Ideal pH

[Shadowlord]

I am sure this info is already around here somewhere but I am having trouble finding it.
What is the best pH to get the bark down to for acidification and what is the ideal basification point?
What are the best ratios of acid to water for the common acids used?
1. HCl
2. Phosphate
3. Ascorbic
4. Acetic
5. Citric

And finally what point does DMT vaporise at?

Sorry for all the questions.
I want to go from a person who can extract some spice to one who can get all that is there to be efficient and thrifty w/ the spice and want to have lots to play with to examine all the different types.

Much love to you all here at the Nexus!

 

[Gir]

Common pH value is normally between 2.5 and 3.5, nothing over 4 for acidification otherwise your becoming too neutral. For base, spice can survive in wonderfully based 14 pH. It has been suggested around 12-14 for ample extraction.

1. HCL - Not sure, ive seen between 15% and 35% solution
2. P - Again not sure at all - only some recent developments with phosphates..
3. Ascorbic - probably not strong enough to use.. But dont take my word for it.
4. Acetic - Commonly done with 5% acetic solt. - Most common ratio 1:4
5. Citric - Ya gotta use a ton of it.

DMT Vaporization temperatures have been debated thoroughly but rough estimates are between 60-80c.

hope it helps. Might want to browse ALL (meaning past page 1 ) the places in the forums, including the nursery. and use the Search function

-gir

 

[endlessness]

I disagree with dmt vaporization temperature, its def not 60-80c.. That is the stated temperature in some places but even shulgin stated that is 'clearly wrong'... It seems to be somewhere between 90-120c but im not exactly sure, we need someone with propper equipment to test this out.

as for the HCL, also I gotta disagree with gir here in that, a 35% hcl solution would be VERY VERY strong.. you would only need a few drops of that to get the pH of water low enough.

To be honest, I dont think anybody has made a side-by-side test when doing an A/B to test the different pH values and the yields (and AFAIK neither have people made side-by-side with different acids). If you want to help the community growing the knowledge, you can test this yourself. Just make a side by side extraction and changing the variable in one and the other, whether its pH or type of acid.. Just maintain all other variables the same, and let us know the results.

What I do know is that, considering your mimosa is powdered, the pH shouldnt make much difference, because in its natural form in the plant, dmt is water soluble, so even with no acid, most of it will go to the water anyways. If it was bark in pieces, a lower pH would help breaking the bark down, so lower pH would be ideal. But for powdered bark, DMT extractions are usually very very forgiving, one doesnt need to be exact and the difference in yield being exact with pH probably wont be significant. Thats why you will see most old timers not measuring anything when doing extraction, just throwing a bit of acid for the acidifying step, throwing a bunch of base in the base step, adding some solvent after, etc...

and yes, please do use the search function and search the wikis and FAQ and the forum in general.

 

[Rivea]

For my last A/B extraction I used straight acetic acid 5% with resulting pH = 2.0. This was achieved using 3 acid simmers with ~650 ml each and after reduction from ~2000 ml down to ~350 ml. I got 1% yield using basified solution with pH = 12.8 and several small hexane pulls. It took approximately 35-40 grams of NaOH to get this pH=12.8 in the basified soup starting with pH=2.0 of the acidified, decanted, filtered, and reduced solution.

Temperatures were always kept to ~80 deg C in the acidified solution. Reduction was achieved at low temp using huge surface area and a large fan. Hexane was distilled to saturate it prior to freeze precipitation, and the temperature was held to ~70 deg C during distillation which recovered significant amounts of hexane.

 

[Shadowlord]

Thanks for all the replies and insights.
I do try to read the posts and use the search engine and, like many of the posts here have reflected, finding a definite answer was not forthcoming and I figured a new thread would get some opinions on the subject as well as give me something to post about and thus get my name out here so that I might meet some of my fellow members.
Thanks for all the help/replies. Sure it will all come in handy as I continue extracting.