official extraction help thread

[psilocybin]

Any questions or problems you may run into during an extraction can be asked to get other members input in this thread.

 

[00Burnout]

Hi there! Im slowly preparing to my Max Ion Tek but it's been a looong time since my last tek(more than 2 years) so i don't remember everything as it was. I will be doing 100g of MHRB and just need someone to confirm that im doing everything correctly. If there is at least one soul who will take time to read it and check for errors i will be really greatfull.

Freeze/thaw:
I will put about 300-400ml of distiled water into pyrex dish mixed with powdered MHRB and do the whole process of heating => cooling to room temp => freezing.
After doing the process for 3 times i will put the whole material(mixed with 400ml water) into extraction vesel.

Acidify:
I will mix 50ml of distiled water with 50ml of vinegar and put it into extraction vessel. After adding heatbath for 8h in 55c dropping to 40c and reheating back to 55c.
Should have about 0.5l of solution(400ml added during freeze/thaw + 50ml water and 50ml vinegar from acidify).

Defat: skip because mhrb

Salinate: I will put about 80g of NaCL into 200ml of water(60c) and then top it up with another 800ml to get 1litre of salt solution. Add it to the jar(now i have 1,5l in the jar).

Base:
40g of lye mixed with 100ml of cool water(25c) and add it to the jar(~1.7l now). Again heatbath 55c dropping to 40c but this time 2hours.

Pulls:
I will be adding 50ml of hot zippo fuel(60c?) then roll/circular slow shake and wait for separation(repeating 3 times before pull). Total of 6 pulls will be done so 300ml of zippo fuel needed.

Here i get counfused:
I take jar and put my first pull into jar. After it is in room temperature i put it into freezer. Every another pull is added to the jar in freezer. Then i take it out and evaporate 40% with fan.
I dont understand how should i go from point 11. to 12. The whole jar will be full of crystals at the bottom so it will not be possible to just pull it out to the pyrex dishes?
Also after 18h in freezer i should just pure the naphta from my pyrex dishes and as soon as possible put the dishes under fan to dry right?

Looks good to me, except I would use vm&p naphtha if you can get it, zippo fluid isn't all that clean (do an evap test to double check, if it's clean it won't leave any residue behind). I don't worry about temps when it comes to the heat bath, just as long as the jar is cool enough to handle with your bare hands. Store your pulls in the fridge, not the freezer, until you are ready to freeze precipitate. I usually evap 40-50% of my solvent before sticking it in the freezer. A more saturated solvent will lend to quicker precipitation. And yes, you want to get your dish under a fan as soon as you decant your solvent.

 

[12Emil34]

Hi travelers I figuered this would be the right thread to ask SWIMs question so here it is:

How high is the maximum solubilty of n,n-spice in naphtha (mostly C6-C7 aliphatic carbons) @ room temp?
Because SWIM has trubble finding the right container for a pull. When they have enough volume they are to wide and the naphtha layer would be like half a cm which makes it very hard to seperate and when its a slim container its volume is like only one litre.
So SWIM is thinking of splitting the brown soup into three portions and doing it with 200-300ml naphtha in an one litre vessel and pulling everytime with the same naphtha.
Its obviouly unnecessary extra work, can someone recommend a good vessel with < 3L and obviously high pH resistance?

 

[12Emil34]

50g MHRB + 60ml white vinegar + 30g quality rock salt + 50g lye + 4x50ml regular zippo fluid = 1.3 dmt

Thats around 2.5% spice in your MHRB, I thought the maximum is 1.5%

 

[changaforchange]

50g MHRB + 60ml white vinegar + 30g quality rock salt + 50g lye + 4x50ml regular zippo fluid = 1.3 dmt

Thats around 2.5% spice in your MHRB, I thought the maximum is 1.5%

...a bit of luck I guess - each 50g bark I get between 0.9 and 1.2 - quality supplier?

I am very happy indeed.

 

[12Emil34]

50g MHRB + 60ml white vinegar + 30g quality rock salt + 50g lye + 4x50ml regular zippo fluid = 1.3 dmt

Thats around 2.5% spice in your MHRB, I thought the maximum is 1.5%

...a bit of luck I guess - each 50g bark I get between 0.9 and 1.2 - quality supplier?

I am very happy indeed.

I bet there's a bunch of people here who would give their left kidney to know which supplier that is

 

[sere310]

this was the final result of my d-limonine extraction from MHRB, freebased with sodium carbonate. does this look remotly right? if not, what did I do wrong?

 

[gnickel48]

It's my first time trying to extract


1. Had Powdered root (45 grams), added white vinegar (50ml) stirred for about 30 min

2. Added about 60ml of boiling water, stirred for about 15 min

3. Added calcium hydroxide (38 grams), stirred for about an hour adding some water here and there, by the end it was gooey kind of like oatmeal

4. Added Naphtha (50ml), placed the bowl in a pot of boiled hot water and stirred for maybe 10 min

5. All the naphtha just got soaked up, so I got worried and dumped everything into a slimmer jar. Now there was a tiny bit of liquid on the edges and some bubbles within the mixture.

6. Added about another 5ml of naphtha, some pink Himalayan salt (just a pinch), some hot water, kept stirring then added some regular (iodized) table salt (like 3 pinches)

7. Took the jar out of the hot water, rolled it around and tapped it for a while, still pretty much nothing on top

8. Then added like 7 pinches more of salt, more calcium hydroxide (not sure how many grams, about 15-20 teaspoons of it), a little bit of water and a bit more naphtha, all while stirring for about 20 minutes

Thinking about leaving the jar in a pot of hot water for the night without the jar's lid on

I don't really see any liquid on top of the mixture. Have I done this right?

 

[downwardsfromzero]

It's my first time trying to extract


1. Had Powdered root (45 grams), added white vinegar (50ml) stirred for about 30 min

2. Added about 60ml of boiling water, stirred for about 15 min

3. Added calcium hydroxide (38 grams), stirred for about an hour adding some water here and there, by the end it was gooey kind of like oatmeal

4. Added Naphtha (50ml), placed the bowl in a pot of boiled hot water and stirred for maybe 10 min

5. All the naphtha just got soaked up, so I got worried and dumped everything into a slimmer jar. Now there was a tiny bit of liquid on the edges and some bubbles within the mixture.

6. Added about another 5ml of naphtha, some pink Himalayan salt (just a pinch), some hot water, kept stirring then added some regular (iodized) table salt (like 3 pinches)

7. Took the jar out of the hot water, rolled it around and tapped it for a while, still pretty much nothing on top

8. Then added like 7 pinches more of salt, more calcium hydroxide (not sure how many grams, about 15-20 teaspoons of it), a little bit of water and a bit more naphtha, all while stirring for about 20 minutes

Thinking about leaving the jar in a pot of hot water for the night without the jar's lid on

I don't really see any liquid on top of the mixture. Have I done this right?

A brew like that soaks up a bit (seemingly in this case at least 50mL) of naphtha at first. Further pulls should be unaffected. It's best not to add dry material once the solvent is in there because this can contribute to separation problems.

With lime paste, you want a cookie-dough-like texture and then knead the solvent through the mixture with a fork. Maximum contact between the paste phase and the solvent phase is what you're aiming for. It's also best to do this with fairly warm materials (NO OPEN FLAMES, INCANDESCENT MATERIALS OR SPARKS!) in order to maximise the solubility of DMT in the naphtha.

That's on top of what Voidmatrix said in the other thread.

 

[BDanson]

Hiya, I've had some trouble with my first two extractions. I am using Acacia Floribunda Twigs, and S/B method of extraction. The outcome of the extraction leaves very small (of what I think are) crystals on the bottom of the jars. And no yield when put through coffee filters.

I use 750ml of water, I stir in 4 tablespoons of glitz (lye), mix thoroughly. Then I add around 30-40grams of blended twigs (leaves removed). Then I left it for an hour

In NZ Naptha/Shellite is sold as Fuelite. I put 50mls of fuelite in, gently mix on and off and remove the top layer and put it into my jars. I put the jars in my freezer. I have tried leaving some jars overnight, and some for 3 days. Still the same result.

 

[SHYBZY]

Gday guys, I have some older branches that weather brought down. whats the best way to remove the outer dead bark layer, or should I not be removing it. I have been picking it of piece by peice but im worried it contains some of the goodies. I think its a florabunda. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks. SHYBZY. 8)

 

[SHYBZY]

Gday Pcsilocybn, im a bit of a noob but I have some bark thats rough on the out side. Should Ibe trying to remove that and just keep the inner bark or process it rough stuff and all? its florabunda I think. Also I thought it would be more red, but its more just creamy colored. Any help would be appreciated.
SHYBZY

 

[Burnttoast22]

SWIM has been happily using lazymans tek for a while now and is very pleased with the results but finds the process a bit time consuming and would like to try something different. As luck would have it he happens to have a Soxhlet extractor and has an idea on how to go about it but would like some input from some more knowledgable peeps before he goes and ruins good bark.

1 Run 100g powdered MHRB in soxhlet with Anhydrous Ethanol for 12-16 hours and decant.

2 Check Ph and raise to 12+ if not already.

3 Add 1L Saline solution a la Max Ion tek

4 Add 300ml 99.9% Naphtha to Ethanol solution.

5 Mix slowly for 2 hours

6 Pull Naphtha and freeze precipitate.

7 Repeat 4 - 6 hopefully just once or twice

8 Re-x if necessary.

Hes not sure about step 3. He believes its done in the MI tek to simply increase the yield and figure thats always a good thing but whether it works the same way with Ethanol instead of water is where he's getting stuck.

 

[Northerner]

Gday guys, I have some older branches that weather brought down. whats the best way to remove the outer dead bark layer, or should I not be removing it. I have been picking it of piece by peice but im worried it contains some of the goodies. I think its a florabunda. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks. SHYBZY. 8)

I remove bark by cutting the branches into sections and using a chisel, whilst avoiding stabbing myself. :lol: If it's too old and dry the actives will have oxidized, but free bark is free bark. Make a big cook up.

Gday Pcsilocybn, im a bit of a noob but I have some bark thats rough on the out side. Should Ibe trying to remove that and just keep the inner bark or process it rough stuff and all? its florabunda I think. Also I thought it would be more red, but its more just creamy colored. Any help would be appreciated.
SHYBZY

Most acacia inner branch barks are cream coloured. The really dry chunks probably contain little alkaloids. The more the merrier though if you're just going to cook it all. Buy yourself a $20 blender off Gumtree and make it work for a living. Cut into 4-5cm long sections across the grain with secatuers and blend them up till nicely shredded. Don't overfill or your blender will die quickly.

Floribunda can be hit and miss, but it's worth doing especially if you have a load of it.

 

[downwardsfromzero]

SWIM has been happily using lazymans tek for a while now and is very pleased with the results but finds the process a bit time consuming and would like to try something different. As luck would have it he happens to have a Soxhlet extractor and has an idea on how to go about it but would like some input from some more knowledgable peeps before he goes and ruins good bark.

1 Run 100g powdered MHRB in soxhlet with Anhydrous Ethanol for 12-16 hours and decant.

2 Check Ph and raise to 12+ if not already.

3 Add 1L Saline solution a la Max Ion tek

4 Add 300ml 99.9% Naphtha to Ethanol solution.

5 Mix slowly for 2 hours

6 Pull Naphtha and freeze precipitate.

7 Repeat 4 - 6 hopefully just once or twice

8 Re-x if necessary.

Hes not sure about step 3. He believes its done in the MI tek to simply increase the yield and figure thats always a good thing but whether it works the same way with Ethanol instead of water is where he's getting stuck.

Don't know if you'd read these threads yet:

Experiments with a Soxhlet - Welcome discussion - Welcome to the DMT-Nexus

I would suggest trying something else in the Soxhlet instead and saving the MHRB for a tried and tested process. Perhaps cannabis or even a kitchen herb or spice just to experiment and learn.

Soxhlet question - Ayahuasca - Welcome to the DMT-Nexus

Its also not as effortless as it is in theory, a few problems can arise. If its not packed properly, or if too much material is used, the soxhlet won't fully siphon properly, or it won't siphon at all and instead give you a slow dripping and poor extraction. The siphon can also become clogged.

For most consistent results, its best to use a paper thimble, then you might get away with setting it up and leaving it unattended. The thimble also limits the amount of material you can fit in. You successfully run one without a thimble and fit more material in, but the chances of a problem occurring are higher, which means leaving it unattended would be a bad thing. Not to mention that, these thing shouldn't be left unattended at all, since they are a fire hazard. Even when using water.

You need a big soxhlet to efficiently extract even a small amount of material. A 1L soxhlet can only properly fit 100-200g of material, more or less depending on the density.

Water has a high surface tension and sticks to glass so, siphoning should work ok. The main problems you will run into are drainage or clogging from the silty ayahuasca tannins.

At first glance it seems like an easy fix, but in all practicality, you might be spending more time dealing with it than you would otherwise brewing ayahuasca. Seems easier to leave a big pot on the stove on simmer overnight, like making a turkey stock. Soxhlets are more suited for quantitative extraction, not for making tea.

soxhlet size - FAQ - All your basic questions and answers - Welcome to the DMT-Nexus

I haven't had much success with ethanol extraction of MHRB in Soxhlet (low yield for some reason), but since you have 500 ml Soxhlet, alcoholic extraction may be worth a try.

I would also advise that you distill off all the ethanol before adding base, and certainly before adding any naphtha. Otherwise ethanol carry-over into the hexanes (with which, incidentally, you should also be aware of the associated neurotoxicity problems) will likely mess with the freeze precipitation, probably causing it to fail completely. Avoid unnecessary mixed-solvent systems. I've found traces of IPA to inhibit naphtha freeze precipitation completely.

Granted, most of the ethanol will partition into the aqueous phase but in strongly basic brine less so than with distilled water. If you want to avoid a potential problem in advance it's probably best to make that extra effort of removing the ethanol.

 

[Burnttoast22]

@downwardsfromzero

Thank you mate, I think your reply sums up my fears about doing it this way and will give the Max Ion tek a try instead this time. 'preciate the wisdom

'Shiny new soxhlet from china in the cupboard'...

Haha so true!

 

[neurobloom]

I read somewhere here by some members that hexane doesn't work as a non polar solvent for mescaline. I just wanted to say that i have tried it anyways and ot works just fine. Now my hexane is the technical Grade used as a degreasing agent and as an odorless Paint thinner. It's got a barely noticeable aromatic smell which i believe to be a slight aromatic hydrocarbons impurity. Maybe this kind of impurity bos what makes it able to pull mescaline? I honestly don't know. Either way it does seem to do a good job and seems to be fairly selective for Mescaline based on the bioassays compared to let's say dichloromethane.

I'm in the middle of an extraction with hexane at this moment doing the second pull with 50ml portions. It doesn't catch up much colour. It's $1.83 where i live which is cheaper than the paint stripper 1L cans from which i distill dichloromethane. i dont even bother distilling this hexane. It dries up cleanly (sometimes it leaves a transparent tiny blobs of fats it depends on the batch)

It doesn't extract much per pull and will take several from 4 to 6 pulls to exhaust the basic solution. It works well for me as a defatting solvent too.

What i'm going to be doing differenly this time around is using oxalic acid for the initial salting instead of vinegar then base it and pull again with formic acid as the final salting step. I'm eager to see how the oxalate and formate salts will look like. Stay tuned

 

[downwardsfromzero]

I read somewhere here by some members that hexane doesn't work as a non polar solvent for mescaline. I just wanted to say that i have tried it anyways and ot works just fine. Now my hexane is the technical Grade used as a degreasing agent and as an odorless Paint thinner. It's got a barely noticeable aromatic smell which i believe to be a slight aromatic hydrocarbons impurity. Maybe this kind of impurity bos what makes it able to pull mescaline? I honestly don't know. Either way it does seem to do a good job and seems to be fairly selective for Mescaline based on the bioassays compared to let's say dichloromethane.

I'm in the middle of an extraction with hexane at this moment doing the second pull with 50ml portions. It doesn't catch up much colour. It's $1.83 where i live which is cheaper than the paint stripper 1L cans from which i distill dichloromethane. i dont even bother distilling this hexane. It dries up cleanly (sometimes it leaves a transparent tiny blobs of fats it depends on the batch)

It doesn't extract much per pull and will take several from 4 to 6 pulls to exhaust the basic solution. It works well for me as a defatting solvent too.

What i'm going to be doing differenly this time around is using oxalic acid for the initial salting instead of vinegar then base it and pull again with formic acid as the final salting step. I'm eager to see how the oxalate and formate salts will look like. Stay tuned

I think your hunch about the aromatics might be right. Mescaline shouldn't dissolve in hexane.
Can you get hold of a data sheet for the hexane? You need to check its benzene content. I'd strongly advise against exposure to benzene.

The forthcoming oxalate and formate experiments sound exciting though.

 

[neurobloom]

This extraction was a complete failure. During the final salting step the acid phase was quickly taking up a pink colour. Upon drying very tiny yield of pink semi crystalline oil was obtained. This makes me sad. Weirdly enough the same hexane i used on the same cacti and it yielded decently before. Only difference this time around was using the formic acid and using the new growth tips of the cacti instead of the old harder flesh. Either the cacti parts had very little alkaloids countent or they've been decomposed at the acidic phase hence the quick pink pigmentation during salting. Upon re-basifying this pink colour disappeared and appeared again when salting. The solvent clouded nicely when i added the diluted formic acid to it just like when i salt it with vinegar the change in smell from the basic pull to salting was also similar to previous successful extractions.


This is my first ever failing mescaline extraction Luckily I didn't extract the whole 3 kilos of cacti and left about 1 kilo for making a tea or just eat it's green skin fkesh in chunks or try extract it with dichloromethane i have to decide which route to go. The same cacti yielded over 6 grams from 3.5 kilos before using dichloromethane and salting with vinegar. It was such a waste of good consistent bredgesii that never fsilet me before. Am leaning towards the technical grade hexane i used being different frim batch to batcb or formic acid has just destroyed my product.

 

[Loveall]

This extraction was a complete failure. During the final salting step the acid phase was quickly taking up a pink colour. Upon drying very tiny yield of pink semi crystalline oil was obtained. This makes me sad. Weirdly enough the same hexane i used on the same cacti and it yielded decently before. Only difference this time around was using the formic acid and using the new growth tips of the cacti instead of the old harder flesh. Either the cacti parts had very little alkaloids countent or they've been decomposed at the acidic phase hence the quick pink pigmentation during salting. Upon re-basifying this pink colour disappeared and appeared again when salting. The solvent clouded nicely when i added the diluted formic acid to it just like when i salt it with vinegar the change in smell from the basic pull to salting was also similar to previous successful extractions.


This is my first ever failing mescaline extraction Luckily I didn't extract the whole 3 kilos of cacti and left about 1 kilo for making a tea or just eat it's green skin fkesh in chunks or try extract it with dichloromethane i have to decide which route to go. The same cacti yielded over 6 grams from 3.5 kilos before using dichloromethane and salting with vinegar. It was such a waste of good consistent bredgesii that never fsilet me before. Am leaning towards the technical grade hexane i used being different frim batch to batcb or formic acid has just destroyed my product.

Are you following a specific TEK? I don't think freebase mescaline is very soluble in hexane (?).

 

[neurobloom]

I don't follow any specific teks. I follow my intuition and logic in extractions and Always try different ways to extract.
Two days ago i extracted the same bredgesii basified solution with the same hexane except i added a little bit of dichloromethane into the hexane cor extraction.
This has yielded a fair amount of alkaloid. I used citric acid instead of formic acid this time to be on the safe side..

The trip lasted till early morning..i went to work still slightly trippy.. i was surprised at how better i was executing work tasks the only thing that would give it away was my dialated pupils.

Does microdosing mescaline causes this dialation also?

The rest of the cactus left I cooked to a tea, leftt the tea to simmer and evaporate to a very thick resin.. washed the resins with 99% isopropyl. A big chunk of gum like substance has coagulated into a chunk while everything else has dissolved. This chunk has capturured all particles and all undissolvable material as the the alcohol was beautiful clear redish brown solution now. dried the iso inside a glass jar with a hair drier while continuously turning the jar... it's more like the drum drying techniques in industry.

This much cleaner transparent gummy bear like consistency on the inside walls of the jar was washed with acidic water (citric acid) i just poured a bit of water into the jar closed the lid and swirled it around... Everything has dissolved. This solution was basified and extracted with a mixture of hexane/dichloromethane at around 20/80 ratio (this was to save on dichloromethane) salted it later with citric acid solution and evaped inside a glass bowl inside a simmering pan to yield a crystalline light brown chunk that had excess citric acid.. tasted strongly acidic and bitter. I've dissolved this in water and did a mini defat on it with dichloromethane and run it through a pre wet coffee filter. This alkaloids acidic solution is now evaping