Caleb51 Posted November 9, 2006 Share Posted November 9, 2006 Does anyone know a method of separating pills into their base forms? For instance, say you have a tylenol 3 (Basically, tylenol coated in codeine) how can I get just the codeine out? Any help would be great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
styropyro Posted November 9, 2006 Share Posted November 9, 2006 I guess you could use a solvent that the chemical you want is soluble in and the other stuff isn't soluble. Kind of like teknix's way of getting Acetylsalicylic acid out of asprin. But you will have to find out what the binder is in the pills you want to get your chemical out of so the solvent doesn't disolve that too. Edit: you would probably have to coffee mill a bunch of pills so they would disolve in your solvent, then filter out the bad stuff. You just dont want to inhale a bunch of pill dust and accidently overdose Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caleb51 Posted November 9, 2006 Author Share Posted November 9, 2006 Well say the solvent was turpentine (Not true, just hypothetical) once I got the good stuff I needed out of the pills, I wouldnt be able to swallow it, since it had turpentine on it. Is there a safer way? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
styropyro Posted November 9, 2006 Share Posted November 9, 2006 What exactly are you doing with the disolved pills? If it is something you are going to consume, try pure ethanol. I'm pretty sure it can be used non-toxicly as a solvent in smaller amounts. There probably is other non-toxic solvents that could disolve the chemicals too but I can't think of any at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caleb51 Posted November 10, 2006 Author Share Posted November 10, 2006 Well, in short, I basically only want one part of the pill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asilentbob Posted November 10, 2006 Share Posted November 10, 2006 As has been said, find and work with the solubilitys or if the layers are separate just scrape it off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XenoN Posted November 10, 2006 Share Posted November 10, 2006 I give full credit for this extraction to erowid.org 1. Obtain a quantity of tablets containing codeine, check to see if they contain anything other than codeine, caffeine, acetaminophen or aspirin. If they do, and you don't know whether or not it will be a problem, your best bet is not to use them. Measure out your desired amount of codeine (ex. 64 mg = 8 tablets * 8mg/tablet). You may want to add 2 extra tablets as it is quite likely you will lose some codeine in the procedure. As you get more experience with the procedure you will be able to get approx. 95% of the codeine extracted. 2. Measure out some nice hot water, use approx. 40ml / 20 tablets or more if needed. I would suggest you don't go over 50ml for 20 tablets. I don't know if the use of boiling water would destroy any of the codeine but your best bet is not to use it. Use hot water but not boiling. Make sure the tablets dissolve completely. Some dissolve on contact with water while others need some help dissolving by crushing them. Note : not all of the tablet will dissolve, there are water-insoluble fillers in the tablet and not all of the A/A will dissolve either(which is what we want). [Most sources recommend that codeine not be stored at temperatures in excess of 40C (104F), so its probably better to use warm, but not hot, water. I find that it is best to crash the tablets completely in a container, and then dissolve them in a glass with water.] 3. Place the solution in a cold bath, I just use some ice cubes in a container of water. Stir the mixture occasionally until the solution drops to about 15C or lower. You won't need a thermometer to measure the temperature, just make sure it's "cold". This will take about 30 min. If you wish to speed this up, you can use less water to dissolve the tablets, and add ice chips to cool the mixture faster. Just make sure you don't add so much ice that you drastically increase the volume of the mixture. 4. Filter the solution using whatever you have. Coffee filters work well, but lab filters work the best. Just make sure you don't end up with obvious solids in the filtered solution. This will take about 1 hr. You may also want to rinse the solids left over in the filter with some ice-water to extract any remaining codeine. Note : I don't suggest you evaporate the mixture unless you are willing to wait a while. The Merck index warns that codeine is sensitive to heat and light. For that reason if you wish to evaporate the mixture, do it without heat, and shield the solution from light. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caleb51 Posted November 10, 2006 Author Share Posted November 10, 2006 So the codeine will go into aqueous form, and end up in the filtrate? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted November 10, 2006 Share Posted November 10, 2006 Ummmmmm, yeah, I don't think so. This is not the correct forum for this. Please go to Wetdreams, or Synthetikal or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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