algidity
Esteemed member
I believe I made several errors in my first extraction, and I'm hoping for both insight into my mistakes so I can learn, and to leave a record to hopefully prevent others from having similar issues.
After reading through a few A/B teks I decided to follow Lextek as it seemed fairly straightforward. I saw the large banner at the top reading "DO NOT USE THIS TEK FOR ACACIA EXTRACTION!." and assumed it was for MHRB. I have quite bad ADHD and I can frustratingly miss details even when re-reading multiple times, and given that context I did not parse that the tek then says "2 kilograms of DMT containing plant material (Acacia Obtusifolia bark will be used here)". I assume I am misunderstanding something, but I'm a bit confused there.
For my purposes, I used 250g MHRB and divided all quantities in the tek by 8 accordingly. From reading other teks which seem to often use 50g MHRB I understand now that this may have been far too much?
I used Klean Strip VM&P Naptha.
Issues I encountered and followup questions:
1) After acid cooking the pulverized MHRB, I left it overnight to settle and then ran the liquid through a paper coffee filter to remove solids. Upon basifying, a shocking amount of solids appeared. I would estimate I had roughly a half cup of plant gunk appear out of 800mL of acid solution. Would this be due to using far too much MHRB for a recipe of this scale?
2) I purchased a separation funnel for this extraction and this was of course immediately clogged with the sudden appearance of gunk. This led to a not particularly enjoyable hour of attempting to cautiously unclog it while carefully avoiding getting basified gunk everywhere. I eventually got as much of the gunk and liquid as was safe and feasible into a large erlenmeyer flask and discarded the rest. I assume using 50g of MHRB will result in far less gunk, but is there a way to avoid having this clog the separation funnel?
3) Admittedly frustrated and discouraged at this point (and not wanting to stay up all night since I was now running far behind schedule), I decided to push on but do one wash on each step instead of 3. My thoughts being this is my first time, any yield would be a success to me and this can serve as a learning experience. I put the flask in a hot water bath, got it to ~140F, and added my naptha. I repeatedly swirled and then let separate this solution. I let the solids settle then decanted the base/solvent into the separation funnel where I was able to separate them without the mess of gunk left behind in the flask. Would this allow for sufficient mixing, or does it really need to be done in a jar which is shaken?
4) Each of my pulls had what appeared to be 3 distinct layers. The aqueous solution, the naptha, and between them a layer of what look like bubbles. Any ideas what this is? I tried to avoid it when possible, pictured below is from the acid defat step, which shows this quite clearly. A very small of this ended up in the final pull, I ended up decanting the solvent off of it and will keep it around just in case. Unsure what, if anything, should be done with the mess in the picture.
After reading through a few A/B teks I decided to follow Lextek as it seemed fairly straightforward. I saw the large banner at the top reading "DO NOT USE THIS TEK FOR ACACIA EXTRACTION!." and assumed it was for MHRB. I have quite bad ADHD and I can frustratingly miss details even when re-reading multiple times, and given that context I did not parse that the tek then says "2 kilograms of DMT containing plant material (Acacia Obtusifolia bark will be used here)". I assume I am misunderstanding something, but I'm a bit confused there.
For my purposes, I used 250g MHRB and divided all quantities in the tek by 8 accordingly. From reading other teks which seem to often use 50g MHRB I understand now that this may have been far too much?
I used Klean Strip VM&P Naptha.
Issues I encountered and followup questions:
1) After acid cooking the pulverized MHRB, I left it overnight to settle and then ran the liquid through a paper coffee filter to remove solids. Upon basifying, a shocking amount of solids appeared. I would estimate I had roughly a half cup of plant gunk appear out of 800mL of acid solution. Would this be due to using far too much MHRB for a recipe of this scale?
2) I purchased a separation funnel for this extraction and this was of course immediately clogged with the sudden appearance of gunk. This led to a not particularly enjoyable hour of attempting to cautiously unclog it while carefully avoiding getting basified gunk everywhere. I eventually got as much of the gunk and liquid as was safe and feasible into a large erlenmeyer flask and discarded the rest. I assume using 50g of MHRB will result in far less gunk, but is there a way to avoid having this clog the separation funnel?
3) Admittedly frustrated and discouraged at this point (and not wanting to stay up all night since I was now running far behind schedule), I decided to push on but do one wash on each step instead of 3. My thoughts being this is my first time, any yield would be a success to me and this can serve as a learning experience. I put the flask in a hot water bath, got it to ~140F, and added my naptha. I repeatedly swirled and then let separate this solution. I let the solids settle then decanted the base/solvent into the separation funnel where I was able to separate them without the mess of gunk left behind in the flask. Would this allow for sufficient mixing, or does it really need to be done in a jar which is shaken?
4) Each of my pulls had what appeared to be 3 distinct layers. The aqueous solution, the naptha, and between them a layer of what look like bubbles. Any ideas what this is? I tried to avoid it when possible, pictured below is from the acid defat step, which shows this quite clearly. A very small of this ended up in the final pull, I ended up decanting the solvent off of it and will keep it around just in case. Unsure what, if anything, should be done with the mess in the picture.
. Try again. It took me a couple tries to get it right. It took 3 months of research and experimenting for me to get my white fluffy crystals from acacia confusa, which generally comes out as a goo. But keep at it, i'm getting into mescaline extraction next and can't wait for those bitter bitter crystals as well. Always drank tea, but its time to up the game so i can put it ina soda or juice and have a more pleasant experience than the nausea that comes with cactus tea. Keep figuring it out. Keep researching you will get it :thumb_up:
