Is Cocaine Soluble in Ethanol?

**Viator** · November 18th, 2003, 12:32 AM

I'm fairly certain it is, but just wanted to check before using 50 or so mate coca tea bags to make some "mate coca brandy."

checked pub-med and rxlist.com, couldn't find anything

**Sir Savage** · November 18th, 2003, 01:02 AM

Check some chemistry journals to see if you can find the Equilibrium Constant, or Keq. If it is a small number, it's not very soluble. If it's a large number, it's soluble.

**Viator** · November 18th, 2003, 01:37 AM

couldn't find the Keq, all I found when searching for that was online chemistry exams. one of them asked what the Keq of cocaine was but didn't give the answer. I did find this though:

CHEMICAL FORMULA C17H21NO4

MOLECULAR WEIGHT 303.36

MELTING POINT 98° (monoclinic tablets)

MELTING POINT 195° (Hydrochloride)

MELTING POINT 58-63° (Nitrate dihydrate)

**ShadowJack** · November 18th, 2003, 02:22 AM

Originally Posted by ReDiJeCt' date='Nov 17 2003, 08:37 PM

CHEMICAL FORMULA C17H21NO4

MOLECULAR WEIGHT 303.36

This is for the free-base. Any idea if we are talking about this, or the HCl salt?

**Sir Savage** · November 18th, 2003, 03:03 AM

If I had some I could experimentally determine it...

Well, it's organic, so chances are it's not real real soluble, but probably somewhat. It probably dissolves endothermically, so making a tea of it would only help. Also, you might try screwing around with the pH of the solution, too. Some things dissolve better in more acidic or more basic solutions.

**Viator** · November 18th, 2003, 11:00 AM

[quote name='SirSavageX' date='Nov 17 2003, 08:03 PM'] If I had some I could experimentally determine it...

that's what I was thinking too. I know from experimentation that it's VERY soluble in water, but what that means about ethanol i dunno. I had one year of bo-bo chemistry in college. I learned how to make nitrous oxide from nitrogen pellets, that's about it.

The free base on the other hand, is very INSOLUBLE in water, yet highly soluble in an acidic solution, such as lemon juice. I've seen speedballers do this to shoot crack when they couldn't get HCl or "raw" coke.

Maybe I'll just add some lemon juice to the tea water, to extract any freebase molecules that may be floating around with all the other coke-alkaloids, and try to make very, very strong tea.

Drink it w/ some grapefruit juice and bioperine to enhance absorption?

thanks for all your help Sir SavageX

**Sir Savage** · November 18th, 2003, 07:37 PM

I know from experimentation that it's VERY soluble in water, but what that means about ethanol i dunno.

Well, you're not trying to dissolve it in pure ethanal are you? (I don't know the concentration of brandy)

Assuming it's not pure ethanol, there's water in there that will aid in dissolving. Plus, ethanol in many respects is like water when it comes to solubility due to both having strong hydrogen bonds.

I think you got a good plan: making a tea in an acidic solution.

Don't know if you need to take anything to increase absorption. I know cocaine is orally active, but how orally active and what an actual dose is, I have no idea.

**lynx** · November 19th, 2003, 08:04 PM

I know in the Andes they chew coca leaves with lime,

from lycaeum

Coca leaves are not actually "chewed", but are mixed with lime and held in the mouth. The alkaline lime increases absorption of the cocaine, and is a common pharmacological strategy in indigenous cultures throughout the world.

Lime is calcium oxide.

So that should point you in the right direction to get the maximum effect from your experiment.

Try and find the recipe for mariana wine, which was popular last century and had more coke than Coke.

**Viator** · November 19th, 2003, 10:22 PM

making the tea w/ lemon juice proved a potent concoction. I know some people chew the leaves w/ baking soda too. same thing as lime I guess, alkaline.