yes I didnt salt out in the caapi because I read somewhere that THH doesnt crash out as a salt, so one would lose it when salting out. I dont know if this information is true, but just in case I decided not to salt it...
As for losing alkaloids when basing, it is harmaline which is slightly water soluble even at high pH, so every basing step would lose a small part of the yield.. But, harmaline is a significant component in Rue, NOT in caapi, where it is nearly all Harmine and THH... So I guess rather better A/Bing than salting the caapi out (in the case that THH does not salt out, this still has to be confirmed, because otherwise salting would be fine)
Im happy with the tek, yes.. I think if I had powdered the initial material (it was in macerated pieces, not too small), made 4x acid cooks instead of 3, had used more mature and fresher bark, and had not spilled some liquid when I did at some point, then the yield would have been significantly larger.
The only issue I have is in the final retrieving of the alkaloids.. I filtered in coffee filter, but whether one scrapes it while still wet, or waits for it to dry, there's always a significant loss to the filter itself (and if one scrapes too much filter fibers come off).. The way I 'work' around this is to scrape most of it carefully, and then put the filter with the trapped harmalas in a little bowl with acidified water, to redissolve it (and then save this for next extraction round or whatever).. But would be nice to have a clean non-wasteful way of yielding the alkaloids.