The following is entirely derived from the work of Sphere, in his articles posted to Edot in 2003 and 2004. His work is highly anecdotal and very worth a read in its own right. The following is intended more to be a sterile, mechanistic recounting of the technical information set out in the original works.

There are a variety of ways to prepare extracts of Salvinorin A from the foliage of Salvia divinorum. Presented below are techniques which either yield Salvinorin crystals of great purity but with substantial loss of active principle, or which yield greater efficiency of recovery from the foliage, but at the expense of purity. Lastly, techniques are presented which permit the purification of the product gained by the more efficient methods.

The whole leaf-chilled Acetone quick extraction:

A fast method for the production of high purity Salvinorin is what Sphere refers to as the whole leaf-chilled Acetone quick extraction method. This method, quite simply, leaves most of the Salvinorin behind in the leaf but also leaves behind nearly all of the oils and chlorophyll which, collectively, Sphere refers to as “black wax”.

This technique calls for 250 grams of whole, dried leaf, to be immersed in a sufficiently large container (Note: some containers are inappropriate to use with Acetone; refer to the Safety section for more info), so as to be completely covered with chilled Acetone. The Acetone, as well as the container and leaf, should be pre-chilled to at least 20° Fahrenheit (-7° Celsius). Lower temperatures will extract even less wax, although slightly longer soak times may be required and efficiency may be sacrificed. The leaf is permitted to soak in the Acetone for one minute and is then drained off. The Acetone is left completely still in the dark for 12 hours allowing tannin sediments to settle, and then carefully drained off leaving the dark sediments behind. The Acetone is now ready to be evaporated to dryness.

The remainder should be whitish-yellow or light green crystals of nearly pure Salvinorin A, which in turn should be suitable for nearly any conceivable use, from production of tincture to production of enhanced leaf. Only one such extraction may be performed in this manner; additional extractions on a given quantity of leaf remove too much black wax to obtain highly pure crystals. The longer the leaves soak, in the single phase extraction, the less pure the result will be.