_jazzman_ said:
Morning all, glad to be a new member in the community. I am a relative novice in the field of freelance alchemy, having only around 10 STB extractions under my belt. After a series of 3 MHRB freeze/thaws, I noticed some white material had formed on the bottom of the jar.
The duration of time between pulling out of the freezer and noticing the white stuff was about 3 days.
1) Stupid question: Are we sure it's mold?
2) If so, would the mold get trapped in the naphtha, and thus get extracted?
I understand that mold has been addressed here already, just wanted to get a more specific answer to my situation.
Thanks and happy journeys!
Hi... after finding mold on my most recent harvest of ACR bark, I did some research before deciding to dump. I know your questions importance has long passed, but since this thread is the first thing that popped up on a Google search about mold on ACR bark, I figured it was worth throwing in some info I found and answering your questions.
1) not a stupid question... but, yes, it is mold. Or, At least, the dangers posed by mild make it worth going with "yes, it is mold."
2) this part is what inspired me to answer because it's the question I was asking... 'assuming the mold holds dangerous compounds, would those compounds be extracted through my tech?' ... the answer is, again, yes.. or, at least, worth assuming it will.
Without identifying the mold species, you can't begin to find research on the compounds present in it, and there are Many Many micotoxins (ergot for example) present in Many mold species that are Alkaloids. These alkaloids would be extracted through STB or A/B techs, pulled with non polar solvents, and likely trapped between crystals during freeze precipitation.
There was also some talk about the mold being superficial because it wasn't present for long (I'm paraphrasing) and being able to clean it off, so I just wanted to mention that molds (again, we don't know the species so I'm being general) can grow very quickly, and most (if not all) establish their mycelium before fruiting. If you see fuzzy mold, that's likely its fruiting body, and it's safest to assume that the mycelium is well colonized throughout the substrate (your rb harvest) and that any compounds present in the fruiting body could be present in the mycelium as well.
Travel safely friends!