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Trying to make peperspray

K

kestemodon

Hi all,
 
Since my pepper plants produce well and I'm working in a (bio)chemical lab, a question arose. Together with my lab partners we were discussing how to extract capsaicin from peppers. Which led us to some shady websites about producing pepperspray. Our scientific curiosity was tickled and plan was forged. Over the last weeks we have been preparing and next week we will start making pepperspray. I will try to keep you updated with some pictures!
 
Our preliminary guide:
  1. Start drying 100 g of peppers
  2. Grinding the peppers
  3. Soxhlet extraction with dry isopropanol (we are still discussing the solvent)
  4. Drying the product on a rotavap.
  5. Separate the fractions by a silica column. 
  6. Find the fraction with capsaicin by TLC (we have pure capsaicin as reference)
  7. Evaporate this fraction on a rotavap.
  8. Check purity on HPLC
  9. Maybe repeat purification steps if needed.
 
At the moment we our preparing for the third step and I will keep you updated ;)
 
Butane evaporates at room temperature, I think it is just the dumbdumbs that are blowing themselves up out west. @show me the sauce, I didn't think hexane was available to normal folks. I also thought I read something about it being more cancerous than butane, I could be making that up though, and it wouldn't really matter cause of your to the point you pepper spray someone who cares if they get cancer lol
 
Consider this outline used by one manufacturer.
 
Capsaicin Crystal Production Flow Chart
--------------------------------------------
Raw Material Cleaning & Drying
Raw Material Crushing (40-60 Mesh)
Granulation (Dia 4-6MM )
Extraction with Ethanol ( Recycle the Solvent )
Concentration
Decolorization Saponification Crystallization
Spray Drying
Standardization
 
 
 
DWB said:
Consider this outline used by one manufacturer.
 
Capsaicin Crystal Production Flow Chart
--------------------------------------------
Raw Material Cleaning & Drying
Raw Material Crushing (40-60 Mesh)
Granulation (Dia 4-6MM )
Extraction with Ethanol ( Recycle the Solvent )
Concentration
Decolorization Saponification Crystallization
Spray Drying
Standardization
 
 
Click to expand...
 
Ethanol would indeed be a good choice to extract capsaicin. Only problem is that we need to register the use of absolute ethanol. Other dry and pure solvents are not registered.
 
The other steps are more or less the same as we are planning to do. 
 
BTW we are not planning to use the "pepperspray", we are just little boys playing in the lab.
 
I accidentally pepper sprayed myself when I was a kid. I emptied an entire bottle into the sink of the bathroom for fun and the fumes got me. Came running out of the bathroom choking not being able to open my eyes. My parents were not pleased.. lol
 
What is the purpose of this fun experiment, to actually make a capsaicin product in a pressureized cannister that can be administered like commercial pepper spray and bear spray?  Maybe using some extraction methods might be the way to go.
 
 
 
 
Or to just make a capsaicin spray that can be spritzed with a plastic spray bottle?  Soak some superhot peppers in vodka, strain, maybe mix with water in a spray bottle= pepperspray.  
 
 
 
 
kestemodon said:
 
Ethanol would indeed be a good choice to extract capsaicin. Only problem is that we need to register the use of absolute ethanol. Other dry and pure solvents are not registered.
 
The other steps are more or less the same as we are planning to do. 
 
BTW we are not planning to use the "pepperspray", we are just little boys playing in the lab.
Click to expand...
How easy would it be to get a close to anhydrous ethanol product out of Everclear with fractional distillation? You've got around 20 degrees to work with inbetween them. Or are there too many contaminants in Everclear? I hear a lot of people use everclear for pepper oil. 
 
If not I've heard people using acetone, probably easier to get anhydrous acetone than ethanol. 
 
Walchit said:
Salsa lady might know something, she has those pure evil capsaicin drops! Drip one of those in your eye
Click to expand...
 
 
peppamang said:
Heeeeeelllllll naw
Click to expand...
 
Yea.... NO. .....  Don't do that!!!!  
 
It happens enough times by accident, along with the Hot Willy-----    just sayin'~~~
 
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