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Base turned to Jelly like substance

MrGuano

MrGuano

Esteemed member
I've been following Chris Cantelmo video for my extraction.

Up to the point of adding the Sodium Hydroxide all was okay (Mimosa Hostillis).
Added the SH until went black, also tested PH to 13'ish.

However the base seems to have turned to a jelly mass. The extraction to lighter fluid didn't show any crystal.

I'm assuming the compound isn't able to migrate through the base to the fluid layer.

Can I mix some water into base to regain some fluidty or is it toast?
Many thanks in advance.
 
Hi, welcome!

That sounds weird, but I've not seen the video you're using. Have you added anything other than water, bark and lye to the mixture? Are you sure your lye is pure and free from any additives? If so, try adding a bit more to see if the gel clears up, but it seems more likely you have bunk bark - at pH 13 you should have got some kind of result.

Basified bark can get pretty sludgy as well - are you certain that's not what you're experiencing?

Best of all would be if you could describe the process as you've performed it so far in precise detail. This would increase the chances of successful troubleshooting.
 
Thanks for the quick reply.

So this was my process:

100g Powdered MH with 2 1/2 cups of water and 1/2 cup of vinegar. heated low in water bath for 3 hours. (CC says the acidic solution helps to break down the cell walls)

(Wasn't goopy at this point)

About 80g SH added, exo reaction as expected, went very dark, tested it to about 13 (used strips)

Thickened a lot during this stage.

After about 3 hours added the 150ml lighter fluid and rotated jar etc.
Waited about three hours rotating occasionally.
Then pipetted off LF and put in freezer overnight.

You can see the gelatinous 'blob' with the remnants of LF. It moves as one homogeneous mass, don't want to let 'it' out really ;-)



IMG_6701.JPG
 
What is the temperature of the room you're working in? And did you shake the jar at all? The blob looks a bit like an emulsion - did it only form after mixing in the naphtha? Try adding a bit more lye to see if this causes the blob to disappear.

It may be worth trying another pull with warm naphtha (no naked flames!) or with xylene. With the latter solvent you'll need a different recovery method (e.g. backsalt/mini A/B) as freeze precipitation doesn't work with xylene.

Have you worked with this batch of bark before?
 
Interesting… room I'd say was 60 degrees F, not cold. No shaking just 'rolling'.

The base got progressively denser/gelatinous as I added the Lye slowly.
It's very much like jello in consistency.

It's my first time so not worked with the bark before. But have a somewhat Chemical background.
I'll try adding more Lye see what happens.
If anything it did seem it could do with more water.

Thanks for the input most grateful!
 
How much mimosa, how much lye and how much water?

I've had problems with lower amounts of water, which result in emulsion just like yours.

Yes, you can add more water. Somewhere around here there's a recommendation to use around 15ml of water for every gram of root bark. I've gotten good results with less water than that, but I would suggest trying to get close to that ratio for easier separation.
 
pantostao said:
How much mimosa, how much lye and how much water?

I've had problems with lower amounts of water, which result in emulsion just like yours.

Yes, you can add more water. Somewhere around here there's a recommendation to use around 15ml of water for every gram of root bark. I've gotten good results with less water than that, but I would suggest trying to get close to that ratio for easier separation.
Click to expand...
So, 100g Mim, 3 'cups' liquid, it's a US recipe, I have a 'cup' measure which I used. 80g Lye.
From things I've watched did seem too little liquid, but it's an old vid and no comments about lack of water.

I'm going to try half of the blob with more water tomorrow. I'll report back.
Thanks!
 
So 'the blob' is now diluted to more expected liquid form. Sat in jars extracting as we speak.

Did as suggested and diluted with some more Lye and water solution. Let's hope it does the trick.

Thanks all for help so far!
 
it could be the exothermic reaction of the base-water mixture letting loose some of the plant fats and oils from the bark. I learned that it’s best to make the basic solution first and add the plant matter afterwards once the water cools down.

Props on the successful extraction
 
I once observed jelly like consistency after doing the mixed hybrid tek.
This occured when I tried to make another pull after 6 months of storeing the extraction jar containing the baseified soup.
 
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