[stevenmac5]

Hi everybody this is my first time posting on this forum and I was hoping you guys could help me out with a little experiment I'm trying.

I have read a lot about a substance called Tex-OE which is basically an extraction of prickly pear skin used for many different purposes. I personally would like to extract some myself for supplementation to assist performance as I am an active weight lifter. The people who hold this patent charge an arm and a leg to get it and they sell prickly pear fruits locally buy my house so I figure I would like to cut out the middle man if possible.

I looked at their patent and in it they talk about the way they choose to extract what they want from it:
They say they dry, dehydrate, followed by a leaching with a polar organic solvent in order to obtain an organic fruit extract, this extract is diluted with water, the diluted water is purified by leaching with hexane, the hexanic organic fraction is separated off then evaporated to dryness under vacuum. The active fraction is further dried and actively taken up in a biocompatible solvent such as ethanol.
Further down in example 1 it say they treated 1g of the skin with 10 times its weight of polar solvent.

http://www.google.com/patents?id=CEMRAAAAEBAJ&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq=patent+6737086+B2&source=bl&ots=H9sBdkS35o&sig=1Q5Q5_pECPjSVu-cEjd0Of7uWt4&hl=en&ei=EGJKS6-OIYbSsQPry-H1Dw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CBkQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=patent%206737086%20B2&f=false

If I could somehow do this at home or if you know of a better way that would be great.

I don't know a whole lot about chemistry so any and all advice helps. I also wonder at the same time if I could get the same benefits from just eating the prickly pear skin?

[billnotgatez]

stevenmac5 -

I am giving a side note here –

Maple syrup can be made at the home. You take maple sap and boil away the water. The process is much simpler than the extract process you are thinking of doing. Not only that but it is not using solvents that could be detrimental if handled improperly. Yet, people shell out a hefty price for pure maple syrup rather than make their own.

One would think that the cost of making the maple syrup as far as time and money is just not worth it to the average person.

Now you propose to do an extract that seems involved and uses chemicals that can be harmful if not used properly. Do you truly think it is worth it. I personally might do it for the fun of it, but I recollect that when I made aspirin and soap in the lab I did not have courage enough to use it

I am thinking that companies that produce stuff like this have ways to test it after production to insure its quality.

I hope one of our list mates will post what you need and it would be interesting if you are successful.

Just trying to do a reality check.

[cpncoop]

I'd shy away from doing this at home, mainly because of the chances of fires from doing organic extractions.  They are using heptane to do extractions, which is slightly more flammable than gasoline.... 

If I were doing this at home, I would think the safest way to try it would be to take the prickly pear skin, put it in a blender, transfer it to a bowl, go outside (plenty of ventillation), add 2 volumes of acetone, mix it up, filter it through a coffee filter), and let the stuff you've filtered evaporate off.  You'll be left with the extracts from the prickly pear skin.  Acetone is volatile enough that it should mostly evaporate just on standing outside.  Also, acetone is a class 3 solvent by the ICH guidelines, meaning that it isn't of huge concern if trace amounts are present in drug substances (from a health standpoint).

If acetone doesn't work well, you could also try isopropanol (rubbing alcohol), which is also not a huge health concern.  Good luck

[stevenmac5]

Thanks a lot for the help. I will try using a coffee filter to filter it out. You are saying the stuff in the filter is what I should use or the stuff that comes out the bottom? I would imagine the stuff left in the coffee filter but I am just double checking here. Also, what is a good amount of time I should let it sit to fully evaporate out?

As to billnotgatez, buying syrup and aspirin in the store are cheap. Companies charge over $60 for about 20 pills at 5,000 IU each. Also, I am mainly doing it for fun, as to whether or not i'll have the courage to try it we'll see but the way posted above seems fairly safe.

[cpncoop]

You want the stuff that comes through the filter (out the bottom).

[stevenmac5]

Ok thanks good thing I checked  Also is there a certain temperature/time you would recommend letting it evaporate for? Im thinking I could do a control of just the solvent in a bowl next to it to the extract to see how long it takes for it all to evaporate. Or will it all just be dry and then I'll know? Thanks a lot for your advice I'm anxious to try this now. 

[billnotgatez]

As to billnotgatez, buying syrup and aspirin in the store are cheap.

The everyday maple syrup you buy in the store is not pure
The pure stuff is expensive

Also note that it will take a lot of solvent and pears to get even a small amount of extract. When you get your extract from one pear it will most likely be just a thin coating on you evaporation bowl.

please let us know how it goes.

[cpncoop]

I've actually been thinking a bit about this home project, and am curious as well how it turns out.  I told you to use acetone to extract, since it's water-miscible (i.e. when you get the stuff from the filter, it will be one layer).  I'm not sure what the active ingredient is in the pear skin, but if it is like most essential oils, etc... it will be pretty greasy.  A better solvent choice would probably be methylene chloride, which isn't flammable, but is a possible carcinogen.  It does evaporate very quickly though, and if you were able to extract with this, the amount extracted would likely go up.  I'd still try acetone or IPA first, but if it doesn't work, methylene chloride is still available as a paint stripper....

[csrscience.com]

What is the name of the molecule you are after?

[stevenmac5]

Sorry for taking so long to respond. I haven't been able to do it yet because it's been raining hard here for the past week or so and I get the fruits from an outdoor flea market. Plus I was told to do the extraction outside so I can't do it until it clears up. As far as what the chemical is I'm not sure. Maybe you guys would be able to identify it in the patent with the link I posted above. I'm thinking the acetone will work because that's what they said they used in the patent. Maybe I'm wrong though. The trademarked name is Tex-OE. Not sure if that helps at all. Thanks.

[stevenmac5]

So I just read that the reason for doing the extract is to remove all of the fiber because it interferes greatly with the ability to absorb the necessary compunds in the body. Makes sense. Not sure if that helps. 

[stevenmac5]

Also, would it be better to use ethanol as a solvent? I'm just thinking that would be safer.

[billnotgatez]

remember NOT denatured ethanol

[billnotgatez]

Sorry I can not resist

sung to mary poppins tune

just a little bit of ethanol makes the medicine go down, the medicine go, the medicine go down .

[stevenmac5]

Ok thanks... What's the difference between ethanol and denatured ethanol?