If you want to use calcium hydroxide, make sure you check the pH. DO NOT let it go above pH 9.5 to be safe.
Native snuff made by shamans is usually about pH 9.5. The reason they don't go higher is because they use some form of calcium hydroxide normally when making snuff (like shell ash).
SWIM's tests show that hydroxides can damage alkaloids like psilocin and bufotenine which have fragile hydroxyl groups that are attacked by hydroxides like calcium hydroxide. If the pH of bufotenine is taken too high with calcium hydroxide, it will first form Ca+ -5-O-DMT, and then it will eventually produce dehydrobufotenine. That's the theory anyway.
In practice, if you leave bufotenine in concentrated calcium hydroxide for 24 hours, it renders the bufotenine inactive. Not so if sodium carbonate is used. Even concentrated sodium carbonate at pH 11.4 is fine with bufotenine. But pH 11.4 with calcium hydroxide will destroy the molecule after a while. It's believed by Alexander Shulgin that dehydrobufotenine is created by subjecting bufotenine to high pH values. SWIM's tests show that a strong hydroxide base is required for this, not simply a high pH value, because calcium hydroxide destroys bufotenine even at pH 11.4, while sodium carbonate does not. At pH 9.5, bufotenine seems relatively stable with calcium hydroxide, but SWIM has not tested that pH for extended periods of time.
