Failed acacia confusa extraction

[me1645]

Hello everyone, this is my first post here.

I have tried to extract DMT from MHRB & ACRB 4 times now, and failed 4 times. My last try, yesterday, was with ACRB, and I want to ask your help about it.

Here's what I did, can you please tell me what I did wrong?

1. Made powder from the root bark in a coffee grinder.
2. Mixed 500mL distilled water with about 60g of NaOH. pH meter said 12.75.
3. I added the ACRB powder to the base, and occasionally heated it to 30-40 degrees (handwarm water). Swirled it around every 15-30 minutes.
4. After about 4 hours I poured the mixture in a big mason jar, and added 50mL of naphta (I am not sure if it's exactly naphta, where I live it's called washing gasoline - translated - which has almost the same properties).
5. After 30 min of occasionally slowly mixing this I pulled off the layer of naphta and put this in a glass oven scale and put it in the fridge until I had done 5 pulls, each the same method.
6. After 5 pulls I put the glass scale with naphta in the freezer overnight, covered with a plate.
7. Next morning (today) I saw some lines of crystals - not a lot, but when I poured off the naphta (back into the bottle for re-use), there was barely anything visible. I put the scale upside down with some paper towels underneath, and raised 1 side to let the remainder of naphta drip off.
8. Lastly I put the scale vertically with a cold fan blowing in to it to dry it, and after 30 min there was NOTHING visible.

That was basically it, very disappointed that it didn't work, even for the 4th time, however this was my first STB extraction.

I ordered 100g of MHRB powder for my next try, since I read that that is more beginner friendly.

Please share your advise, I am getting desperate.

 

[bezevo]

heres a small tip ....if you fail ....throw nothing away .

the goods might still be there and a few questions to those more gifted chemists than me . might have a solution .

and smaller batchs like 50 grams can be more efficent . but 100 is not to big .

ok i am no internet ExSPIRT heh

 

[MrAcuminata]

For your Acacia extractions, an acid soak or at least 3x acid simmers is recommended before you basify the solution, as Acacias have tougher cell walls and need some extra persuasion to release the goodies. For a 50g root bark batch, the afternoon/night before the extraction I like to use 200ml distilled water with 50ml of 5% vinegar, bring this to "just" boiling then add this to the root bark, shake it and leave it to soak overnight before you proceed with basifying the following day. You are aiming for a ph of 4 when doing acid steps. You should check what your washing gasoline actually contains, if it's mostly hydrocarbons such as hexanes then it should be okay, just use a dropper to drip some on clean glass to see if any residue is left behind, if so then it is generally recommended not to use it or seek a method such as distillation to clean it before the final stage of extraction. If you can find and link it's safety data sheet, one of the more qualified members here can advise you on it's use.You can also try adding hot non iodized salt saturated solution to your basic soup before adding the solvent (naphtha). The crystals you saw when taking out of the freezer were most likely water crystals, dmt will never just disappear, they can melt and run down and form goo, but never disappear. It is important to try not to get any water in your pippette or on you freezer dish when getting ready for the freezer stage to minimise any water getting amongst the crystals. Also try to make the dish airtight by covering with a layer of tight foil. If the dish has no lid i like to place a heavy book on top as well.