Advice needed for scaling down extraction teks

[Vorbis]

Hey Nexus

Apologies if this has been covered previously elsewhere. I’ve searched repeatedly through the forum and haven't managed to find any answers.

I have recently obtained some San Pedro and I'm looking forward to attempting my first mescaline extraction. However, my cactus supply is limited and I am unsure which extraction route to follow. I don't want to waste all of my Pedro powder following a tek for the first time that doesn't work out for me...

So I was thinking of performing a trial run on three different teks, using as small an amount of material as possible, making notes and comparing the results. I would then repeat the most effective tek on the remainder of my cactus powder.

The issue is that I understand scaling down (or up) the quantities of ingredients in a tek isn’t as straight forward as dividing each value by the same amount. If for example the tek asks for 100g cacti powder, 100ml of NaOH solution and 200ml of non-polar solvent, extracting from 20g might not necessarily work out with 20ml of NaOH solution and 40ml of non-polar solvent.

Can anyone offer any advice as to scaling down a tek to extract from say 10-20g of cactus? Is it even worth performing an extraction on such a small amount of material? Or should I just choose a tek, follow it directly and see what comes out?

The three that I’m looking to trial and compare are - 69ron’s dry tek with CaOH, Kash’s A/B and a STB using NaOH that I discovered elsewhere.

Thanks guys. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Vorb

 

[downwardsfromzero]

It might get a bit fiddly and you'd have to use smaller glassware in order to reduce physical losses. IMO you'd be better off doing a single extraction really carefully. Make sure you absolutely understand the principles of extraction, read, read, READ as much as you can beforehand - and maybe even do a 'dry run' using some other random plant material to acclimatise yourself to the physical handling of the extraction.

 

[coAsTal]

I very much agree with downwardsfromzero-- you're going to do three times the work and dilute your available cactus.

Honestly you'd be best just boiling it well and reducing it. You can settle out 95% of the particulate that makes it so slimy if you let your liquid settle for a few days, and then mix the cactus juice with very strong coffee-- it seriously tastes really palatable that way.

I actually like the taste-- but this only works if you've thoroughly filtered out the sediments.

 

[Tony6Strings]

Honestly you'd be best just boiling it well and reducing it.

Have you ever successfully done this with cactus powder? I tried making tea from powder and it resulted in a mess of goop around the same texture as thick cream of wheat. Had to dry in the oven and in the fridge to return to a manageable product (I ended up eating pieces of the dried goop and had a fucking radical trip!!!) Anywho I do not recommend boiling your San Pedro powder. Chips are a different story.

 

[Ratatoskr]

kash's extraction has worked well for me in the past on several different volumes.

 

[coAsTal]

Have you ever successfully done this with cactus powder? I tried making tea from powder and it resulted in a mess of goop around the same texture as thick cream of wheat.

Yes-- there's no difference between powder and fresh except that powder is already dehydrated and boiling re-hydrates it.

Everyone that gets tripped up with cactus prep when they use powder is most often because they don't take into account that the powder must re-hydrate, which soaks up a lot of the water they add back in-- it must then also have enough water to boil in. If you use too little water it'll remain a slimy mess and you won't be able to filter it well at all.

People just have to make sure they use a good amount of water, boil thoroughly, and let it sit for several hours-- or days, preferably-- in the fridge so that the sediment drops to the bottom. Then you just pour off the liquid and discard the sludge at the bottom

 

[Vorbis]

Thanks for the info guys, I think I will just follow Kash's extraction as accurately as possible. If I mess up then I can always boil the rest of the powder into a tea

 

[DansMaTete]

Kash ftw :thumb_up: