Slightly out-off topic:
Yes propably hemicellulase and cellulase could help break cell walls - such enzymes along with "pectinases" are used in fruit beverage industries both to clarify the juice and also to extract the juice from fruits! Such enzymes are secreted by funghi (and if i am correct bacteria also) to break down cell walls and turn fruits and plants into a tasty (for them), easily digestable...snot!
What i do not know though is if ligninases could be more usefull, since bark and generally secondary growth is usually high in lignin. One could experiment here with incubating the bark with the enzymes of choice and then move on to other procedures. If i had to choose i would go for a ligninase, but i do not know how easily acquirable would this be. If one has access to hemicellulase or mixtures of it with other enzymes (even better if they are widely commercially available) now it would be a good time to try putting them to use.
On an unrelated sidenote, if the shift from "thoroughly powdered bark" to "unpowdered bark" causes problems for the "hobbyist" imagine what kinds of problems will unavailability of the bark will cause. Times might come where a simple STB of a high-yielding, easily accessible material will be a thing of the past, giving hardons to newbies and making "old folks" nostalgic to the point of tears. Till then, it would be clever if energy is spent looking into alternatives before one is forced to do so.
On topic:
300 grams of whole Peganum harmala seeds were boiled in approximately 1 liter of water (x3) for half an hour (time counting from boil start) and the almost three liters* of water obtained where reduced down to 1 liter. No acids where used in the procedure, alkaloids propably exist in their natural salt forms**.
This 1 liter was split to two 500 ml portions (jars), as it was, no filtering. When the temperature was measured to be around 30 C , 500 mg of EasyCLAR*** was added in one of the containers while the other one was left without addition of enzyme. Both jars were shaken vigorously, and will be left overnight in room temperature ( approximately 23-24 C).
Next, both solutions will be filtered through loosely packed cotton and also coffee filter**** if time allows.
* Seeds seem to have absorbed quite some water and pressing them does not seem to retrieve all the water.
** pH could play a role as well as temperature: While those enzymes act in an acidic enviroment, the experimented did not want to introduce a factor and acidify the water although i suppose it could be done , given that extremes are not reached. Enzyme addition also happened having in mind that the solution should not have a temperature that would deactivate the enzyme. 30 C, "seemed fine" given what the experimenter knows about enzymes.
*** Given the manual for the amount of liquid one has (500 ml), only 20 mg of EasyCLAR should be used (described as the "maximum" addition of enzyme, 4g to 100 l ). The experimenter chose a higher amount since availability of the product is not an issue (100g in possession) and since higher amount of enzyme will speed up the reaction up to a point. This point is the point where all the substrate is "bound" to enzyme molecules, at which further enzyme addition does not influence the rate of reaction.
**** The experimenter would rather do it with whatman filters under vacuum but at the time being this is not an option, plus this is a small "proof of concept" experiment rather that a "full extraction".
Further ideas: One could also let the seeds incubate in the enzyme before extracting. Maybe this could aid extraction and destroy pectins in one step. The only problem that could possibly be faced is more starch being liberated -still this is just a guess.
Will update once i receive more data on the subject at hand. All ideas are welcome, also thanks for making it a "sticky"!