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extraction of spice while avoiding contamination or remelt

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crazy fox

Rising Star
Hello everyone,
I am new to the nexus and have been exploring various sources and want to understand more about mind altering substances such as different alkaloids and their effects and processes.
I have a question about a perceived theoretical problem with extracting spice from a solvent described in various tek sources. after freeze precipitation, pouring off solvent would naturally remelt the extracted spice while pouring it out into a coffee filter, then there is the perceived theoretical problem of atmospheric condensation of water inside the extraction container (very cold) contamining and melting spice before you could remove the spice from the extraction container. It seems awkward and perhaps wasteful after all the effort someone might commit to, only to lose it at the very end of a work? Comments about this is greatly appreciated.
regards
crazy fox
 
Don't filter using coffee filters, unless you can do it in a dry cryogenic glove box. If you happen to have such a contraption at your disposition, you're also likely to have better filtering equipment available.

Instead, carefully decant the cold naphtha from your freeze precipitation container, while keeping the dmt in the container. This shouldn't take too much time and condensation of moisture shouldn't be a big worry. If decanting most of the naphtha is difficult because the crystals are so floaty, the crystals are probably water ice crystals anyway.

Anyway, after you have decanted as much naphtha as is possible without pouring out precipitate, let the precipitation container stand (covered, to prevent a lot of moisture condensing on the inside) and warm up a little. Some of your precipitate will dissolve back into the naphtha. Put the container back into the freezer. The dmt that got redissolved will crystallize out again and "glue" the loose crystals together. After a while, take the container out of the freezer again and decant all naphtha.

Now cover the container and let it warm up to room temperature. Again, some crystals will melt, because even after fully decanting, there is still some naphtha stuck between the crystals and even in the crystals. Actually the dmt crystals will not melt, they will partially redissolve in these traces of naphtha. If some of the crystals were water ice, those will melt of course.

Once the container is at room temperature, uncover it and give it some time for the remaining bits of naphtha to evaporate in a well-ventilated place. This will cause the dmt that redissolved in it to crystallize out again. Any water that was present as water ice crystals or that condensed onto the cold container will also evaporate. The water will be long gone by the time the naphtha smell no longer lingers about your crystals.
 
I have never had a problem just pouring the solvent into another container and then immediately putting the precipitation dish at an angle in front of a low volume/speed fan.

The precip dish is still cold from the freezer so you will have time before the solvent warms up enough to start dissolving precip again. It doesn't matter much anyway the small amount of solvent will evaporate so you will lose nothing. The fan will speed up the process and also help to dry any condensation that may be present.
 
Thanks a lot guys. I appreciate your feedback. It makes sense to decant. I didn'tthink of that and then covering the jar to let it come to room temp is also brilliant so condensation is limited to the outside pretty much.
Regards
crazy fox
 
I was researching the acid part of the process and some say ascorbic acid works best while others say white vinegar. What say you about these two approaches, is one better than the other?
Regards
crazy fox
 
crazy fox said:
I was researching the acid part of the process and some say ascorbic acid works best while others say white vinegar. What say you about these two approaches, is one better than the other?
Regards
crazy fox

Both are easily obtainable but I prefer 5% distilled white vinegar as my acid, no real reason behind it. The purpose of the acid is to lower the ph to around 2-4 so as long as that is happening, choosing an acid is really based on personal preference. Both of those acids will do the job well.
 
Hi guys,
I am still trying to find ways to pull my spice out of the naptha without losing it. I have siphoned as suggested but of course it would be nice to be able to do do this in a cold environement as while I am siphoning I feel the water condensing on the inside of the container. So to see the fluffy white spice dissolve is disheartening. The other question I have is should the bark be shredded or a fine powder? I read that its harder to pull the spice from a kind of sludge that the powder produces.
I am sympathetic to the idea of breakng down the shredded bark by repeatedly freezing and thawing the bark before adding the acid wash. I am doing this now on my next round to see if it makes a difference. Comments are welcome. thanks
crazy fox
 
SWIM had same issue. Watching them it seems that after 2 days you can drain off all naptha you can get, then right back in freezer.

After that put a collection pan underneath and flip your pan (still keep in freezer).

From what I was told, After 24 hours it seems to really help getting rid of some tree fat and helped with the melting issue as a lot less naptha was present than not doing a freezer pan flip.

SWIM reported tiny amounts on the bottom pan that the top flipped pan was on. That evapped extremely fast. (ready to use way before pan)
 
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