69ron
Rising Star
soulfood said:dlimonene said:Swim wants to know what is the purpose of mixing calcium hydroxide with the water and powedered cacti? Is it possible for swim to bypass this step, and what effects would that have?
I do believe in it's natural state the cactus contains the alkaloids in the acidic state. By adding the calcium hydroxide you are converting this to a base that is much more soluble in solvents allowing the d-limonene to suck up those bitches like a hoover. Also the calcium hydroxide is better at breaking down the sticky matter in the cactus than other bases, such as sodium carbonate which can also be used in place of the calcium hydroxide, but doesn't work quite as well.
So it's quite vital.
Yeah, exactly. SWIM originally tried using sodium carbonate because he prefers that base, but it doesn’t work well at all for this type of extraction for the reasons soulfood mentioned.
dlimonene said:Sodium bicarbonate work?
No. This tech works only with calcium hydroxide. It was designed specifically for it. SWIM tried many other bases and came to the conclusion that calcium hydroxide was by far the best for this type of tech. It’s got a few unique characteristics that are being utilized in this tech that no other strong base has. Because of it’s low water solubility, it helps break up the cactus power rather than clump the cactus power together, and it also helps break down the mucilage. If sodium hydroxide, sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, or ammonium hydroxide was used, you'd get a sticky mess that’s nearly impossible to mix into the d-limonene. Don’t even try it. SWIM already did. You’ll be stuck with a giant ball of cactus goo. It just doesn’t work without calcium hydroxide.