)
is with methanol 12h at room temperature or 1h at 45 deg.Celsius, no times given for
the acetic acid method. And the moral: Dont use clandestine-quality alcohols for
extraction, use vinegar ! Or dry the alcohol by adding salts like MgSO4, CaCl2, NaSO4
which were previously dried in an oven and decand or filter the solvent from them after
a day or longer.
PLEASE NOTE:
For those new to extractions, it is extremely important to note that methanol is
poisonous to humans and if it is used for any extractions, it must be thoroughly
evaporated before the material is used.
...
Table 1 #
Amount of indole alkaloids in fruiting bodies of different species by
using
pure methanol as solvent (%, dry weight).
Species Psilocybin Psilocin Baeocystin
P. semilanceata______0.98______0.00_______0.34
P. bohemica_________0.85______0.02_______0.04
P. bohemica_________0.93______0.04_______0.02 (cultivated)
P.cubensis________0.63______0.11_______0.02
G.purpuratus________0.34______0.29_______0.05
I.aeruginacens______0.40______0.00_______0.21
P.cyanescens_______0.32______0.51_______0.02
Table 2 #
Concentraction of alkaloids by using
acetic acid for extraction
of the dried mushrooms (%, dry weight).
Species Psilocybin Psilocin Baeocystin
P. semilanceata_____0.97______0.15_______0.11
P. bohemica________0.60______0.21_______0.00
P. bohemica________0.65______0.28_______0.00 (cultivated)
P. cubensis_______0.45______0.25_______0.00
G. purpuratus_______0.24______0.35_______0.01
I. aeruginacens______0.32______0.05_______0.15
P. cyanescens_______0.20______0.61_______0.00
Table 3 #
Results of the mushroom extraction of six species using
aqueous mixtures of methanol and ethanol (%, dry weight).
Species Psilocybin Psilocin Baeocystin
P. semilanceata_____0.80______0.15_______0.11
P. bohemica________0.60______0.21_______0.00
P. bohemica________0.65______0.28_______0.00 (cultivated)
P. cubensis_______0.45______0.25_______0.00
G. purpuratus_______0.24______0.35_______0.01
I. aeruginacens______0.32______0.05_______0.15
P. cyanescens_______0.20______0.61_______0.00
By using the new solvent mixtures containing ethanol and methanol for extraction
it was found that more psilocin could be detected in extracts of every species
but always smaller amounts of psilocybin than with pure methanol (Table 3).
Additionally, a high activity of enzymes of the phosphatase type could be detected
in these aqueous solutions from all species. In contrast to these results only the
extracts of P. cubensis and P. cyanescens showed a significant enzymatic activity
by using acetic acid as solvent.
In these cases psilocybin was completely dephosphorylated to psilocin by heating
the acid extracts and no baeocystin could be detected in P. cyanescens.
...
Casale (1985) described the rapid formaion of psilocin after complete dephosphorylation
of psilocybin by heating the dilute acetic acid extract. It is now quite clear that the
decomposition under these conditions is an enzymatic reaction and was not caused by the
acid alone. For example the phosphoric acid ester psilocybin, baeocystin and
aeruginascin in these acidic extracts from I. aeruginacens were stable during heating
in contrast to the behaviour of the same alkaloids in solutions of P. cubensis and
P. cyanescens. It seems that active enzymes of the phosphatase type could be extracted
with aqueous acetic acid only in these two species in contrast to water containing
alcohols as extraction method. In the past attempts at the sparation of psilocybin and
psilocin simply using mixtures of organic solvents and water were also unsatisfactory
(THOMSON 1980).
This investigation shows that the high percentage of psilocin detected in P. bohemica
(Kysilka and Wurst 1990, Wurst et al. 1992) and not found earlier
(Gartz and Mueller 1989) was an artificial phenomenon casued by enzymatic destrucion
of psilocybin which is common in different species by using water containing organic
solvents. Extraction with pure methanol is the safest method to obtain the genuine
indole derivatives from mushroom species of various genera.