TEK Ethyl acetate approach [CIELO]

[merkin]

My crystals have a little bit of a yellowish hue, and just wondering if this is normal. Could the yellowish hue mean my finished product isn't pure?

They look great, spot on.

I did this extraction on some old powder I had (which was brown) and liquid was golden not green and the crystals were a light tan color - much more than yours (there's a pic somewhere here). I washed 4 times with EA but no change in color at all. On bio assay they are identical to the white crystals.

Nice yield, CIELO has certainly given me a newfound appreciation of the Bridgesii species. I am propagating mine like crazy! Haven't tried the TBM yet - have both but only two 'nuggets' of short form harvested so far and that's in the dark for now. Not too much though. I was hoping TBM would turn out to be the 'peyote' of the trichocereus family. My long form plants are doing well, each has about four columns about a foot and a half, each from a single small cutting so maybe I should get them into the ground now.

I also get water left in the beaker every time after resting in fridge - its most definitely a part of the tek for me and I get crystals 100% now.

Its only with fumaric acid that I cant seem to get many crystals - maybe its a matter of saturation. Nevertheless the resultant powder is just as good.

CIELO is going to be a key factor in the coming renaissance of Mescaline!

 

[downwardsfromzero]

Heads up that after multiple solvent reuses I have seen "flake-like" xtals precipitate along with the needle xtals. The flakes seem to be OK and I have noticed no difference in effects, taste, or color, but of course all this is subjective. Need a better check on them (e.g. marquis reagent, etc). I've updated the TEK with this info in the solvent reuse section.

Just thought I'd give an anecdotal tale to follow this up, by way of illustration.

I had a load of brine left over after a harmala Manske and decided to see about recovering the salt, so I set about distilling off the liquid. This was done in batches, with continuous addition of fresh spent Manske brine throughout until the bumping became intolerable. At that point the apparatus would be allowed to cool, the remaining liquid syphoned off, and the salt crystals removed from the boiling flask.

The first crops of crystals were the normal cubic form for sodium chloride, often with the step-like patterns on their facets. As the remaining harmala brine became more concentrated with leftover random harmala crud, the salt crystals lost their cubic form and instead took on an elongated, needle-like appearance, along with being much less regular.

It seems to me that both of these instances together illustrate how increasing concentration of impurities in the solution can lead to alteration of the crystal form of the precipitating solute.

 

[Loveall]

A few updates:

- Heard from several friends trying the latest version of the TEK with a fridge rest, and everyone except one person got a good yield with pretty xtals. The one person that did not get xtals tried a different powder and got xtals after changing plant sources. The first plant source was not active and was labeled as cactus powder for soap making.
- Added how the extract can look after the fridge rest to the WIKI (see image below).
- Mentioned that the fine grind enables avoiding long water boils in the WIKI. Added this comment because I have been geetting questions from people that are used to doing long boils.

Also, requesting that this thread be stickied. The TEK is not expected to change any time soon, so this development thread won't be getting a lot of bumps in the future.

Cheers and thanks + gratitude to all the nexians that helped develop this process

 

[downwardsfromzero]

Also, requesting that this thread be stickied. The TEK is not expected to change any time soon, so this development thread won't be getting a lot of bumps in the future.

And as if by magic, here we are!

I'm considering tagging the title with [CIELO] - is there any reason you chose not to do this?

 

[Loveall]

Also, requesting that this thread be stickied. The TEK is not expected to change any time soon, so this development thread won't be getting a lot of bumps in the future.

And as if by magic, here we are!

I'm considering tagging the title with [CIELO] - is there any reason you chose not to do this?

Good idea. Thank you

 

[Nachooo]

Hi all, just to comment that did the tek with 15 gr dried powder from one year old no named bridgesii. To resume I planted lot of seeds and some of the worst looking seedlings were collected , about 8 specimens, between 10 and 20 cm tall and like 2 cm wide..Their last months were growing in very bad conditions and almost in shade, with little watering.
They were keep in dark for 2 months afer being cut.

Being such a little and young seedlings I did not expect too much from them but well..I used CIELO on them..Was not my first time with this tek so all was ok..specially cause the little size maked almost imposible to quit the skin and core,,and even the little spines I grinded all...

I though that final result was gonna be quite low due to the young age, the lack of sun (they were under leds during 6 months and the other 6 months only with 3 hours of direct sun and finally all day in shade. Also the fact that whole cactus was used for doing the paste, even the spines...and using CIELO with only 15 grs probably is not ideal...but...

The end result was 0,396 gr...of perfect white product..thats like 1,61% (after doing the HCl conversion of 61%).. and using the whole cactus...
Pretty happy with the results , thanks to all specially Loveall and Cheelin

 

[Fridge]

Hey, I too finally got around to try this tek. For now only using 25 gram of powdered San Pedro.

I followed the tek to the T with the only exception that I don't have a plunger and carefully decanted the solvent into the quart jar, which seemed to work nicely as no particles made it into the collecting jar.

I did 10 pulls as I wanted to make sure that I get everything out of it.

Then I added 1,25 gram of citric acid. I observed the clouding which I took as a good sign. About 24 hours later I checked on the jar but can't see any crystals (accept for a slight glitter on the walls, which I can only see when I shine a light on it. There seems to be some goo collecting in the bottom which can be seen on one of the pictures attached.

Now I wonder if my cactus material wasn't very potent?

Another reason I could think of is that I added 1.25gram of citric acid, but did 10 pulls which resulted in 306ml of fluid in the collecting jar instead of 250ml as originally calculated with.
After recalculating I should probably add another 0.3 gram of citric acid?

 

[Loveall]

More citric may help and is worth a try. You did the fridge rest, right?

 

[Fridge]

Yes, I did the 24 hour fridge rest step and then added the citric acid. I decided to put it back into the fridge to cool it down and then later added another 0.3 gram of citric acid.

Now I will let it rest at room temperature for a few days. It appears that an oily substance is collecting in the bottom of the jar. I hope it's not just water droplets that made it in somehow.

I will report back in a few days with the results.

 

[Loveall]

Yes, I did the 24 hour fridge rest step and then added the citric acid. I decided to put it back into the fridge to cool it down and then later added another 0.3 gram of citric acid.

Now I will let it rest at room temperature for a few days. It appears that an oily substance is collecting in the bottom of the jar. I hope it's not just water droplets that made it in somehow.

I will report back in a few days with the results.

You decanted any water drops after the fridge step, right? Was there some water left behind?

It is better to do the salting at room temp. We want the salting to be done at a higher temp than the resting step so water stays in the ethyl acetate and does not drop out.

If you are having water issues, adding some fresh EA can also help.

I don't see oil in the pictures though.

 

[Fridge]

You decanted any water drops after the fridge step, right? Was there some water left behind?

Yes, I did and there was a little fluid of which I assumed it's water.

It is better to do the salting at room temp. We want the salting to be done at a higher temp than the resting step so water stays in the ethyl acetate and does not drop out.

Here's something I'll do differently next time. I don't think I allowed the fluid to reach room temperature before adding the citric acid.

If you are having water issues, adding some fresh EA can also help.out.

This is what I might try, depending on whether what I think is oil isn't actually water. Thank you for all the tips Loveall. Even though I did some extractions on other plants I still need to learn and understand a lot.

I don't see oil in the pictures though.

I just took another picture with the glass tilted a bit as it's not a lot.

 

[Loveall]

Looks like water to me. Some fresh EA + swirling should soak it up, assuming it is dry from the can (it usually is).

 

[Fridge]

Looks like water to me. Some fresh EA + swirling should soak it up, assuming it is dry from the can (it usually is).

Thank you, Loveall. Yeah, sorry for the bad picture I was a bit in a rush yesterday .

I decided to add some EA just to see if the fluid disappears, but it wasn't absorbed. Is that a sign it's not water? What would I need to look out for to identify oil? The fluid is a bit milky, which I strangely only really noticed after I added the EA. I made another picture with better lighting.

 

[Loveall]

How much EA did you add? You need at least ~20x the volume of the mystery layer. Sorry I didn't mention that earlier.

 

[Fridge]

How much EA did you add? You need at least ~20x the volume of the mystery layer. Sorry I didn't mention that earlier.

Initially I worked with a total of 310ml, now I got 376ml, so I added about 66ml. That should do the trick right? Though I can't really say how of the mystery layer I got, but it's not a lot. I just checked again (because I can't leave the jar alone ) and the mystery layer has turned even more milky and it's viscosity is quite high now. When I tilt the jar a bit it takes some time for it to collect in the lowest point. It seems very thick now.
Is it possible that the mystery layer was initially a mix of water and alkaloids and now that I added the EA it pulled the water out of the mix?

 

[Loveall]

How much EA did you add? You need at least ~20x the volume of the mystery layer, and that's assuming your EA is dry. Sorry I didn't mention that earlier.

EDIT: You can also decant most of the EA and add freh EA to the mystery liquid. It becoming cloudy may be a good sign.

 

[Fridge]

Here is a quick update. First of all I figured that I should invest in some lab equipment instead of just approaching this with a minimalistic spirit, using things I already got around in the house. I will get laboratory bottles and a pipette to ensure a cleaner process.

I decanted the old EA and replaced it with fresh EA. The mistery liquid turned whitish and is now more of a wax. It is super sticky and nearly solid. I tried to scrape some from the walls of the jar which turned out to be very difficult.

I am not sure what step to take next. I read that covering goo with fresh EA will cause crystals to crash out of the goo during the course of a few days. This is what I think I will do.
Soon I will get some new tested and tried cactus material, so I regard this as a test run.

 

[Loveall]

You can also dissolve the hard wax in a small amount of hot water, then evaporate in a shallow dish/tray and see what you get.

What may have happened is that somehow your xtalization jar had too much water. It should all work out next time with a good fridge rest, a careful decant, and xtalizing at a warmer temperature than the rest temperature. Also, your paste looks ok (it should have worked), but it could be a little drier which may give you a bigger buffer for error.

 

[Fridge]

You can also dissolve the hard wax in a small amount of hot water, then qevaporate in a shallow dish/tray and see what you get.

What may have happened is that somehow your xtalization jar had too much water. It should all work out next time with a good fridge rest, a careful decant, and xtalizing at a warmer temperature than the rest temperature. Also, your paste looks ok (it should have worked), but it could be a little drier which may give you a bigger buffer for error.

I think the decanting step has most likely been the culprit here, so I hope getting some better tools for this will pay out. Next time I will prepare the paste with a little less water.

Thank you for the tip, Loveall :thumb_up: . I really appreciate your guidance. I followed your suggestion and dissolved the wax by adding hot water (after pouring off the EA). It dissolved quite quickly. I now allow the water to evaporate in a shallow dish, using a fan to speed things up.

 

[Loveall]

Cool, hopefully you get a semi xtaline product. May be a little resinous and not as strong as pure xtals, but should be potent.