Cocaine extraction from Coca Leaves

[googie]

Hello to all. I have found a great guide on cocaine extraction from coca leaves.

Will be a long post as the guide is quite detailed and contains images.

Without further ado....
Pump powered cocaine extraction from 2.5kg of coca tea ​

1. Pump powered extraction vessel​

I use a fuel pump powered extraction vessel for my extractions. I have found it is the easiest, cleanest most care free “set and forget” method of extracting the tea. It’s actually quite a basic thing to set up but the cost is slightly high at around $200 for all materials including the pump and power supply.

Still it is WELL worth it if you are either planning on doing multiple extractions over time or doing a big extraction all at once (think 10kg plus). It’s actually quite simple in the way it works basically you get a big HDPE container with a tap on the bottom (a water container) you line this container with a simple bed sheet and then you place your based coca tea leaves into the container inside the bed sheet. A clear tube is attached to the tap that is then fed into an inline fuel filter. From there the tube is led from the filter into a fuel pump and then led into the bottom of a separation funnel half filled with a 5% sulphuric acid solution. There is another “exit” tube attached to the top of the separation funnel that leads back into the extraction vessel creating a circulating system.

The extraction vessel is then filled with kerosene and the pump turned on. What happens is the kerosene is circulated through the system getting bubbled through the acidic water then pushed back out the top of the funnel back into the vessel.

This is what the set up looks like while running

(Below) Vessel with a fresh sheet lining the inside and a top view of inside the vessel

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(Above) On the left HDPE water spray bottle (separation funnel) close up. You can see the layers and the separation line with bubbles going through. It’s hard to see I know but you don’t want it going any harder than this or you will start to lose your H2SO4\cocaine layer from the force of the current. On the right close up view of the two holes drilled into the bottom of the HDPE bottle. The tube on the left goes all the way down to the bottom and has an airstone pushed into the end of the tube to atomize the kerosene. The tube on the right is the exit tube and is only pushed about 1 inch into the bottle and is led back into the vessel.​

(Above) You can see the tube and stone inside the end of it and a close up of the stone.

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(Above) And finally this is the flow rate you want. Any faster than this and you will start pushing H2SO4\cocaine layer back into the extraction vessel and that’s not good. This flow rate was achieved with the power supply set to only 6v at the start but was adjusted to 7.5v as the fuel filter started to clog up over time. Some runs I have had to use 9v at the start and 12v by the end. I don’t know why but that’s just the way it is, this is why a variable DC power supply is a must!

Extraction

Chemicals needed​

1. 2.5Kg Coca tea​
2. 12L Kerosene​
3. 500g Sodium Carbonate (Na2CO3)​
4. 5L water (tap water is fine)​
5. 300mL 5% Sulphuric acid solution (H2SO4)​
6. ~80mL 6% Potassium permanganate solution (KMnO4)​
7. ~100mL 10% Ammonia solution (NH3)​
8. Calcium chloride (CaCl2)​
9. Acetone (dried with the calcium chloride)​
10. 37% hydrochloric acid (HCL)​

In to a large bucket (Bucket A) dissolve 500g of Na2CO3 into 5 litres of water. (1:10 ratio) Give it a stir and wait till the solution goes completely clear (will take around 5 mins). While waiting for it to clear up add 500g of your coca tea into another bucket (Bucket B).

Using a beaker or measuring cup approximately pour 1 litre of your Na2CO3 solution from bucket A into your 500g of coca tea in bucket B and mix very well with gloved hands. After a while you will notice the green tea leaves start to turn black and give off a pungent odor. The texture of the leaves will also turn similar to the texture of potting soil. When you squeeze the plant matter it should mould to itself kind of like clay and no water should come out if it. If water comes out when you squeeze it you have added too much water and will need to add some more dry tea to absorb it. It’s exactly the same as making cake mix if you add too much water add more tea, not enough water add a little splash in and mix it around a bit till it is the right amount.

After mixing it really well transfer the now soil looking plant matter into the extraction vessel and mix another 500g batch of tea. The reason to do it in small batches is to make sure you get an even distribution of the Na2CO3 solution into the leaves. Once all the tea is based with Na2CO3 solution and placed into the extraction vessel leave it sit covered for about 1 hour to make sure the solution really breaks down the leaves and frees up that cocaine.

(Below) After mixing in 1 litre of Na2CO3 solution

(Below) Give it a squeeze and no water comes out

(Below) The plant matter sticks to itself like clay

(Below) The reaction vessel filled with 2.5kg of based tea leaves

(Below) Closer look inside the reaction vessel

After a 1 hour wait the reaction vessel is flooded with 12 litres of kerosene and left to soak for 24 hours. During this time give it a few good stir sessions to make sure the kerosene pulls out all the cocaine from the leaves and set up your pump system and separation funnel half filled with 300mL of 5% H2SO4 solution.

At the end of the 24 hour soak turn the pump on and circulate the kerosene through the bottom H2SO4 layer in the separation funnel and back out into the reaction vessel. Leave this recirculating for a further 24 hours to make sure the acid layer pulls all the cocaine out of the kerosene.

At the end of the 24 hour period turn off the pump and separate the acid layer from the kerosene layer. If you used an actual separation funnel then this is a very easy task but if you used my ghetto equivalent then you will have to just crack open the end cap and catch the acid layer in a plastic disposable sandwich bag making sure you run all the acid water into it by letting some kerosene come through too. Then just simply separate the layers by snipping off the bottom corner of the bag catching the acid layer in a beaker and discarding the kerosene layer.

Important Note: You must make sure that the flow isn’t too turbulent or the strong current will slowly pull the H2SO4\cocaine water layer into the reaction vessel and you will lose product.

The way to check is to look at the meeting point of the two layers in the funnel. If you see tiny water bubbles floating into the kerosene layer than its ok but if the entire separation layer is moving around like crazy you will have to turn it down. This is why it is a really good idea to buy a variable voltage DC power adapter for the pump.

The exact one I use is a 2.4amp variable DC power adapter that has 3, 4.5, 6, 7.5, 9 and 12 volt settings. I find that 12 volts at the start of the run is actually way too fast and will disturb the separation layers too much but nearer to the end (after about 12 hours in) the flow will slow down as the filter gets more and more blocked. So I have found that it’s better to start it off at 7.5v overnight then crank it to 12v (if needed) for the last half.

Again this really only depends on how blocked the filter is but what you are looking for is the fastest flow rate you can get while not disturbing the separation layers too much or you will start to lose acid water and get a lower yield. This is another reason for the airstone not only does it increase surface area but it also “softens” the impact the kerosene has on the water and allows for a faster flow rate without disturbing the separation layer.​

(Above) Extraction vessel running and optimum flow rate.

(Above) Sandwich bag with now brown H2SO4\cocaine layer on the bottom and small amount of kerosene layer on top.
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The bottom corner of the bag is snipped off with a sharp pair of scissors so that the liquid flows out slowly. The bottom layer is captured into a clean 600mL beaker while the kerosene layer is captured into a plastic bottle for disposal.

You really don’t want to get any kerosene into the H2SO4\cocaine beaker so it is a good idea not to push your luck and just swap over to the disposal bottle before the H2SO4\cocaine layer has finished going all the way through. It’s better to lose 5mL of the acid layer than to contaminate your product! Once you have the H2SO4\cocaine layer collected kerosene free you are now finished with the extraction part of the procedure! It’s time to move onto the oxidation!
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Oxidation

I am going to explain the oxidation step a little as it is easily the number one place where people mess up.
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So you will be adding a purple KMnO4 solution into a brown\tan H2SO4\cocaine solution. But as the KMnO4 reacts it leaves behind MnO2 particles that are dark brown in color. So at first addition the solution will go purple\pink but after a few mins it will fade away and get darker brown. As you go along adding more and more KMnO4 solution to the H2SO4\cocaine solution it will stay pink for longer and longer after each addition but end up getting darker and darker brown. E.g. The 1st addition will stay pink for only a minute or two then go brown but the 5 th addition will probably stay pink for about 10mins or so and then go brown.

Now the only reason you need to know all this is that I think the perfect time to stop oxidizing is at the point where the solution stays pink for about 20 mins after an addition of KMnO4. Now it sounds easy enough right?

Well it is a litter tricker than it sounds because as I mentioned the solution gets darker brown from all the MnO2 floating around that it’s almost impossible to see the pink in solution by the end. Don’t worry though because the best way I have found to check on the color is by simply dropping some of the very dark brown H2SO4\cocaine solution onto some paper towel, that way you can easily see the pink color mixed in with the brown.

This way you can keep checking the length of time the solution has stayed pink for. E.g. After the 6th or so addition of KMnO4 into the beaker check the time and wait a good 10 mins, then dip a spoon or something (I just use the thermometer) into the solution and then quickly wipe it onto a paper towel. You can check to see if any pink remains and if it doesn’t then add another lot of KMnO4 solution to the mix, wait and repeat. Keep doing this till the solution stays pink around the 17-20 min mark. It takes some practice to get good at it but it’s not that hard as long as you have patience!
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If you are not too worried about the perfect oxidation step or can’t be bothered by checking on the solution all the time then a good rule of thumb is 33mL of 6% KMnO4 solution per kilogram of coca tea extracted.
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This will give you a care free oxidation that gives good results every time. The procedure is actually very simple but the key is to go slowly, ice cold and with good stirring. If you add the KMnO4 solution too fast or too hot than you will start to oxidize the cocaine - be careful.

Take two beakers, in beaker A you will have your now tan\light brown 5% H2SO4\cocaine solution that contains your coca leaf alkaloids. Fill beaker B with a 6% solution of KMnO4. Make sure that beaker A is large enough to fit at least 300mL more volume into it as we are going to slowly drip in the 6% KMnO4 solution from beaker B into beaker A. This must be done at a temperature below at most 5 °C. This means you should really chill it to about 3 – 4 °C. To do this simply place beaker A into an ice bath (just a pot filled with ice will do) and you must use a thermometer to measure the temperature. To chill the beaker faster you can use a spoon to stir the ice water around the beaker. The more the water moves past the beaker the faster it will suck the heat out. Alternatively you can just throw a few ice cubes into the H2SO4\cocaine solution to chill it down quite fast.

Now, once it is chilled and while it is still in the ice bath it is time to add in your KMnO4 solution at about 10-15mL at a time every 5-10 mins. I use a 3mL plastic pipette for easy transfer of one solution to the other. After the 10-15mL of KMnO4 solution has been added to beaker A it needs to be stirred in well to make sure the oxidation happens evenly. (I actually use a magnetic stirrer but if you don’t have one just stir it in manually with the thermometer).

As the addition of KMnO4 will slightly heat up the solution it is a good idea to then give the ice water a good stir around beaker A to make sure the temp stays below 5 °C. As I said the point at which to stop addition of the KMnO4 is at about 33mL of KMnO4 per kg of coca tea but really that is just a guide as different batches of tea leaves will have different amounts of alkaloids.

Basically the perfect time to stop oxidizing is when the solution stays pink for about 20 mins after the addition of KMnO4. (I like to stop at about 17 mins because I like the slightly under oxidized stuff more). Once the last bit has been added then the beaker needs to be left in the ice bath to fully react all remaining KMnO4 for at least 45 mins.
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Here are the steps written out in a more user friendly easier to follow way.
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• Chill H2SO4\cocaine solution to under 5 °C in an ice bath ​
• Add 10-15mL of 6% KMnO4 solution every 5-10 mins with stirring ​
• Stir the ice water around beaker A to keep the temp below 5 °C ​
• Repeat till desired amount of KMnO4 has been added​
• Leave beaker A in ice bath for 45 mins after final addition of KMnO4 to fully react.​

(Below) H2SO4\cocaine solution (left) and 6% KMnO4 solution (right)

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(Above) First 10-15mL addition of 6% KMnO4 solution to H2SO4\cocaine solution (with magnetic stirring)

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(Above) Directly after the first 10-15mL has gone in.

(Above) Stirring the ice around the beaker after adding in KMnO4 to make sure the temp stays low.

(Above) How the solution looks after the 4th addition of KMnO4. (About 40 – 50mL) It’s hard to see but the solution is actually pink/purple but is filled with brown particles.

(Above) Color test (bottom right) this drop was taken out of the beaker about 12 mins after adding the 6th addition of KMnO4 and the solution still has some pink to it. Another drop was taken out of the beaker two mins after it and had no pink so more KMnO4 solution was added. The pink on the towel quickly fades away to brown as you can see from the past color testing above.

(Above) After my 7 th addition (about 80 - 90mL) the solution looked much darker (the camera doesn’t do it justice) and the solution stayed pink for about 18 minutes, perfect!

(Above) This is what it looked like after leaving it for 45 minutes to fully react. The flash makes it look the same but trust me when I say it’s even darker than the last pic.

(Above) Time to filter out all that MnO2. I use a vacuum filtration set up as filtering out all the MnO2 via gravity takes FOREVER (but it can be done)

(Above) Half way through filtering you can see the H2SO4\cocaine solution now looks a lot lighter than before and a lot clearer. This isn’t the final stage though as I will filter the solution again via gravity to get the last very fine particles of MnO2 out.

(Above) Caked up MnO2 in the filter

(Above) Vacuum filtered H2SO4\cocaine solution

(Above) Gravity filtered H2SO4\cocaine solution As you can see it is now nearly colourless. It still has a slight yellow tinge to it. This is because I like to under oxidize it a little for what I believe is a more euphoric cocaine. If you were to fully oxidize it then the solution would be completely colorless like water. Just some quick math ~85mL (I didn’t measure precisely) of KMnO4/2.5kg of coca tea comes to 34mL of KMnO4 per kg of coca tea. Slightly over the 33mL per kg sweet spot. This is now ready for freebasing.

Freebasing

(Above) First addition of 10% ammonia solution as you can see the moment it hits the H2SO4\cocaine solution it clouds out but after stirring it will dissolve back into solution. This will continue to do so until suddenly the solution will get dark yellow and it will all fall out.

(Above) Solution getting more and cloudier with continued additions of ammonia. This is at a point where it will soon suddenly cloud out.

(Above) Solution has clouded out. Now when it hits this point I like to really slow down my addition of ammonia as you don’t want to bully the molecules into freebasing, take it nice and slow.

(Above) Top view of finished freebasing, this is left to stir for 20 mins.

(Above) All done! Stirring stopped and you can see the freebase cocaine starting to fall to the bottom of the beaker. Also note the color of the solution has turned from a very pale yellow into a very dark yellow almost a brown color.

(Above) Setting up for filtration (you really don’t need a vacuum filtration set up for the freebase but as I have one and it makes it a lot faster so I use it)

(Above) The old H2SO4\cocaine solution after it has been filtered. It technically now is just an ammonia solution with some oxidized plant fats and unwanted alkaloids.

Once all the freebase is collected into the filter I like to run a clean weak ammonia solution over it to wash off all the dirty residual old freebase solution. Just get a beaker and fill it with tap water and add a splash of your 10% ammonia to it to raise the pH a little. Then just run this solution over the dirty freebase cocaine in the filter. You will see it get slightly whiter after a few washings.



Once you are happy with the clean water washings it is time to bunch that filter up and squeeze the hell out of it to get the water out. Just twist the coffee filter up like a tea bag and use force!



Just be careful not to rip the filter or the coke will fall out. Once no more water is squeezing out then grab some paper towels and place them around the filter and give it another squeeze. The paper towels will suck the very last bit of excess water out of the filter paper. Once no more water is coming out just peel the filter back and place your now huge rock of freebase coke onto a drying plate of some kind. It is important to break it up as much as possible to increase surface area so that it dries out fully overnight.

(Above) Freebase cocaine! As you can see it’s already kinda dry but it still needs to fully dry out overnight/day to get rid of the ammonia smell and any residual water left behind. This has been spread out onto a pyrex baking tray with a small pedestal fan very lightly blowing over it, think the fan is on the other side of the room as you don’t want to blow your blow away! You really want to make sure it is 100% dry before going any further with it. I leave it for at least a full 12 hours with a fan blowing to make sure. If it is a really cold night then leave it for 24 hours to dry. It’s best to avoid heat while drying cocaine as hot water will hydrolyse it.



As you can see I have also added in the magnetic stir bars (the white things on the right) as they also have caked on freebase stuck to them. Any objects that have the freebase stuck on them should be added to the drying plate (spoons, beakers etc.



Once the freebase is fully dry it is time to dissolve it into some dry acetone (needs to be dry, pure acetone). What happens is the cocaine freebase will dissolve into the acetone but some other impurities present are not able to so they stay undissolved as very fine particles. These particles can be removed by simple gravity filtration using a coffee filter. Once filtered the now much cleaner acetone is poured back into the (cleaned) pyrex baking tray and left to evaporate. Just like in the last step the freebase needs to be fully dry before continuing the process.

(Above) 24 hours after the freebase was filtered it is now dry as a bone and ready for the acetone dissolve.​

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(Above) Scraped up dry freebase in beaker before flooding with acetone.

(Above) Freebase cocaine after acetone addition. As you can see it has actually turned quite brown, this is all from impurities still left over. Unfortunately at this point I forgot to take a picture of the filtration process but it’s just running this solution through a coffee filter and catching the clean acetone in another beaker. All the brown particles stay in the filter and the clean acetone looks a much less colored and very clear. This clean solution is poured into the pyrex baking tray and evaporated to complete dryness over a few hours. I put it into the oven on low heat (40 degrees C) for an extra hour to fully dry out any residual acetone.

(Above) Fully evaporated and oven dried freebase cocaine. You can see how much cleaner and whiter it looks. This stuff is fine to vaporize and gives a very nice strong high.

Freebase yield came to 12.056g



Salting

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The cleaned freebase cocaine is dissolved into a beaker with some dry acetone at about 20ml of acetone per gram of cocaine freebase. We will call this Beaker A. Now in another beaker (Beaker B) you pour in about 100ml of dry acetone and a small amount of Hydrochloric acid (HCL) per gram of cocaine freebase. Beaker B is then poured into Beaker A and given a stir.



After a while cocaine.hydrochloride will snow out of the solution! This is because once the freebase cocaine turns into the hydrochloride salt it is no longer soluble in acetone and therefore has nowhere else to go but to “fall out” of solution. After a few hours the solution is filtered and the cocaine.HCl in collected in the filter and put somewhere to dry out fully before use.



The ratio to use for chem grade 37% HCl is 0.32 grams of 37% Hydrochloric acid for every 1 gram of freebase cocaine. Adding too much acid and the coke will burn when snorting it, adding too little and not all of the coke will salt out of the solution. It is advised that 37% HCL be used as the hardware store stuff is not always the same concentration so one batch might be 28% and another might be 31%. This throws off the salting calculations and will result in an incorrect salting procedure. Really though if you are able to get your hands on KMnO4 then you should be able to get 37% HCl quite easily. The most important thing to know is to make sure your freebase is fully dried out before salting it as any excess acetone will throw the weight of it off by quite a lot and if the weight is not correct you will not be able to accurately add the correct amount of HCl resulting in over salting and a product that burns the nose when snorted.

(Above) Beaker A contains acetone with the 12.056g of freebase cocaine dissolved into it. As you can see it has a slight color to it, this is because I like to under oxidise so the product does still have some small impurities, most of these will stay dissolved into the acetone and won’t make it through the salting procedure anyway. Beaker B contains acetone with 3.86 grams of 37% hydrochloric acid dissolved into it.

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The two beakers are mixed together and stirred then left for an hour to settle. (Above) Acetone with all the cocaine.HCl “snowed out” sitting at the bottom of the beaker.

(Above) Filtered out cocaine.HCl



Again just like the freebase this was twisted up and squeezed very hard to get all the excess acetone out of it. The paper towel trick was used again to suck the very last of the acetone out. It is left to fully dry out for a few hours.

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(Above) What the acetone looks like after the cocaine.HCl is filtered out of it. As you can see it still holds onto most of the colored impurities.

(Above) Fully dried out rocked up cocaine.HCl

Final yield 12.141g from 2.5kg of coca leaves is 0.48%

Moderators feel free to make this a seperate topic if you like. I hope this helps someone out in this community. Great forum here so far and look forward to more tutorials and discussions!

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[MisterAnonymous]

How do you rock it up in the end?

 

[MisterAnonymous]

Does anybody now how to freebase the cocaine with ether that produces a completely pure product!

 

[darkmatter7]

Well that's all fine and dandy, but where does one actually find the coca leaves?

 

[MisterAnonymous]

i can! without a problem...

 

[Darklearner1234]

Hi what brand coca leaf tea did you use?