Extremely dark and cloudy naphtha

[NamRa]

So I started to do an extraction using the salt tek provided by cyb.

I scaled up everything with factor 3.
Using 150 gr mhrb

For the pulls I used only 100 ml of naphtha and so far I did 5, 5 pulls with 100 ml= 500 ml

The first pull was done when the naphtha was really hot after mixing on the stirrer
I was looking for separation. I was surprised that it was quite hard to see where the naphtha separation line was from the soup.
The naphtha was extremely dark. I managed to siphon of with a large glass pipette.
When the first pull cooled a little there was directly a layer of yellowish powder on the bottom. This pull must have been extremely saturated.
With the other pulls the soup was not so extremely hot and the naphtha got lighter with every pull.

Today I look at the naphtha that has been evaporating since last night. I am not sure what I am looking at.
So I made a picture. This naphtha is hot and there are clouds in it. These clouds where not there when it was cooler.
Some of the naphtha evaporated overnight but is was not much. When I look at the naphtha it almost seems to have a gel like appearance.

Shouldn't this hot naphtha be clear ?

 

[smokerx]

Shouldn't this hot naphtha be clear ?

Well no necessarily but it should not have gel like consistency. If the naphtha is yellowish it means more then just spice was pulled out. The way you describe it , it does not sound right. Are you sure you have not pulled more then just the naphtha ?

Why didn't you try freeze precipitation first ? What ever you get out of it the best would be to recrystallize it afterwards.This way you will make sure that the spice is clean.

Then you can evaporate rest of the naphtha.

The main thing is do not through anything away unless you are 100% satisfied that you got all of the spice out.

By the way the clouds in your naphtha (of whitish color) is good sign. It is most likely spice that is crashing out of the naphtha because its very saturated.

 

[NamRa]

Thanks for replying smokerx.

The first pull of naphtha was brown, deep brown even darker.
I am quite sure a did clean separations.

I just poured the naphtha in the freezing jar and while pouring is saw many clear gelatinous blobs.
No idea what it is about and never seen it before.

Sure, I learned the hard way to never throw anything away

Its in the freezer now just to see what will happen.
The gelatinous blobs I really don't understand

 

[smokerx]

NP my friend I hope you will get all the spice out of it. Keep posting pictures of the progress and if any problem just ask. There is always someone at hand to help you.

Buy the way if you ever decide to try another extraction check my thread . This tek I have done not a long ago is very easy and produces beautiful show white spice. There are pictures from other people doing the same tek.

 

[Ambivalent]

it can also happen that the naphtha captures blobs of fat/oils. they can be quite persistent to stay in the naphtha layer. afaik, for me this was indication that the brew is not basified enough.

also one way to remove the color from the naphtha before precipitating the spice would be, to leave the jar in the freezer for a shorter time, depends on the capabilities of the fridge unit.sometimes half an hour to hour works, sometimes hour and half or two is needed. first you will see that the oils coloring the naphtha have made a layer to the bottom of the vessel before the temp drops really low, and at that point you transfer the naphtha solvent in clean vessel and continue with freeze precip of the clear solvent. you can then make re-x to salvage anything left in the goo.worked for me at least..

 

[NamRa]

wouldn't blobs of oil have a color ?

These blobs where transparent, totally clear.

I checked the PH of the soup, 12.9.

 

[Ambivalent]

the ph sounds ok. also nevermind the blobs, it can be anything from plant material to trapped bubbles of air. i would try to separate the gunk from the solvent+dmt with the method i mentioned above. only thing i am seeing weird here is the gel like consistency of the solvent, sounds like alot of plant oils. maybe you are warming the solvent too much pre pulling ?

 

[cyb]

sounds like alot of plant oils. maybe you are warming the solvent too much pre pulling ?

^^^^ Yes..

 

[CLT]

This has happened to me as well when pulling with naphtha that has been heated (about 50C I think). I just let it evaporate - which takes a little longer than non-jello naphtha - and then added room-temperature naphtha to redissolve the DMT. Worked pretty well, most plant oils (or whatever it is) did not redissolve in the room temp naphtha. Hope this helps!

 

[endlessness]

Check the FAQ for brown/red naphtha issue, your answer on how to deal with it is there

 

[NamRa]

The soup was really hot when I started pulling, may 80 c or more than I added the naphtha and mag stirred for 30 min.
Yes sure overdid it this time.

I think I will filter all and dry tomorrow and see what I got there.
Here a pic after 10 hours freezing it.
There is a lot of precipitate.

Later I can always do a re a/b.

Just Learned another lesson to not pull with to high temps

 

[spicygenius]

The soup was really hot when I started pulling, may 80 c or more than I added the naphtha and mag stirred for 30 min.
Yes sure overdid it this time.

I think I will filter all and dry tomorrow and see what I got there.
Here a pic after 10 hours freezing it.
There is a lot of precipitate.

Later I can always do a re a/b.

Just Learned another lesson to not pull with to high temps

This does not look too good. i suggest pulling at a very low temperature, this might dilute the naptha further

 

[SKITLA]

I know this is very late but swim has recently found a way of reversing the brown naphtha. If the naphtha appears brown or reddish, remove from the heat and let the entire soup cool down to room temperature whilst rolling and tipping your vessel, (hourly).

SWIM let the soup stand at room temperature overnight and came back the next day and it was as though all the oils and unwanted impurities had fell back into the aqueous layer. Just to make sure Swim didn't lose any of the DMT, Swim then re-heated the soup at a lower temperature for 6 hours with rolling and tipping of the vessel hourly, as before, then proceeded with the pull.

swim knows you end up using another day and a half but it is definitely worth it. Swim usually yields very pale yellow or white spice normally, when darker yellow product is precipitated swim gets excited because swim knows the extra alkaloids are dam right tasty.

Also a very simple Re-crystalization method:

Put DMT crystals into a small beaker.

get a bowl full of warm water.

Put clean naphtha, about 75ml in with your crystals in the beaker.

Swirl your beaker with DMT and naphtha in the bowl of hot water till All DMT is dissolved.
(dark orange, brown or even red debris may appear at the bottom of the glass, do not worry if thas hasn't dissolved.

Place in freezer for 1 hour and you will see a dirty layer of oil at the bottom of the glass.

Syphon off the remaining DMT saturated Naptha then Freeze precipitate as normal.

This step can be repeated to field a purer product every time.

A few quick tips from SWIM:

When performing an STB extraction, when you have pulled your layer of saturated naphtha, Allow roughly 35-40% evaporation at room temperature. You will see the naphtha become a much more concentrated yellow as the excess naphtha has left.

Cover the Naptha solution and let sit at room temperature for a couple of hours, then proceed to place in the fridge for a few hours, then finally put in the freezer overnight. This was how SWIM first started fielding larger, more snow globe like crystals.

 

[dmusicaltrancistor]

It almost seems like you may have pulled up an emulsion along with the solvent it shouldn't actually freeze solid like it looks in the picture but maybe i am seeing things incorrectly