Nelumbo Nucifera Extraction

[Jack]

I am attempting to extract the goodies out of Nelumbo Nucifera flowers, I have added acetone to 20grams of powdered flowers. The only extraction I have done is with butane, so this is a learning experience some questions:

How long should I leave the flowers in the acetone?

How many times should I extract the flowers to make sure I get everything?

Is that all I have to do soak flowers filter and evaporate?

Thanks in advance.

[ 08. December 2003, 13:16: Message edited by: Jack ]

[friendly]

I just decanted such an extract. I soaked the flowers for six months, although two weeks should be more than adequate.

Soaking and shaking are enough and only one extraction in necessary.

I decided to do an acetone extraction after doing an ethanol and water extraction and getting a very low yield. The result I got from smoking the flowers convinced me there was either a lot of many alkaloids (which databases confirm) or a bit of a very strong one.

Generally, alkaloids are very soluable in alcohol and water, so I was surprised at the low return.

I evaporated the acetone off with a fan in a well-ventilated area and the residue seems to have two components; one is a brownish semi-crystalline powder that sticks to the sides and bottom of the evaporating dish, the other a brownish oil that I think will dry into the powder elsewhere in the dish.

I used seven grams of flowers and enough acetone to completely cover them.

I shook this at first every day for two weeks, then once a week for the remainder of the time the flowers soaked.

Judging by the amount of residue in the evaporating dish, I would assume about 1 gram of dry material. I used dried flower petals rather than fresh.

I recently posted a remark about experimenting with an Nymphea abla seed tincture that I concocted. That one is in the 'Secrets of Lily and Lotus' thread.

[Jack]

Thanks for the info friendly, funnily enough I sourced the flowers from om chi.

Two thumbs up for quality products, and service.

Will post results when the extract is ready.

[Torsten]

Hi friendly. welcome to the SAB forums.

Originally posted by friendly:

I used seven grams of flowers and enough acetone to completely cover them.

....

Judging by the amount of residue in the evaporating dish, I would assume about 1 gram of dry material.

Did you filter properly so that it can assumed no solids were in this extract?

[friendly]

Hi Torsten. Yes, I did. No solids.

[friendly]

I have in front of me now a nice Nelumbo nucifera (sacred lotus) flower 10x full spectrum no excipient powder extract.

So many herbs; so litle time...I hope I'll get to bioassay it soon.

I need to wait a few days more to make sure I'm clear of the lingering subtle effects of the N. alba seed tincture, though.

It should be available soon, if anyone is interested.

I doubt it would be stopped by customs...

[Torsten]

so the flowers contain 10-15% resin? that's a hell of a lot. it would be interesting to separate these into alkaloids and other compounds by various simple extraction methods and then test these fractions.

[ 10. December 2003, 21:06: Message edited by: Torsten ]

[friendly]

I obtained .3 gram of black tar resin from the baking dish, with some being unremovable and some stuck to the razor blade. Easily .4g total.

It won't dry any further without a heat lamp.

Looks like 5-6% yield, about the same as I got from refluxing with etoh and water.

Wonder how it'll compare to the lotus flower 10x, which I also haven't yet had time to assay.

[spice-of-life]

o

Edited January 5, 2012 by spice-of-life

[planthelper]

i suggest at least one week, but i would go for even more.

some people would be happy after 3 day's maybe.

anyway, i only worked with flowers in the whole, stamens might go quicker...

we know that some activas come across quite quickly, because some people reported effects from just steeping lilly flowers overnight in red wine.

[spice-of-life]

o

Edited January 5, 2012 by spice-of-life