The molecular formula for salvinorin A is C23H28O8.
Salvinorin A is the main active psycotropic molecule in salvia divinorum, a Mexican plant which has a long history of use as an enteogen by indigenous mazatecs shamans. Salvinorin A is a halucinogen compund with psychodelic/dissociative effects.
It is structurally distinct from other naturally occurring hallucinogens (such as DMT, psylociben, and mescaline) because it contains no notrogen atoms, hence it is not an alcaloid.
Salvinorin A can produce psychoactive experiences in humans with a typical duration of action being several minutes to an hour or so, depending on the method of ingestion.
Salvinorin A is found with several other structurally related salvinorins. Salvinorin is a trans-neclerodane diterpenoid . It acts as a receptor and is the first known compound acting on this receptor that is not an alcaloid. Salvinorin A was isolated in 1982 by Alfredo Ortega in Mexico. Its pharmacological mechanism was elucidated in the laboratory of Bryan L. Roth.
The original extraction of Salvinorin A from salvia divinorum leaves – partitioning of a crude extract between acetone and hexane – has been greatly developed/enhanced.
This is an extraction procedure from Gartz’ book ‘Salvia divinorum – Die Wahrsagesalbei’ (2001):
10 g of dried and pulverized leaves are stirred for 3 h with 220 mL diethyl ether, and after filtration the plant material is washed twice with 50 mL of the same solvent. These extracts are united and the solvent evaporated. You will get 250 – 300 mg of a 10% preparation with a greenish colour [ie. wax/tar]. The greenish mass is stirred with 15 mL of petroleum ether (bp 50 – 60°C) for 24 h. After filtration and washing with 5 mL petroleum ether, the residue is dried and the solvent disgarded. The residue is now solved in 3 mL absolute ethanol by shortly heating in the waterbath to 60 °C. After cooling down to 30 °C, 1 mL of acetone is added and all is cooled down to 0 °C. After 12h at 0 °C filter off and dry. A second analogue precipitation from alcohol with acetone leads to a pure compound with a melting point of 240 °C. Yield: about 20 mg (0.2%)
Although vastly improved over the original, this procedure is still lacking, and not too efficient. Below is a method developed by amateur chemists working together over the internet. This method was initially kept semi-secret, for fears that Salvia would become prohibited. As this now seems to be inevitable in all ‘civilised’ countries, I see no reason not to distribute this procedure for use in the WoDaRE (War On Drugs And Religious Experience):
Experimental
100 g whole dried leaves are put into a 5 L bottle and left in a fridge for 6 h. At the same time, two bottles each containing 1 L food-grade anhydrous acetone are chilled to a temp. of -6 C in a freezer. The bottle of leaves is removed from the fridge and immediately one of the portions of chilled acetone is added. The bottle is capped and vigorously shaken for 150 s. The solvent is then decanted and filtered. The second bottle of chilled acetone is removed from the freezer and its contents added to the bottle of leaves. The vigorous shaking is repeated for another 120 s; the solvent is then decanted, filtered, and combined with the first extraction to give just under 2 L of a clear pale green liquid. The solvent is removed by distillation (can be recycled) to give 290 mg of green (traces of chlorophyll) crystals. Recrystallisation from a small volume of boiling IPA gives 260 mg beautiful white xtals.
