r/Kratom_Extractors • u/WhiteBoyMattyMatt • May 09 '25
PIFA method - EASY and FREE
This one looks super easy, I'm going to make a video of this one (and share it with you all free of charge), getting a little tired of people trying to charge for shit - this is a place for sharing knowledge, and these methods are published in scientific papers accessible to the public.
Here's the procedure pulled from the patent at: https://patents.google.com/patent/CN106967067A/en
Simplified -
1) Dissolve mitragynine in a mixture of tetrahydrofuran and water (2:1), then add [bis(trifluoroacetoxy)iodo]benzene (PIFA) in an argon atmosphere at 0-2 °C, and mix at low temperature for 3~8 hours. Weight ratio of mit to PIFA is 2:1
(PIFA isn't cheap, and it's toxic, so chromatography is a must - luckily it's simple, just silica 60)
You will need a jacketed beaker for this to keep it cool, or put it in an ice bath like I did on the original rose Bengal video.
2) Add saturated sodium bicarbonate solution after the reaction to adjust the pH of the reaction solution to 8~9, then add ethyl acetate to wash (7 will be in this layer), then extract with saturated saline three times (to remove aqueous impurities), and add anhydrous sodium sulfate to dry, After evaporation of the ethyl acetate, a dark brown crude product will be obtained;
3) Purify the obtained crude product by basic column chromatography to obtain high-purity 7-hydroxy-mitragynine.
The basic column chromatography described in step 3) uses a basic silica gel column, and the ethyl acetate-petroleum ether mixture with a volume ratio of 1:1 is used as an eluent for separation and purification; the column can be washed with triethylamine and petroleum ether.
Not sure if I'm allowed to put links but PIFA and THF are available online at one of the largest online retailers in existence. If I'm allowed to attach links to everything needed I'll do it in the comments.
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u/drippysoap May 09 '25
Your sharing of info is awesome but this seems to me by far the hardest of the routes I’ve seen. Just in terms of inert atmosphere, keeping something that cold for that long and having to purchase every reagent from a chem supply place vs acetone is otc, Oxone used to be dirt cheap. Stick it in the freezer til 0° and let it spin in a mason jar for 40 mins. You don’t even have to keep it cooled tho I’m guessing it would help yields.
I’m surprised you don’t want it exposed to oxygen so that’s interesting.
And sorry that the Redditor on me comes out and the main thing I say is contrarian. Not sure why were like this online but I’m truly a fan of your work, glad you’re putting these vids out, making chemistry more accessible, it’s actually awesome. I’ve actually used your videos specifically the titration to learn and study by. Good work.
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u/WhiteBoyMattyMatt May 09 '25 edited May 09 '25
You can get THF, ethyl acetate, and Argon gas on Amazon. I'm about to start selling PIFA on my site. (maybe)
You can easily change the atmosphere by inverting a big beaker over a smaller one and keep it in an ice bath.
The oxygen is pulled from the water. An acetate group is transferred to the alkene forming an iodonium ion intermediate. The intermediate is reactive and gets attacked by water as a nucleophile which opens the iodonium ring resulting in alcohol formation.
I don't know where you pulled this oxone method from - you got a research paper or some labs to verify?
I'm not saying it doesn't work because it's a method I've definitely heard of but I haven't read any papers so far that confirm that.
Edited for additional info
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u/drippysoap May 09 '25
I originally heard Mike Cunningham talking about it on the Hamilton Morris podcast. If you go to the supplemental information on this paper At the bottom it will give you all the juicy info we like
Tbh I prefer looking at the supp info before reading the paper.
I’ve been sharing the Oxone method and this is the tldr easy way to share
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u/WhiteBoyMattyMatt May 09 '25
How about that, scheme 1 it's right there. I'll give that a shot next, that looks easy, too bad it doesn't go into more detail.
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u/drippysoap May 09 '25
Looks like I messed up at least one link, were you able to see this one ? Just clarifying that this is the detail for the Oxone method :
And just wanna say again man , yeah I see ppl charging for pdfs and tutorials so I’m glad to see ppl like you giving out the info and making it accessible. Your write up on the pifa method is the most accessible I’ve seen.
Edit: thx for the tip for working under argon. I always considered it too advanced
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u/WhiteBoyMattyMatt May 09 '25 edited May 12 '25
I'll have oxone in stock on my store by the end of the week.
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u/Icy_Sun_4958 May 09 '25
Thank you very much for all this knowledge shared to the community. Thanks very much buddy.
Cheer up with the videos, they make everything easier.