Written by Chainsaw

LSD from Lysergic Acid Monohydrate

This is, in my opinion, the best of all methods. It was designed to be used to experiment with 
different types of amines, so if you would like to substitute diethylamine with another amine this 
would be the best bet. It also gives good yields (50% or better) and is very easy. The reference that 
gives it (JMC, 16,532(1972)) also gives potency data for many Lysergamides and many of their 
formulas. The reading is good, interesting, informative, and the method given below gives no 
useful amount of ISO-LSD, so separation of that product is not necessary.
A slurry of 3.15 g d-lysergic acid monohydrate (monohydrate means dry) and 7.3 g of diethylamine 
(or 0.1 mole of similar amine) in 150 ml of pure chloroform is heated too reflux. After the lysergic 
acid is dissolved (a few min) cool the mixture down to where reflux has stopped by removing the 
heat. Before mixture cools any further 2 ml of phosphorus oxychloride is added at such a rate as to 
give reflux (about 2 min). After addition, reflux for 4-5 min further until an amber-colored solution 
result. Cool to room temperature and wash the mixture with 200 ml of 1M ammonium hydroxide. 
The chloroform solution was dried with magnesium sulfate (this would have to be after separation) 
filtered, and concentrated by evaporation in vacuum under a temp of 38° (at no time let the temp 
go over 40°). The last traces of solvent are removed at 2-5 mm. Dissolved the residue in a 
minimum amount of methanol and acidify with freshly prepared solution of 20% maleate acid in 
methanol (not aqueous) to precipitate the LSD in maleate form. Filter the fluffy white needles, 
wash with cold methanol and air dry to get 2.2 g of LSD that requires no further purification.

Lysergic acid Monohydrate

Dissolve 175 g of KOH in 1,750 ml of water in a flask of 5 liters volume equipped with a reflux 
condenser and a gas inlet tube. If a stirring device is not required, it should be removed and the 
open neck stoppered. Heat the mixture to 80° under a stream of nitrogen and add 500 g of 
ergotamine tartrate. Hold the temp at 80° for 2.5 hours with bubbling from the nitrogen filled gas 
inlet tube. Pour the mixture into a 5 gallon polyethylene bucket (mode from the same material as 
in plastic gas cans) filled with about 6 liters of ice. Put the bucket in a cooling mixture to cool 
below 10°C. Neutralize the mixture by adding cold dilute sulfuric acid to a Congo red end point 
(pH 4.2). Lysergic acid and potassium sulfate will be seen to precipitate. Let stand for 2-3 hours in 
the 5-10° cooling mixture. Filter with vacuum assist, and let vacuum suck as dry a possible. Break 
up the filter cake and put in a 2-liter beaker. Make a solution from 150 ml of liquid ammonia and 
2.5 liters of very cold dry denatured ethanol and add to the reaction mixture. Stir for one hour and 
filter. Keep the filtrate and treat the filter cake to 1/2 the ammonia ethanol mixture as above. This 
second extract is filtered and the cake is washed with 250 ml of the ammoniac ethanol mixture. 
Combine the filtrates, and evaporate to total dryness with a strong vacuum and gently heating. Do 
not heat at too high of a temp. Scrape the product from the vacuum vessel and put into a mortar. 
Mix 113 ml of methanol with 38 ml of water, and rinse the rest of the residue from the evaporation 
vessel and dump into the mortar with the rest of the product. The slurry in the mortar is ground up 
well and filtered. Wash the filter cake with 1500-ml cold water and use vacuum to suck dry for one 
hour. Break up the filter cake and dry at 80-85°C under a high vacuum to get about 65-75 g of 
cream white to gray-white powder. This is Lysergic acid monohydrate. I think that if you dry the 
lysergic acid (obtained from the ergot alkaloids by hydrolysis as described earlier) it will also work. 
This is how you dry lysergic acid: dry under high vacuum at 140-140° C for 2-3 hours

Things you must remember when working with Ergot 
Alkaloids, Lysergic acid and LSD

These compounds are very sensitive and even unstable. This means that the following steps must 
be taken to keep from ruining your compound or yield.

1. Always use red or yellow photographic dark room light bulbs during any step of LSD 
manufacture. Direct sunlight, electric filament, of fluorescent light bulbs (etc.) will hurt the above 
compounds. Dark room bulbs are cheep and are a must.

2. Keep all forms of H2O out of the reaction. Thoroughly dry all the glassware to be used. Use a 
drying tube filled with anhydrous MgSO4 (calcium chloride reacts with amines in an unfavorable 
way and should be not be used). The drying tube should always be in use even if water is called for 
in the formula. If you are not sure if you should use dry reagents, use dry reagents anyway. Also dry 
the lysergic acid (as described above) and any other precursor in whatever drying process required 
for that compound before use. Dry the finished LSD or even any intermediate along the way after 
you have completed the product. Likewise, dry an intermediate that you may have purchased from 
a chemical supplier.

3. Keep oxidizing agents from these items. Even the oxygen in the air can oxidize some of these 
compounds. The formula states that during some of the reactions above, an inert gas (nitrogen) 
must be used for an atmosphere inside the reaction vessel. Nitrogen can be obtained in small 
bottles (tanks) at a very reasonable fee, without any questions asked. Make sure you use a 
regulator and introduce a slow stream into the vessel by way of a gas inlet tube or an equivalent. 
Always flush the vessel before putting any reagents into it (flush the air out with nitrogen). I would 
use a nitrogen atmosphere from the very beginning of the formula to the very end, even if the 
formula did not specify its use. Very few of the above formulas call for a nitrogen atmosphere 
during evaporation, but I feel this may be bad for yield and or potency. LSD has many doses per 
gram, and if you lose 1/4 g because you were too cheep to use three dollars worth of nitrogen, you 
have lost about 2,000 doses at $5 a dose = $10,000 of LSD wasted. Better safe than sorry? Also, 
any precursors you make of buy should bee stored in a nitrogen atmosphere, as should LSD. This 
can be done by packing a glass inlet tube into the vessel (just above or a little below the substance) 
flushing the air out with a moderate stream of nitrogen then quickly reinstall the cap or stopper.

4. Never subject these compounds to excessive heat, or any type of temperature warmer that the 
inside of your refrigerator. Even LSD maleate will decompose in excess heat, so store in a 
refrigerator. Keep evaporation procedures cooled. This will slow the evaporation 	process down, 
but that is better that losing the product. Some of the above formulas require heat for a reaction. 
This is OK, but do not exceed the temp stated at any time and never heat longer than needed. 
Also, nitrogen atmospheres are used during heating operation.


Ethylamine, Diethylamine, Triethylamine

These are important intermediates in the synthesis of DMT, LSD and several other abusable drugs. 
This is why they are sometimes difficult to obtain and watched closely by the DEA. Ethylamine 
and trietylamine are not as suspicious as diethylamine because they give weaker drugs than the 
latter. The synthesis to follow will require the knowledge of glass tube sealing and the dangers of 
glass bombs. You may substitute a metal bomb, if it is lined with Pyrex, glass or porcelain. I'm not 
sure if stainless steel will work here. If you use a large bomb, then it would be a good idea to scale 
up the amounts of all chemicals involved equimolarly. Making the scale to large will hurt the yield, 
so don't get carried away.

The Chemicals. Ethyl iodide can be purchahaced or made as described in the JCS, 117,1592 
(1920). Either way, it must be purified by fractionally distilling, collecting the fraction boiling at 
71.9°-72°. Ammonia must be purchased dry and pure or purified and dried according to the 
method recommended by Johnson, J. Chem. Ed., 6,443 (1929), using an excess of sodium amide.
The reaction is carried out in a sealed Pyrex tube or a suitable replacement. Calibrate and mark the 
tubes, (do not scratch them; use a marker) to a total volume of 20 ml, and dry them by heating in 
an oven at 110°. Cool and keep them in an atmosphere of dry ammonia (the exclusion of water of 
all types cannot by overstressed in this reaction) until sealed. Into each tube put 7.5 g of the 
dyethel iodine and liquid ammonia is condensed to the 20-ml volume mark by using a dry ice 
acetone bath. The sealed tubes are then transferred to a 0° bath and allowed to stand at that temp 
for 30 min or until they reach that temp. Mix thoroughly by shaking vigorously for 1 min. An 
exothermic reaction should begin (you will see the bomb contents boil under their own self-
generated heat) one min after the shaking. Get away from the bombs at this time (shut them in a 
strong cupboard) as bombs sometimes explode. Note: If your are using the glass or Pyrex bomb method, 
then read a complete book on the subject, so you know the rules to the above and following procedures as they can 
be dangerous.
The bomb tubes are returned to the dry ice-acetone bath. After cooling thusly, the tubes are drawn 
out to a fine capillary to allow the ammonia to escape, and the entire reaction mixture is 
immediately collected in an excess of dilute HCL acid solution. Evaporate the acidic solution to 
dryness on a stream bath, desiccate the residue, and extract in a soxhlet extractor for 12 hours 
using chloroform as the solvent (dry chloroform) and taking care to exclude all H2O. Distill off he 
chloroform and if separation is not important to you, then you can use the combination of all three 
amines in a synthesis calling for any one of the three.
To separate: dissolve the above distillation residue in water. This aqueous solution is agitated in a 
separation funnel, with 35 ml of 12 M of NaOH solution and 6 ml of benzenesulfonyl chloride, to 
a total solution volume of 100 ml over a period of 10 min at 0°-5°. Extract 3 times with 50-ml 
portions of cold ether. Combine the ether extracts and extract them with three 25-ml portions of 
cold 1M HCL acid solution. The NaOH, the ether, and the HCL acid solutions are treated 
separately as follows.
The ether extract contains benzenesulfonyl diethylamine, some dibenesulfonyl ethylamine and the 
excess of benzenesulfonyl chloride. Evaporate the ether, warm the residual oil for half an hour, 
with 10 ml of 6 M NaOH with enough ethanol to keep the oil in solution (dissolved). Cool with a 
ice and CaCl mixture, seed by rubbing or scratching a glass rod in the vessel, and with stirring, 
dilute slowly with 100 ml of NaCl solution (30 g of NaCl per liter). Allow to stand for 12-16 hours. 
Remove the benzensulfonyl diethylamine by filtration and wash with cold, saturated. (This is not 
the same as above NaCl solution). Add the filtrate to the NaOH solution.
Dilute the NaHO solution to 500 ml and evaporate to dryness by heating the vessel with a gentle 
steam stream and a very low vacuum. The residual product is the ethylamine
The HCL acid solution yielded triethylamine as a picrate when treated with picric acid


The Culture and Extraction of Ergot Alkaloids

Make up a culture medium by combining the following ingredients in about 500-ml of distilled 
water in a 2 liter, small-neck flask:

Sucrose-100 g
Chick pea meal-50 g
Calcium nitrate- 1 g
Monopotassium phosphate-0.25 g
Magnesium sulphate-0.25 g
Potassium chloride-0.125
Ferrous sulfate hepahydrate-8.34 mg
Zinc sulfate hepahydrate-3.44 mg

Add water to make up one liter, adjust to pH 4 with ammonia solution and citric acid. Sterilize by 
autoclaving. Inoculate the sterilized medium with Claviceps Purpurea under sterile conditions, 
stopper with sterilized cotton and incubate for two weeks periodically testing and maintaining 
pH4. After two weeks a surface culture will be seen on the medium. Large-scale production of the 
fungus can now begin.
Obtain several ordinary 1-gallon jugs. Place a two-hole stopper in the necks of the jugs. Fit a short  
(6-inch) glass tube in one hole, leaving 2 inches above the stopper. Fit a short rubber tube to this. 
Fill a small (500-ml) Erlenmeyer flask with a dilute solution of sodium hypochlorite. Fit a long, 
glass tube in the other stopper hole. It must reach near the bottom of the jug and have about two 
inches showing above the stopper. Attach a rubber tube to the glass tube as short or as long as 
desired and fit a short glass tube to the end of the rubber tube. Fill a large, glass tube (1 inch by 6 
inch) with sterile cotton and fit 1-inch hole stoppers in the ends. Fit the small glass tube in the end 
of the rubber tube into 1 stopper of the large tube. Fit another small glass tube in the other 
stopper. A rubber tube is connected to this and attached to a small air pump obtained from a 
tropical fish supply store. You now have a set-up for pumping air from the pump, through the 
cotton filter, down the long glass tube in the jug, through the solution to the air space in the top of 
the jug, through the short glass tube, down to the bottom of the Erlenmeyer flask and up through 
the sodium hypochlorate solution into the atmosphere. With this aeration equipment you can 
assure a supply of clean air to the Claviceps Purpurea fungus while maintaining a sterile 
atmosphere inside the solution.
Dismantle the aerators. Place all glass tubes, rubber tubes, stoppers and cotton in a paper bag, seal 
tight with wire staples and sterilize in an autoclave.
Fill the 1-gallon jugs 2/3 to 3/4 full with the culture medium and autoclave. While these things are 
being sterilized, homogenize in a blender the culture already obtained and use to inoculate the 
media in the gallon jugs. The blender must be sterile. Everything must be sterile.
Assemble the aerators. Start the pumps. A slow bubbling in each jug will provide enough oxygen to 
the cultures. A single pump can of course be connected to several filters.
Let every thing sit at room temperature (25 degrees c) in a fairly dark place (Never expose ergot 
alkaloids to bright light as they decompose) for a period of ten days.
After ten days adjust the cultures to 1-% ethanol using 95% ethanol under sterile conditions. 
Maintain growth for another two weeks. After a total of 24 days growth period the culture should 
be considered mature. Make the culture acidic with tartaric acid and homogenize in a blender for 
one hour. Adjust to pH 9 ammonium hydroxide and extract with benzene or chloroform/ISO-
butanol mixture
Extract again with alcoholic tartaric acid and evaporate in a vacuum to dryness. The dry material is 
the salt (i.e., the tartaric acid salt, the tartrate) of the ergot alkaloids, and is stored in this form 
because the free basic material is too unstable and decomposes.
