Out of interest, how does this work? In my ignorance, I'd have imagined a number of different chemicals with similar properties DMT that would also dissolve in the naptha. Does DMT just happen to have highly unique properties?
It’s what we call like dissolves like. DMT is non-polar (oil like) and will go into the naptha solution. They give another option of using some other solvents. I believe Naptha is probably less toxic than the the petroleum solvents.
Naphtha is a bulk petroleum hydrocarbon commodity found in numerous grades.
It is a major highly flammable component of gasoline but has low octane rating on its own. So to make it into gasoline they boost it with major percentages of high-octane blendstocks and ethanol plus detergent packages and additives for motor fuel use. This is the type of naphtha where things like the benzene and sulfur content are present but not in excess of the agreed amount. For fuel use the color of the material does not need to be as water-white as it does for paint.
Naphtha itself is supposed to be a clear distilled petroleum product that evaporates without residue and there are grades for use as paint thinner having various evaporation rates to choose from. For decades in places there have been restrictions on things like benzene in paint materials so there are naphtha grades certified to meet these requirements, unlike for fuels benzene is usually then certified as being absent, and "odorless" varieties will have little to no sulfur.
The barbecue fluids, which are mostly slower-evaporating, I wouldn't think would be recommended.
Regardless, any (potentially undesirable) thing the solvent picks up on its way to the test tube or evaporation dish will end up in the residue at its final stage.
Alkaloids OTOH would not be such a short message . . .
> Out of interest, how does this work? In my ignorance, I'd have imagined a number of different chemicals with similar properties DMT that would also dissolve in the naptha.
Sure, that's right. The extraction step ... converting alkaloid salts to free base, mobilizing to nonpolar fracton... would indeed give you a mix of chemicals; DMT is not unique in its electrical properties in this regard.
The following step (crystallization) dramatically bumps up the purity of your sample.