Ethyl Acetate Cactus attempt

[MtHighlands]

Just to be ultra clear, when you say “ make sure the solvent is clear before adding acid”, what was your course of action if it was not clear? In my case the hulk juice had some sediment at the bottom, so I assumed it no bueno, and did a second filter through metal/paper coffee filters.

I edited the post later but your liquid looks a little cloudy in the pic at the top. Let it rest / settle (in frifge?) until it gets completely clear before you do the salting/acid and decant into another bottle. For me this meant I got some lime not dissolved into the solvent which doesnt help the crystalisation at all.

Excellent. Thank you.

 

[MtHighlands]

You don't need to rush this process. Work calmly to avoid making mistakes. But generally you want all your pulls to be complete within 30 minutes from the time of first exposure to ethyl acetate (meaning 6 pulls could be up to 5 minutes each if you were moving slowly). After 30 minutes the paste starts to congeal and we think that interferes with recovery and xtalization.

Part of my problem was, in thinking I needed to keep everything cool I rushed. Hopefully taking time, particularly during the basing will improve things.

For attempt #2, do you think it will be better to salt with the recommended 5 mg/g or go all in with 15 mg/g. I don’t have a magnetic stirrer yet so I’ll have to do so by hand.

 

[shroombee]

For attempt #2, do you think it will be better to salt with the recommended 5 mg/g or go all in with 15 mg/g. I don’t have a magnetic stirrer yet so I’ll have to do so by hand.

You can just dump in the full 15 mg/g. That's what I've been doing with my latest runs. 5 mg/g will produce fluffier xtals that stick to the walls. You will probably want to use some fresh ethyl acetate to get what you can off the walls, then follow up with warm water to recover the remainder of the wall xtals and let evaporate in a glass dish. Do NOT pour the water into the coffee filter with the other xtals, otherwise the water will dissolve the xtals and everything will drop through the coffee filter.

15 mg/g produces smaller xtals. A negligible amount will slip through the coffee filter and a little will stick to the walls. You can wash the walls to retrieve about 20 mg out of 800 mg total yield (in my case).

I aggressively magnetic stir after adding the citric acid. If you don't have a magnetic stirrer you will want to aggressively shake your container. Slow diffusion will grow larger xtals, but I think that's something to try after you ensure you've got the basic process working.

 

[MtHighlands]

Ok, attempt #2 is going well so far. Started with 65g cactus powder again. Used shroombee’s basing recommendation and longer stirring and rest time. Pastes was nice and fluffy seems more similar to what others have reported.

Did six room temperature pulls, stirring 60s then waiting 2:30s. Input a total of around 840g EA, collected somewhere between 749-770g Hulk Juice.
Filtered from the press, into a jar through a metal coffee filter topped with paper filter. Less pressure on the French press made it easier filter and almost no visible gunk came out while pouring. No sediment or much of anything in the collection jar.

The quart jar was almost full so I split it in two.

 

[shroombee]

Ok, attempt #2 is going well so far. Started with 65g cactus powder again. Used shroombee’s basing recommendation and longer stirring and rest time. Pastes was nice and fluffy seems more similar to what others have reported.

Did six room temperature pulls, stirring 60s then waiting 2:30s. Input a total of around 840g EA, collected somewhere between 749-770g Hulk Juice.
Filtered from the press, into a jar through a metal coffee filter topped with paper filter. Less pressure on the French press made it easier filter and almost no visible gunk came out while pouring. No sediment or much of anything in the collection jar.

The quart jar was almost full so I split it in two.

Looks good so far! It's a good practice to do a final filter of the extract through a coffee filter before you bomb with citric. Just to ensure there are no plant particles or sediment in the extract.

 

[MtHighlands]

So attempt #2 didn’t yield any crystals. After salting and shaking, no clouds.

At this point I’m going to chalk it up to bad cuttings or Pachanot.

I have some fresh cuttings from different cactus. 1,589g Peruvianus, and a 693g cutting of Bridgesii. Not sure which one I want to use.

 

[shroombee]

So attempt #2 didn’t yield any crystals. After salting and shaking, no clouds.

At this point I’m going to chalk it up to bad cuttings or Pachanot.

Sorry to hear that. When you added the citric acid, did you get any clouds at all? Or did you get clouds, but they disappeared after shaking?

I have some fresh cuttings from different cactus. 1,589g Peruvianus, and a 693g cutting of Bridgesii. Not sure which one I want to use.

I think Peruvianus is good for extraction. There is a school of thought that Bridgesii has lower mescaline content, but feels strong due to natural MAOI's. Thus Bridgesii is better saved for tea or a full spectrum extraction.

 

[Loveall]

Do you have pictures of the cutting? We may be able to tell if it is PC or not.

Edit: also, you are using whole cactus, right? I needed 20mg/g of citric acid to get xtals with the full plant, but clouding was always immediate (was just harder to crash vs outer skin).

 

[MtHighlands]

Here are some pictures, not the same cutting, but from the same plant.

 

[MtHighlands]

This third picture is from a separate plant that I could use. I think it’s a Peruvianus.

 

[MtHighlands]

Do you have pictures of the cutting? We may be able to tell if it is PC or not.

Edit: also, you are using whole cactus, right? I needed 20mg/g of citric acid to get xtals with the full plant, but clouding was always immediate (was just harder to crash vs outer skin).

I originally had two cuttings of the Pachanoi. Despined, deskinned. I cut it in 1/2” slices before dehydrating. The inner most core section was cut out of each slice, but I kept much of the mid white part.

 

[MtHighlands]

Interesting. This morning there appears to be something at the bottom of the jars that wasn’t there before. Attempt#2. It’s been resting for 40hrs. I can’t tell if these are fine crystals or just citric acid particles. Not much there though.

See images of the two jars.

These would have had 15mg/g. Do you think it’s worth adding another 5mg/g and stirring? Or wait longer? I should be getting a magnetic stirrer soon.

 

[MtHighlands]

Wow. What is more interesting. I checked the jar from attempt #1 from 3 days ago. It appears to have growth in the edges of the jar. It has some weird large chunk in the middle

What do you think of this one. This attempt had the short basing times, and the chilled ea.

Any advise on jar1? Let it sit for longer? What’s the best way to know if this is undisolved acid? I suppose filtering and washing with clean EA would dissolve any excess citric acid. It was clear a few days ago. So this is new.

 

[downwardsfromzero]

Here are some pictures, not the same cutting, but from the same plant.

Looks rather PC-pachanot-ish to me. You should have more luck with the other peru-ish specimen.

 

[Loveall]

Here are some pictures, not the same cutting, but from the same plant.

Looks rather PC-pachanot-ish to me. You should have more luck with the other peru-ish specimen.

I agree, looks like PC to me because of the deep ridges and short spines, but I'm not an expert.

Looks to me like you have a tiny bit of yield, which would be consistent with PC. I guess it can take longer to crystalize when mescaline is very dilute. I'm pretty certain it is not citric acid, that always stays in solution.

I don't think it is worth adding more citric acid, but you can try, can't curt anything. It may help the warm EA since that can extract seems to resist crystalizing better (we think that is because more plant stuff is pulled).

If you can measure your yield (even if it doesn't get to 100mg) that's would be very interesting. We would have a data point for PC. I have some PC I wouldn't mind extracting with used ethyl acetate (zero resources).

If chilled EA crystalizes a little more that would also be interesting (is that still at 5mg/g?). The edge growth looks a little bit like needles (?).

 

[MtHighlands]

All jars around around 15mg/g
Jar1 does seem to have a lot of growth around the edges. It’s hard to see as the jars have rivet patters on the bottom.

 

[Loveall]

Looks like product, but only a few mg. If you used PC it all makes sense.

 

[MtHighlands]

Looks like product, but only a few mg. If you used PC it all makes sense.

Well, this is much better than how I was feeling a day ago. I think I’ll wait a few days on this one then collect and wash.

I’ll maybe try the Peruvianus cutting later in the week and report back.