I don't understand!

The very first time I tried to do an extraction on  MHRB, everything worked perfectly. Ground the bark up, made a basified water solution, added naphtha, pulled, freeze precip, and got plenty of little crystals.

A couple months later, i ordered powdered MHRB, and followed the exact same steps with the same chemicals. Of 200+ g of MHRB powder, i was able to extract *ONE* hyperspace trip worth of the alkaloids...

So, thinking it was the pre-shredded bark, i opted to buy whole bark pieces this most recent time, last week. I coarsely ground up about 50g of bark, threw it in 1.25 cups (~300mL) water with a couple spoonfulls of lye, and let it sit.

The naphtha turned clear, so I assumed all was well after a day. I pulled it, evapped (since now I dont have a cold enough freezer) and was left solely with plant fats (i think...). all I got left over were a few oily bubbles of yellow..

Whats the deal?  should I heat the solution? that seems to work with some people.

I just dont understand. I follow the same methods that work for countless people, yet with no results... I just dont understand.

Some additional info: The very first time i did it, with the great yields, i just eyeballed everything. Worked fine.

The second time, I carefully measured everything out to the gram. didnt work at all. And now, once again, i'm trying the eyeball method.

Any helps appreciated.