# Extracting ASA from Extraction of acetyl-salicylic acid from aspirin     Cost for a 500 count bottle of Equate brand generic aspirin- $7.99 USD 1.   Approximately 200+ aspirins removed and crushed using a pestle into a fine powder. 2. A small amount of distilled water was added in several increments to the powder (roughly 40mls total) with mixing to form a paste.    The purpose of this is to hydrate the starch and cellulose fillers, this makes them less soluble in the alcohol solvent used for extraction. 3. The next step is partial drying.  The tray containing the paste was left out in ambient conditions to evaporate, being stirred occasionally every hour or so.    Stirring and mixing were every 15 minutes or so until the paste had dried out enough that it clumped up rather than formed a semi-liquid uniform mass.  When this point of moisture loss was achieved, the tray of aspirin paste was left out overnight to dry further at room temperature. 4. The alcohol pictured below was used for extraction.    Approximately 400mls was poured into an empty, clean spaghetti sauce jar, the semi dried aspirin paste chunks were then added.  The jar was closed with lid, then shaken vigorously for about 30 seconds.  To help extract the jar was then placed into a pot of hot water, left for 10 minutes, taken out and shaken again, put back into hot water.  After 20 minutes of repeated shaking and heating, letting the jar sit un-disturbed-the insoluble starches and fillers had settled to the bottom. Cost of 1 quart of denatured alcohol solvent:  $9.00 USD