pihkal

[squiresk]

Curently reading this book and love it (so far).

There is something in the beginning that is intriguing me however. (Ch.5)

He mentions a lichen/orange peel strategy for producing synthetic THC. the essential oil from scabs(lichens) from rocks, mixing it with some orange peel from the garbage, a touch of phosphorus oxychloride, and heh presto. THC

Sasha then goes on to mention olivetol and pulegone as refining this experiment, and "produced a sizable quantity of marjuana-like material resembling THC.

This may have been asked before but a search turns up those lost pages. And takes quite a bit of time. But anyone know what this is all about, surely cannot be so simple.

l8r kai.

[rkundalini]

hehe he loves to make little provocative comments like that.

For more info, see his answer to a question about the idea:

http://www.alchemind.org/shulgin/adsarchiv.../THClichens.htm

I am no chemist but it seems to me to be of novelty value only. By far the easiest way to make sizable quantities of THC is to grow pot...

[theobromos]

It is extremely easy to make THC from lichens and citrus, if you have a huge, well-stocked laboratory.

First you have identify the correct species of lichen and find sufficient quantities of it.

Second, you have to purify the chemicals you want from the plant material. Easy with citrus using a fractional distillation setup. Though have you ever juiced a few kilos of oranges to separate the peel? Even with a motorised squeezer my wrists were knackered after 25 kilos. The automatic juicers cost about 1500 euros. The pennyroyal oil could also be fractionally distilled to give reasonably pure pulegone.

Separating the compound from lichen will be more difficult as it is very sensitive to oxygen, especially in alkaline conditions. So it would be best to do it all under a nitrogen atmosphere. Perhaps an ionic column could be used to trap all the acidic compounds. Then a chromatography column. I am not sure which method of identifying the fractions that come out of the chromatography column would be best but they are all very expensive machines.

Shulgin glides rather quickly over the fact that it would then be necessary to add an alkyl group between the phenolic groups. This has the advantage that you can make short-acting or long-acting THCs by having, respectively, short or long chains added to this position. However, making carbon-carbon bonds on aromatic rings in a specific position is definitely only for advanced chemists. It will probably be necessary to put protecting groups onto the phenolic group and remove them after the reaction. The product will, again, have to be purified extensively and the correct product identified (but you have already bought the 100,000 euro gas chromatograph machine so that it not a problem.

Then you react the compounds together and purify out the product you want.

So, if you have a few million euros, a helpful glassware, chemical (some of them will be watched) and chemical machine supplier, a PhD in terpene/resorcinol chemistry and a trained group of lichen collecters with very sharp knives and no tendency to repetitive strain syndrome - it is very easy.

I note that Sasha has also missed the fact that WhiteRasta is unlikely to have access to supercritical butane and is actually referring to liquid butane under a little pressure (the honey tube), a very different matter.

[squiresk]

So organic THC is the way to go?

l.k.

[rkundalini]

Well, THC is THC (it is an organic molecule, or really a family of them), but yes growing the plant is the easiest way to produce it (unless perhaps you're United Pharmaceuticals). If pure THC was wanted, the honey tube (do a web search) would be a good start from what I have read.

[theobromos]

But then again, I have read that olivetol is found in olive leaves, though I have never bothered to check the quantities or veracity.