825g of green pulp with skin and bones in 5 liters of water and 800g of NaOH.
5 pulls of 200ml of xylene were made. And then 5 pulls with 100ml of 35% sulfuric acid solution.
When I salted it with sulfuric acid, my funnel that I bought as "stainless steel" peeled and turned black!
This made me a little worried. I plan to evaporate the acid water, dry it and wash it with methanol. Would this be able to clean any excess sulfuric acid?
As for evaporating the acid water, can I evaporate it under heat? I plan to use a cup heater (-+60°C).
Well, it’s not easy to succeed on the first try without following an established method. I’d recommend using some existing technique (
my is here) and sticking to it as closely as possible. Any changes could have a much bigger impact than you might expect, especially if you’re not a chemist.
Was the pulp dry or fresh? If it was fresh, you might have had too much water.
Three xylene pulls should be enough if done correctly, and five would likely be overkill.
One salting pull is sufficient as long as you have enough acid. You can check out my
post on salting/titration here. It’s written for HCl, which I use, but the same principles apply to other acids. You need the exact amount of acid, otherwise, the result may contain excess acid and could be difficult to remove. The post includes a calculator where you can input the estimated
mescaline weight and acid concentration, and it will tell you how much acid to add to reach equilibrium. If you’re using H₂SO₄, use the calculator attached to the current post, I changed the acid to sulfuric acid.
Avoid using metals, plastics, or any material you’re unsure of, as it may not be compatible with the chemicals used in extraction (acids, bases, solvents, etc.). There’s plenty of information online, or you can ask ChatGPT. I recommend glass, preferably lab-grade glass with proper caps.
If I were you, I’d do basification again followed by salting/titration to leave behind any unwanted substances.
There might be a way to remove sulfuric acid from the result if you’ve used too much, but you’ll need to search the forums for more information. I doubt that simply washing a dry form would remove all the acid, as it could be trapped in the crystal matrix.
I use HCl with titration, so any excess HCl is minimal and evaporates during the drying process. As far as I can tell, the final product isn’t hygroscopic.
Mescaline salts are fairly stable, so a bit of heat shouldn’t be an issue. I dry my
mescaline HCl in the oven at 80°C for several hours with no problem. I assume it’s similar for
mescaline sulfate, but you should verify that.
STB (Straight to Base) is simple and effective—there’s no need to use CIELO or anything else if you have access to and can safely handle the required chemicals, which can be a challenge for some people.
Storing
mescaline in a fridge under highly acidic conditions shouldn't cause any harm.
If you want to use nitrazine for salting/titration and don’t mind the cost, go for it—it works very well, and I use it regularly. However, using pH papers and a pipette also works, it just requires more effort and time. Check
this post for details.
