I'm having a bit of trouble with chaliponga.
I ordered from 100herbgalaxy a 250g sack of dried chaliponga leaves. Now I'm trying to perform an A/B extraction on them. The method I'm using is the same I've very succesfully used on MHRB.
I started by shredding 100g of the leaves in a blender, then simmering them in a solution of water & citric acid with a pH of about 3-3½. I strained the acidic solution and poured into a jar, then performed a defat with 200ml of heavy naphta.
Then basified with NaOH until the liquid turned black, pH was >10 (my pH strips only go up to 10), did a pull with maybe 200-300ml light naphta.
So far everything was done just like I've succesfully done with MHRB. But nothing precipitated in the freezer, even after 24h, the solvent hasn't even turned cloudy.
I thought maybe there wasn't enough base, so I added more NaOH and tried pulling again, nothing. I thought maybe I didn't simmer the leaves long enough and the spice was still in them, so I simmered the same leaves in a new acidic solution, this time letting it soak overnight before straining. Otherwise did the same procedures to this jar as to the first. Pulled again with the same naphta, trying to freeze precipitate, but the solvent is still not turning cloudy in the freezer, indicating that nothing is there or if there is the amount is too small to precipitate.
What could be the problem? I'm starting to think they sent me bunk leaves. Or maybe the leaves are so old that all the spice is oxidized and thus won't get pulled with naphta?
I'm at a loss here. Anyone with experience of chaliponga extractions, if there's some extra trick you need to do to get the leaves to put out the goods, please share...
I ordered from 100herbgalaxy a 250g sack of dried chaliponga leaves. Now I'm trying to perform an A/B extraction on them. The method I'm using is the same I've very succesfully used on MHRB.
I started by shredding 100g of the leaves in a blender, then simmering them in a solution of water & citric acid with a pH of about 3-3½. I strained the acidic solution and poured into a jar, then performed a defat with 200ml of heavy naphta.
Then basified with NaOH until the liquid turned black, pH was >10 (my pH strips only go up to 10), did a pull with maybe 200-300ml light naphta.
So far everything was done just like I've succesfully done with MHRB. But nothing precipitated in the freezer, even after 24h, the solvent hasn't even turned cloudy.
I thought maybe there wasn't enough base, so I added more NaOH and tried pulling again, nothing. I thought maybe I didn't simmer the leaves long enough and the spice was still in them, so I simmered the same leaves in a new acidic solution, this time letting it soak overnight before straining. Otherwise did the same procedures to this jar as to the first. Pulled again with the same naphta, trying to freeze precipitate, but the solvent is still not turning cloudy in the freezer, indicating that nothing is there or if there is the amount is too small to precipitate.
What could be the problem? I'm starting to think they sent me bunk leaves. Or maybe the leaves are so old that all the spice is oxidized and thus won't get pulled with naphta?
I'm at a loss here. Anyone with experience of chaliponga extractions, if there's some extra trick you need to do to get the leaves to put out the goods, please share...