Sorry if I have my terminology wrong, I'm a noob.

- I cooked root bark powder water and vinegar for an hour (pH 4), strained it, then did that again another 2 times,

- then I added a saturated saline solution and NaOH solution to bring the pH to 14, I cooked that for an hour

- then I added the Shellite and cooked it for 20mins and then pulled the Shellite and put it through water to clean and repeated the last bit 3 more times and then let it evaporate and then froze.

Is the base part when you add the NaOH?

I have a pressure cooker and am thinking of using it for the initial bark cooking. I still have some Heptane; I guess I'll try that for the next batch along with the heat, but this time hotter.