Jan e Kharabat
Established member
So I'm doing a harmala extraction and at the place where I am right now, I had only two options for an iodine free salt, the super expensive NaCl from a chemical supplies store, and a super cheap salt mined from the mountains (literally 20-30 cents a kilo). Considering that it is widely used for normal consumption, I thought it would be more or less suitable for a manske.
When I dissolved it in water, some dirt and rock separated and settled at the bottom, that was not much of a problem as I could simply filter and get rid of it. After filtering I still noticed a slight yellow color, but I thought it's probably trace amounts of other salts. Then I started to boil the solution and I noticed a gunpowder smell... There's probably saltpeter in there... but it's still mostly NaCl. So, is it ok to use? Assuming there are sulphates and nitrates in the mixture, would it end up forming harmala sulphates and nitrates? Or would it still mostly form HCl?
When I dissolved it in water, some dirt and rock separated and settled at the bottom, that was not much of a problem as I could simply filter and get rid of it. After filtering I still noticed a slight yellow color, but I thought it's probably trace amounts of other salts. Then I started to boil the solution and I noticed a gunpowder smell... There's probably saltpeter in there... but it's still mostly NaCl. So, is it ok to use? Assuming there are sulphates and nitrates in the mixture, would it end up forming harmala sulphates and nitrates? Or would it still mostly form HCl?