Baking soda for alkaloid extraction?

Baking Soda as Base?
Does anyone know what would happen if you performed the simple alkaloid extraction found here: http://www.erowid.org/plants/cacti/c...emistry2.shtml

...with citric acid for the acid and baking soda for the base?

Is it possible?
Is there any possiblity of the procedure resulting in negative/poisonous compounds?

Sodium hydroxide is a bit caustic and hard to find.

 

I don't see how using baking soda as the base could result in any poisonous compound, but I'm not sure it is basic enough for the extraction. You might try sodium carbonate (washing soda) instead of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), as it is more basic. Alternatively you could bake the baking soda in an oven for an hour or two and that would also convert it to sodium carbonate.

One problem you will have, though, even if this works, is that you are going to get plenty of fizzing when you add the acid. This may result in a mess if you are not careful.

 

??

not really (hard to find)

 

Well in the US you can't get Red Devil Lye anymore because the company that made it decided there was too much liability from meth manufacture. Its not hard to order sodium hydroxide but you can no longer just walk into the grocery store and pick it up.

 

what do you think drano crystals are?

many times I've put some in a beaker of distilled water, and pH paper turns deep blue (pH of 14)

 

Drano contains lye, but it also has other things. One is sodium nitrate, which is used so that the drano generates ammonia gas instead of hydrogen when used. Another is small pieces of aluminum. Presumably the aluminum could be removed mechanically, but separating the sodium nitrate would be a lot more difficult.

 

5NaOH + 3NaNO3 + 8Al + 18H2O --> 8NaAl(OH)4 + 3NH3

what happens is the aluminum catalyzes the reduction of the nitrate salt, and free OH- ions are left in solution; yes, ammonia gas is emitted, and the now black aluminum and sodium salts can be filtered out.

 

But according to that reaction, there is no more sodium hydroxide (NaOH) left once it completes.

 

that's right.

and if you were to add str8 NaOH to water, you wouldn't be left with any NaOH either

(it's the OH- ions you're after, the salts are irrelevant. they eventually get washed out when you do the liquid/liquid extraction)