Rating the extraction teks

[The Traveler]

Thank you for thinking along. Here are my answer to a few things:

I agree with the aspects of the rating system generally, however I think time of exposure falls under discretion, but still how long a tek is expected to take should still be its own aspect.

The reason that it is on its own and in that wording is that after the initial extraction, often the non-polar solvent is put into the freezer. This does not mean that the tek is finished but it means that the exposure of all the equipment is gone;

Also simplicity of materials and steps can sort of relate to discretion in a way, how about putting them together as an aspect called difficulty?

Certain types of equipment will definitely popup in the discretion aspect as well, they are not mutually exclusive: a certain piece of equipment can both be hard to use and suspicious to have around (soxhlet for example).

Also, one side purpose of the rating is to improve the existing teks. So if the steps are hard to follow or badly written it is better that this shows in a separate aspect with the hope that this will be improved upon.

And rather than discretion i like the word stealth.

Quite a bit of energy went into avoiding the use of the word stealth. In our attitude page we explicitly state that "we are against people extracting or using substances in student dorms/parents/shared houses or any other unsafe place or where the owners or roommates do not agree with what is being done. We do not give tips on 'stealth' teks."

So to not give the wrong idea, the word 'discretion' was used.

5.Expense ($)

The 'Expense' aspect should be avoided since this puts a monetary value on the extracted DMT, see Street Value of DMT (AND WHY YOU SHOULDN'T EVER SELL DMT).

Thank you for thinking along though, it is appreciated.


Kind regards,

The Traveler

 

[TGO]

Bumpity bumpity bump! :d

I am curious if any new headway has been made on the extraction rating process? I am also bumping this in case any other members might have missed it!

Have a nice day everyone!

-The Grateful One-

EDIT: Perhaps a subcategory of Safety could be "Is This Tek Food safe?" I think that would definitely help out newer members and point people who dislike volatile chemicals in a safer direction...? Or have a special symbol or emblem next to teks that are food safe. I realize that everyone should be able to figure that out for themselves but for the sake of quick reference...

Also, I was thinking (this doesn't necessarily apply to rating the teks) that within each tek there should/could be a place that mentions which solvents/chemicals can be substituted for one another. I have seen quite a few threads asking about such things. It could potentially clear up a bit of forum clutter...?

These are just ideas I am spit balling. Feel free to shoot them down! I can take it!

:lol:

 

[Talkswithtrees]

Perhaps you could incorporate the availability of the required materials to perform a specific tek? For instance naphtha is super easy to find around here but if I wanted heptane Id have to order it online.
Just trying to be helpful, much respect Trav.

 

[EssCee]

I would like to update where appropriate.
We have some that have been improved upon. This is one specific one I can say they took the tek from here and added better data. This version of the Acacia with Naptha and Vinegar is better detailed than ours.


It is just a 1/2ing of the one I found on the nexus. The nexus wasn't as clear and I couldn't tell if I was supposed to add more lye each time. I did figure it out, but it was much clearer in the other post on the instructions and what to repeat.

DMT extraction using lye (sodium hydroxide) and naphtha

Crystallized DMT can be obtained from its natural plant sources using a number of chemistry extraction techniques. This article documents the procedure for one of the most common DMT methods, known as the acid-base (A/B) extraction.

psychonautwiki.org

 

[blue.magic]

I would add one more category, which is Scalability.

The Tek with poor scalability is suitable only for some predefined amount of source material, while well scalable Tek works with a wide range of amounts (e.g. specifying how to scale amounts of chemicals properly).

This is actually the first thing I shot myself in the foot when extracting - I simply scaled the numbers on my calculator only to realize the amounts used are nonsensical. Sometimes when using twice more plant material one does not really need twice the amount of water. Also pH does not behave linearly and a scalable Tek should account for that.

 

[MachienDome]

I would add one more category, which is Scalability.

That's a great idea! I would like to see some more experienced users comment on scaling up and down or including ratios for scaling. It would be nice for them to also go through some of the teks and expand on the steps, clarify some things (no offense, but some are poorly written) and provide background technical chemistry knowledge to make them more complete in the wiki instead of having so much scattered information around the forums.

I would also like to see some more experienced users share some ratings!

 

[Samvidbuho]

Has anyone seen this article that came out early this year?
It's a rather poor, very simple study, but does give some useful information as well as ideas to make the study better.
However, the authors of the study use a tek from this site - the 'Internet Method' is none other than Lazyman's Straight to Base !

Article:
Internet Method for the Extraction of N,N-dimethyltryptamine from Mimosa hostilis roots: Does it really extract dimethyltryptamine?
(Spoiler - Yes... yes it does)

Background and Aims:
The psychoactive capacity of the alkaloid N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) has been known for decades, and its presence in beverages used in religious contexts around the world – such as ayahuasca – has attracted growing attention from the scientific community due to its possible anxiolytic and antidepressant effects. Mimosa hostilis, popularly known as jurema preta in Brazil, is a plant known to be utilized for extracting DMT, especially for recreational use. In this study, we confirmed if five different organic solvents (n-hexane, ethyl acetate, n-butanol, dichloromethane, and chloroform) would extract non-purified DMT from M. hostilis and compared them in terms of DMT concentration found in the five organic solvents cited before. Methods: We have performed the straight to base technique for the extraction of DMT found on the Internet. The evaluation of DMT concentration in the organic solvents was performed via UPLC-ESI-MS/MS. No investigation was performed on other compounds in the solvents. Results: All the organic solvents extracted non-purified DMT, from lower to higher concentration: n-hexane, ethyl acetate, chloroform, n-butanol, and dichloromethane. Conclusions: The Internet straight to base method indeed extracts DMT from M. hostilis roots. However, DMT is not purified and the exact composition of the extracts and its toxicology is unknown. Thus, recreational DMT users are exposing themselves to products with unknown composition and effects.

 

[travis]

Bumping this old thread, as I think this has not been finally done and it is a very interesting thing, even for those already making extractions.

Oh and these are not in any particular order...you should prioritize yourself whats important to you in a tek.

1.Safety
2.Yield
3.Purity
4.Time
5.Expense ($)
6.Difficulty
7.Stealth

Actually here would be the aspects listed in my priority.

1.Purity
2.Yield
3.Expense
4.Stealth
5.Time
6.Safety
7.Difficulty

1-3 (Basically what I care about most is how good is it, how much will i get, and what will it cost me)
4-5 (I live alone, I have my own apt, it's not in a closed in complex, but still I can't afford to have these aspects be on the bottom of my priority list)
6-7 (if 1-5 are taken care of, then I don't care how dangerous or hard it is, I have faith in my abilities, that's why they are on the bottom, however notice I care about safety MORE than difficulty, so really the least thing im worried about isn't safety, its difficulty) That's just me though .

I was thinking that with proper input about teks provided by experts, it should be fairly easy to code a little web-app that showed people the best tek according to their priorities.
I could help with doing the backend part, if someone was able to make the frontend one.

The 'Expense' aspect should be avoided since this puts a monetary value on the extracted DMT, see Street Value of DMT (AND WHY YOU SHOULDN'T EVER SELL DMT).

I'm not sure if I agree on this part. The linked thread about not selling spice is a beautiful thread, but I think that "selling DMT" vs "budget required for extraction" are two different topics.
As an example, there are teks that use more dangerous methods and materials, that require more safety measures. And those cost money. A hot vs cold tek, might require buying an electrical stove or pot. Buying expensive chemicals vs organic readily available materials.
I'm just arriving here, though, so I might be wrong because of lack of information.

 

[acacian]

I think as knowledge grows of the vast array of DMT sources, and as people will be at times working with plants in cultivation - perhaps teks could also be rated in how vast a set of plants they're effective.. eg does said tek work well for Mimosa hostilis or psychotria viridis as well as the vast swathe of Acacia.. and can it be applied to other parts of the plants and still work effectively? Phyllodes/stem/twig I think will become more popular as people cultivate the plants themselves.. and will likely require tweaking of methods.

 

[Loveall]

I think as knowledge grows of the vast array of DMT sources, and as people will be at times working with plants in cultivation - perhaps teks could also be rated in how vast a set of plants they're effective.. eg does said tek work well for Mimosa hostilis or psychotria viridis as well as the vast swathe of Acacia.. and can it be applied to other parts of the plants and still work effectively? Phyllodes/stem/twig I think will become more popular as people cultivate the plants themselves.. and will likely require tweaking of methods.

Yeah, agreed. A general brute-force A/B usually requires cleanup steps, fighting several issues (emulsions, plant matrix breakup, etc). It is more work but will get them job done in many situations.

Then, for each specific plant there can be a specialization where the process is heavily tuned. This can result in a simple process with high yields and purity with less work, but it is very plant specific.

It makes sense to put a lot of work and effort to develop a specialized processes for the major plants (e.g. Max ion for MHRB or CIELO for columnar cacti). However, when it comes to other less common plants it is harder to justify the work.

It is kind of a catch 22, as a simple TEK would promote people growing the plant in abundance, but without people growing the plant in abundance there is no extra material and motivation to develop a simple clear TEK.

To break the impass, maybe growers could collaborate with extractors and send plant material to them. Just a thought. I'd be willing to experiment with twigs, leaves, grasses, etc if I had them. I live in a zone that has freezing Temps a few times a year and my acacias died.

 

[Sour Beef Broth]

I am late to this post but I will throw in my 2 cents. My preferred TEK is Spiritveggies. It quick, easy and hasn't let me down

 

[Transform]

I am late to this post but I will throw in my 2 cents. My preferred TEK is Spiritveggies. It quick, easy and hasn't let me down

How does that distinguish itself from any other 'TEK'? There appears to be a plethora of named TEKs these days, the names of which generally convey zero information about how they're carried out. I would take a wild guess that it is most likely a STB, or possibly A2B, using naphtha and freeze precipitation. I see you were originally looking at Cyb's Max Ion TEK, before you settled for the SpiritVeggie one, which gives some significant hints in that direction. Further details on the intricacies of your extraction experience remain to be forthcoming () although I do note that you appear to have utilised the benefits of an ultrasonic bath Any further details that you could add would be very welcome since I don't particularly fancy trawling around Reddit myself - and if you happened to an entry to the wiki that would be awesome Otherwise there's no explanation of it on the Nexus as of this moment.

It's kind of inspiring though, in that we could do with a dictionary of extraction methods and this would make a good article for the forthcoming edition of the Nexian e-zine

 

[FlagellaStink]

I am late to this post but I will throw in my 2 cents. My preferred TEK is Spiritveggies. It quick, easy and hasn't let me down

I'm not sure how closely you follow this tek, but I will say it gets a whole lot easier once you realize that most of the waiting time it requires isn't even necessary. You can knock it out pretty quickly by shortening the waits between mixing your naphtha and bark to around five minutes instead of multiple hours. There might be some other shortcuts that cut out unnecessary waiting but I can't remember off the top of my head.

It's kind of inspiring though, in that we could do with a dictionary of extraction methods and this would make a good article for the forthcoming edition of the Nexian e-zine

This sounds like a great idea. I'm not sure how laborious something like that might end up being, but as far as I know nothing like it exists, and it'd for sure be a valuable resource for A LOT of people in the community.