Systematic Error for Extraction of Controlled Substances from Plant/Fungal Materials.

A mathematical model originally developed for supercritical fluid extraction of cannabinoids was tested for liquid extraction of other psychoactive compounds. The model successfully predicted extraction times and recoveries for quasi-counter current liquid-solid extractions of psilocin from hallucinogenic mushrooms, mescaline from cactus, harmine from a tropical liana, and salvinorin A from sage. Calculated component transport constants indicated extraction velocity: higher constants correspond to faster extraction. For mushrooms, pretreatment with liquid nitrogen markedly improved psilocin extractability.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The aim of this work was to investigate the applicability of a mathematical model developed for the description of supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) of cannabinoids from marijuana and hashish for liquid extraction of other substances. The mentioned model is applicable for dynamic SFE whose implementation is analogous to liquid-solid extraction in quasi-counter current mode. According to this model, quasi-counter current liquid-solid extractions were designed by calculation of component transport constants for extractions of psilocin from hallucinogenic mushroom, mescaline from hallucinogenic cactus, harmine from tropical lyan and salvinorin A from hallucinogenic sage. The mentioned model was found to be suitable for the determination of extraction time needed to reach a predefined extraction recovery for quasi-counter current liquid-solid extractions, as well, which allows the elimination of systematic error caused by the non-extracted part. The calculated component transport constants predict the expectable velocity of the extraction, i.e., the higher the component transport constant is, the higher the extraction velocity is. For mushrooms, it could be stated that preliminary treatment of mushrooms with liquid nitrogen significantly increases the extractability of psilocin.