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limonene reusable?

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Bancopuma

Bancopuma

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Hi y'all,

Apologies for the noobness I may be exhibiting here, but I would really like to carry out a cactus extraction, and am a great fan of the non toxic, limonene path...

However, one tek I've read requires 300ml of limonene for each wash, and obviously for it to be efficient, several washed are required...

However, can the limonene be poured off and reused each time...other wise 900ml of limonene will be required, which will cost around £30/$60ish, which is ridiculously expensive for an extraction of just 100g of cactus...am I missing something here??

Thanks
 
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Once the cactus alkaloids have been removed from the limonene (same goes for other non polar organic solvents) it can be resused. However note that other components of the plant matrix will start to accumulate in the limonene and eventually make it less effective. Not sure how long that would take but just be aware if it stops working get fresh limonene.
 
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Hi burnt,

Thanks for your message and the info. Well all I was thinking was using the same 300ml of limonene 3 times on an extraction of 100g of cactus powder. 500ml of limonene is affordable for one extraction, but 1000ml is getting ridiculously expensive to extract just 100g worth of cactus...the limonene then would be more expensive than the cactus which seems a bit silly really.
 
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I use 300ml per 100g's. Just keep putting it back in all the while. But what I do is once I have the limo pull seperated, I do my vinegar pulls (usually 3) then before I put the limo back on the cactus I stir in a little hcl diluted to 15%. This seems to get a little more out of the limonene so there's more space for the good stuff.

I paid £30 for 1 litre :( well about £8 for limo and £22 for shipping from an art supplies company in germany. 95% purity.
 
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I know man, i cant believe how hard it is to get over here man.
I found this product called Histolene which is 100% limonene, but they use in in labs so dunno how one would go about gettin it or how much it would be for that matter

www.cellpath.co.uk

Histopathology & Cytology Equipment | Cellular Pathology Lab Equipment

CellPath is an International company specialising in the manufacture & supply of products, consumables & services to the histopathology & cytology markets.
www.cellpath.co.uk www.cellpath.co.uk

Theres gotta be somewhere over here though
 
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Yeah it's a pain. I don't understand why there's all this cleaning stuff with limonene in it, but with loads of other nasty stuff. Limonene by itself is the king of all cleaners. The stuff took the paint off my cupboards :)

If I had some money to invest, I'd start my own limonene company.

Love the stuff.
 
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Bancopuma said:
Hey soulfood,

Thans for the tip...exactly what I was looking for. 8)
Click to expand...

Glad to help. The Hcl might even work better if you don't dilute it, but as I'm stirring it around by hand quite erratically I like to have some form of safe guard.

The Hcl layer should go from clear to fairly cloudy after some good stirring.
 
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Cool man. Just need to get my hands on some HCL now. Definitely prefer the sound of the limonene as oppose to Xylene.

Think I'm gonna try my hand at extracting spice before I attempt cactus.
 
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