[REQUEST] Tek for someone with no access to ethyl acetate, toulene, xylene, acetone, MEK

[lovelove]

Hi guys

I've been reading a ton of threads and have a very low understanding of all the chemistry going on. It's not clear to me why some specific ingredients are used while others not. I humbly request your empathy to my ignorance, and I have the desire to learn.

I have read and was preparing to do the CIELO tek (thanks @Loveall for such a simple process) but unfortunately I am unable to procure Ethyl Acetate
I then consulted the 69ron limonene tek. I am, in fact, able to get limonene. However, I am unable to get acetone or MEK, either of which are used in the process to get pure mescaline.

I am able to get: d-limonene, white vinegar, hcl acid, citric acid, fumaric acid, ethanol, IPA, calcium hydroxide (I think). This isn't an exhaustive list, it's just the ingredients I saw in the teks I read, maybe there are other things I can get if I knew what to substitute for what. In general, assume maximum restrictions on anything.

People are discussing some kind of Limonene/FASI method but I wasn't able to find a specific step-by-step guide that starts with cactus powder.

I would greatly appreciate if someone wrote me a step-by-step with the ingredients I can get. The chemistry of the process is not clear to me, so explanations that involve chemical jargon and theory are difficult for me to understand (when I read sentences like "pull the salt from the base and just titrate" or stuff like that, I have no idea what I'm reading, to me salt is table salt , or like "dry tek", why is it dry when there's water involved?). I am trying to understand the theory by reading the threads that explain the chemistry behind the extractions but I'm having difficulty grokking it, I apologize.

 

[pete666]

I haven’t tried all the teks available here — I have my own method — but maybe I can help you a bit or at least point you in the right direction.

In Ron’s tek, you don’t need to purify the extract further. The result is likely around 50% or more pure mescaline acetate. Why would you want to purify it further? Doing so removes the full-spectrum character of the product, leaving only pure mescaline, which many people find less desirable. Every cactus contains other alkaloids that may influence the effects of mescaline — sometimes positively, sometimes negatively — but they seem to give each cactus its own unique 'soul'.

If you prefer a solid end product, like a powder, you can probably use HCl instead of vinegar. That way, you’ll end up with mescaline HCl instead of mescaline acetate. Mescaline HCl tends to be more powdery; even if it's not entirely clean and may appear dark, it’s still more of a powder than a waxy substance.

If there's any part of a tek you don’t understand, you can copy the text into ChatGPT and ask follow-up questions. It’s smart enough to explain pretty much any aspect of it to anyone who can ask the right questions.

And if ChatGPT doesn’t know something, or if you’re unsure about anything it says — or if you just want confirmation — don’t hesitate to ask here.

 

[lovelove]

I haven’t tried all the teks available here — I have my own method — but maybe I can help you a bit or at least point you in the right direction.

In Ron’s tek, you don’t need to purify the extract further. The result is likely around 50% or more pure mescaline acetate. Why would you want to purify it further? Doing so removes the full-spectrum character of the product, leaving only pure mescaline, which many people find less desirable. Every cactus contains other alkaloids that may influence the effects of mescaline — sometimes positively, sometimes negatively — but they seem to give each cactus its own unique 'soul'.

If you prefer a solid end product, like a powder, you can probably use HCl instead of vinegar. That way, you’ll end up with mescaline HCl instead of mescaline acetate. Mescaline HCl tends to be more powdery; even if it's not entirely clean and may appear dark, it’s still more of a powder than a waxy substance.

If there's any part of a tek you don’t understand, you can copy the text into ChatGPT and ask follow-up questions. It’s smart enough to explain pretty much any aspect of it to anyone who can ask the right questions.

And if ChatGPT doesn’t know something, or if you’re unsure about anything it says — or if you just want confirmation — don’t hesitate to ask here.

I feel gratitude that pete was kind enough to take the time to respond.

Apologies for the confusion, upon rechecking I am actually *not* able to procure hcl acid, or sulfuric acid, or acetic acid (apart from white vinegar).

I do want the pure mescaline if possible given my limitations, not the full spectrum cactus extract.

I will attempt 69ron's tek with reduced water as per CIELO. In 69ron's guide he uses 1:3 cactus:water ratio, whereas CIELO uses 1:2. I asked GPT if that's OK and it said:

```
Adjusting the water-to-cactus ratio and solvent volume from the CIELO method (ethyl acetate) to the vinegar/d-limonene method may not improve efficiency and could even complicate or reduce yields. Here’s a breakdown of the key factors:

---

1. Water-to-Cactus Ratio

• Original vinegar/d-limonene method: 100g cactus → 300ml water (1:3).
  • Purpose: Ensure proper hydration for calcium hydroxide (lime) to basify the cactus, converting mescaline salts → freebase. Excess water helps prevent the mix from drying out, improving solubility.
• Proposed 1:2 ratio (100g cactus → 200ml water):
  • Risk: Insufficient water may lead to incomplete basification. Lime requires moisture to react with plant material and hydrolyze mescaline. A drier mix could leave mescaline trapped in the cactus matrix.

---

2. Solvent Volume

• Original vinegar method: 100g cactus → 300ml limonene.
  • Role: D-limonene (non-polar solvent) dissolves freebase mescaline. Higher solvent volume maximizes contact with plant material, improving extraction efficiency.
• Proposed reduction to 225ml limonene:
  • Risk: Less solvent could lead to saturation, leaving mescaline unextracted. For non-polar solvents like limonene, smaller volumes require more pulls to compensate.

---

3. Solvent Properties Matter

• Ethyl acetate (CIELO): Polar aprotic solvent.
  • Dissolves mescaline freebase and allows citric acid to dissolve/react for crystallization.
  • Works with lower water ratios because mescaline remains soluble in the solvent.
• D-limonene (Vinegar method): Non-polar solvent.
  • Requires acetic acid (vinegar) in a separate aqueous phase to salt mescaline out.
  • Cannot retain mescaline effectively if the water ratio is too low.

---

Experimental Trade-Offs

If you adjust ratios:

• Potential benefits: Slightly faster process (less solvent to evaporate post-salting).
• Drawbacks:
  • Lower yields due to incomplete basification/solvent saturation.
  • Higher risk of emulsions (non-polar/water phase separation issues).
  • Need for additional pulls to compensate for lost efficiency.

```

I also asked GPT if using more than 300ml of limonene is benificial, and it said yes. So I'm wondering why the tek doesn't say to use 1L limonene to 100g cactus powder right off the bat?

 

[pete666]

I feel gratitude that pete was kind enough to take the time to respond.

You are welcome my friend

I do want the pure mescaline if possible given my limitations, not the full spectrum cactus extract.

Well, I doubt this is possible in your case. Pure mescaline needs purification. For that you need required chemicals.
Why do you need pure mescaline?
Some cacti have higher content of other alkaloids, some have less. You can get anything between 1%-50% of other alkaloids in the extraction product ime.
Having possibility to try various cacti and then proper selection can help you eliminate unwanted alkaloids even before the extraction.

I will attempt 69ron's tek with reduced water as per CIELO. In 69ron's guide he uses 1:3 cactus:water ratio, whereas CIELO uses 1:2.

Why do you want to reduce the water? Everyone who worked on any tek or tweaked any existing tek had to solve various problems. The ratios usually have some reason(s).
Keep it as simple as possible for the first time, even when the result is not perfect or you think you can change the process to be more convenient. Especially without proper knowledge. I wouldn't change anything for the first time. In case of success, some tweaks may be applied in next run(s), so you see the difference (often failure).

I also asked GPT if using more than 300ml of limonene is benificial, and it said yes. So I'm wondering why the tek doesn't say to use 1L limonene to 100g cactus powder right off the bat?

Every pull is done with solvent free of extracted chemical (mescaline in our case). Ron suggests at least 2 pulls with 300ml, but maybe 3 pulls are better (you get more). The more solvent you use in each pull (1 liter in your case), the better. Less pulls will be necessary and more mescaline will be extracted. But never do just one pull with a lot of solvent, it is always better to split the solvent and do more smaller pulls. Amount of solvent for one pull is always a balance between price of the solvent and expected outcome.

 

[doubledog]

In my experience, cactus to water ratio should be less than 1:3, I personally use 1:2, but I use different solvent.

I think that with your ingredients, you could prepare quite pure mescaline. But it will require some experience, especially with recrystallization.

In general, for successful extraction, you need to understand basics of chemistry. It is also very important to adjust your procedure to your exact conditions.

Edit: "dry tek" is definitely wrong naming, it should be called "wet tek"

 

[lovelove]

You are welcome my friend


Well, I doubt this is possible in your case. Pure mescaline needs purification. For that you need required chemicals.
Why do you need pure mescaline?
Some cacti have higher content of other alkaloids, some have less. You can get anything between 1%-50% of other alkaloids in the extraction product ime.
Having possibility to try various cacti and then proper selection can help you eliminate unwanted alkaloids even before the extraction.


Why do you want to reduce the water? Everyone who worked on any tek or tweaked any existing tek had to solve various problems. The ratios usually have some reason(s).
Keep it as simple as possible for the first time, even when the result is not perfect or you think you can change the process to be more convenient. Especially without proper knowledge. I wouldn't change anything for the first time. In case of success, some tweaks may be applied in next run(s), so you see the difference (often failure).


Every pull is done with solvent free of extracted chemical (mescaline in our case). Ron suggests at least 2 pulls with 300ml, but maybe 3 pulls are better (you get more). The more solvent you use in each pull (1 liter in your case), the better. Less pulls will be necessary and more mescaline will be extracted. But never do just one pull with a lot of solvent, it is always better to split the solvent and do more smaller pulls. Amount of solvent for one pull is always a balance between price of the solvent and expected outcome.

I understand that the teks are a result of trial and error, though I wanted to iterate better over it as I saw the original ron69 tek was posted all the way back in 2015 or something like that, so I browsed these forums to get the latest experimentation updates. I want to use reduced water based on reading these two posts by the author of the more modern CIELO method @Loveall: The Minimalist’s Mescaline Microwave Assisted Drytek The Minimalist’s Mescaline Microwave Assisted Drytek
specifically the quotes:

- I personally found 69ron's Tek, 12:4:1 water:cactus:Ca(0H)2, to be a little too wet for limonene mixing/separation

and

After all these tests, I'm finding that ron69's limonene tek works well, but I personally like modifying the alkaline paste by reducing the water:cacti from 3:1 to 1.5:1 in the microwave (using a scale to track water weight) and then adding ~25% of the remaining water weight as salt. For me, this gives a more workable paste that gets pulled relatively well with limonene.

---

Thanks for clarifying the multiple pulls of less solvent being better than one pull of more solvent question!

 

[lovelove]

I have some more questions, the 69ron tek mentions multiple saltings with white vinegar of the 300ml limonene, and then repeating the limonene pull and then again multiple applications of the white vinegar to the limonene.
0. In the CIELO guide, @Loveall uses pH paper strips to measure the solvent and determine if the mescaline is fully extracted or not. Is this measurement happening inside the french press that contains the cactus paste + ethyl acetate, or is he measuring it in the jar where he pours the ethyl acetate into after running it through a coffee filter? Can I use the pH paper in the same way to determine the extraction progress with limonene?
1. If I'm doing 4 pulls of limonene 250ml and combining them into one jar like the CIELO method does with ethyl acetate, is that OK? GPT says it's OK
2. If the above is OK, can I then also use multiple saltings of white vinegar 100ml (~4x), to get 400ml vinegar at the end, is that OK? GPT says it's OK
3. after I evaporate the vinegar and am left with "waxy amber slightly impure mescaline acetate", can I use some process to purify it further given the ingredients I have? here's what GPT says:

Purification Steps

1. Dissolve in Warm Water/Acidic Solution
   • Dissolve the crude waxy product in a minimal amount of warm water (or dilute vinegar, as the acetate salt is water-soluble).
   • Heat gently (e.g., 50–60°C, no boiling) to aid dissolution.
   • Filter the warm solution through a coffee filter to remove insoluble impurities (e.g., plant waxes, lipids).
2. IPA Precipitation
   • Slowly add IPA to the filtered solution while stirring. Use a 2:1 IPA-to-water ratio by volume (e.g., add 20 mL IPA to 10 mL solution).
   • Mescaline acetate, being less soluble in IPA/water mixtures, will precipitate as a purer crystalline solid.
   • Cool the mixture in an ice bath to maximize crystallization.
   • Filter the crystals using a coffee filter or fine cloth.
3. Optional: Acid-Base Re-extraction (for Stubborn Impurities)
   • Basify: Redissolve the crystals in water, then add calcium hydroxide until pH 9–10 (use pH strips if available). Mescaline converts to its freebase form, which precipitates.
   • Isolate Freebase: Filter out the freebase, wash with cold water to remove calcium acetate impurities, and redissolve in dilute vinegar (5–10% acetic acid).
   • Re-precipitate: Evaporate the vinegar solution in a dehydrator (≤155°F) or under a fan to recover purified mescaline acetate.
4. Final Wash (Optional)
   • For residual impurities, wash the dried crystals with cold IPA to dissolve away remaining waxes.
   • Filter and dry again.

---

Key Considerations

• Calcium Acetate Removal: Water-soluble calcium acetate may remain in the filtrate during IPA precipitation or acid-base steps.
• Yield vs. Purity: Multiple recrystallizations or re-extractions improve purity but reduce yield.
• Color Improvement: If plant pigments persist, repeated dissolution/filtration (step 1) helps remove colored impurities.

Final Product: White to off-white crystalline/powdered mescaline acetate with reduced wax and impurities.

 

[doubledog]

Ph measurement is done on solvent after separation from cactus paste, to check if it contains something alkaloids. I am not sure if you could measure pH in limonene.
1. Yes, that's ok, combine all pulls.
2. You don't need multiple saltings, one is enough, but really good mixing of water phase with solvent is crucial here. Limonene seems to be somehow more difficult to mix with water than other solvents.
3. For purification, proposed method will work, but acetate form is not very convenient, citric would be better. Different salts of mescaline have different solubility in water and for IPA precipitation, you need salt which is not super soluble in water. Acetate is very soluble, citrate is also not ideal. Maybe with higher ratio of IPA:water (4:1) it could work. I would definitely try other acid, not vinegar. Fumaric could be better than citric, tartaric acid is also very good.

 

[lovelove]

Ph measurement is done on solvent after separation from cactus paste, to check if it contains something alkaloids. I am not sure if you could measure pH in limonene.
1. Yes, that's ok, combine all pulls.
2. You don't need multiple saltings, one is enough, but really good mixing of water phase with solvent is crucial here. Limonene seems to be somehow more difficult to mix with water than other solvents.
3. For purification, proposed method will work, but acetate form is not very convenient, citric would be better. Different salts of mescaline have different solubility in water and for IPA precipitation, you need salt which is not super soluble in water. Acetate is very soluble, citrate is also not ideal. Maybe with higher ratio of IPA:water (4:1) it could work. I would definitely try other acid, not vinegar. Fumaric could be better than citric, tartaric acid is also very good.

Thank you for taking the time to answer! I feel so grateful someone cares enough to take the time to read these

I think I might be able to get my hands on fumaric and/or tartaric acid. Would you be so kind as to explain how the process changes? I've seen @Loveall mention mixing fumaric acid with IPA and using that in the limonene salting process, but I'm not sure I understand completely how the steps are now changed starting from step 4: "Add 25 ml of vinegar to the d-limonene. Mix thoroughly.". From what I understand, instead of adding the vinegar (following this DMT-specific guide):

1. You take a small jar and put 5g fumaric acid in it and then fill the jar with your 99% IPA. Then mix this together until the IPA is completely saturated. This creates Fumaric Acid Saturated IPA(FASI). Most likely you will have excess fumaric acid on the bottom but that is fine.
2. Now SLOWLY pour your FASI into your jar of mescaline-saturated d-limonene. The slower the better. For best results add 10ml FASI every 5 minutes until you dont see any more cloud forming in the d-limonene. This will crystalize out your mescaline from the d-limonene.
3. Allow this to sit for at least 24 hours after you stop putting in FASI so that the mescaline Fumarate can fully crystalize out.
4. After 24 hours add another 1ml of FASI to make sure all mescaline has precipitated out.
5. After you collect the mescaline fumarate from the jar by pouring the jar's contents through a coffee filter into another jar and having the crystals in your coffee filter, put the d-limonene back into the jar and let it sit for a few days.
6. More mescaline fumarate will precipitate over time. Now pour off the d-limonene from your now beautiful crystals.
7. Turn the jar upside down and put it on a paper towel to absorb any extra D-Limonene that drips out. Allow this to sit out until it dries a bit more. You can use a bit of heat and a fan to speed this process up. Now scrape up your mescaline fumarate. It will smell mildly of oranges. DONE

Is this correct? Though, this post says that 69ron tried fumaric and failed to get good results:

69ron tried salting Mescaline-fumurate out of d-limonene but it is somewhat soluble in the d-limonene and doesn't precipitate out like DMT-fumurate.

Though perhaps 69ron was using fumaric acid in water? The FASIPA method has this comment from "narmz" over 10 years ago:

SWIM has found that mescaline fumarate can be precipitated in essentially the same way as DMT fumarate. The one thing he found is that this process must be entirely free of water, so using calcium chloride or anhydrous magnesium sulfate is a must in both the IPA/Fumaric acid solution, and the Limonene/Mescaline solution....


...SWIM's past experiments have found that Mescaline fumarate is fairly insoluble in dry/cold IPA, though this is not necessarily important if the IPA/Fumaric solution is added slowly/dropwise and left to precip for a day in the limonene, the precips after decanting are some of the cleanest mesc SWIM has ever precipped straight out of solution (cleaner than the precips SWIM yielded using the dry acetone/HCL solution method) and don't need any further purification steps.

SWIM thinks the next most valuable steps in the development of mesc teks would be the determination of methods to precipitate and purify fumarate and citrate salts, as they can be salted directly out of solution easily, and they aren't as finnicky as trying to do the same with HCL salt out of NP solution. SWIM is positive that mesc fumarate is a viable, non-hygroscopic salt form that could easily replace the HCL salt form if some more time and experimentation were put into it.

What if I use tartaric acid instead? Is it easier? How is the process different? I've seen some people complaining about the fumaric form of mescaline on the forums for one reason or another. Though this user seems to have tried tartaric and is calling it a bust:

SWIM is thinking that this tek is a bust, the crystals that were spoken of earlier were likely just tartaric acid.

SWIM tried it in the following way:
saturated 25ml of water with tartaric acid.
Added 5ml at a time to 1/4 of a pull of limonene (the rest of which was salted with HCL and is currently evaporating with some beautiful needles on the fringes)
Heated in a bath of near-boiling water and shook until it no longer changed color.
Seperated the bottom yellow liquid and put in the fridge. Also put the tartaric-acid-saturated-water to make sure it
wouldn't precipitate.
Repeated with another pull of 5ml, was much less yellow. combined with other pull in the fridge.

8 hours later: both are clear, no precipitation.
Even if there will be precipitation after a while longer it definately won't be any large portion of the yield.

This tek: Bust.

 

[doubledog]

There are three possible ways to get mescaline from a non polar solvent:

1. To extract into acidic water. Acid is dissolved in water (vinegar is acetic acid in water) and mixed with extraction solvent. Mescaline forms salt with the acid and moves into the water. Water is then evaporated.
Obviously, you have to use acid soluble in water: acetic, citric, tartaric, sulfuric, malic, ascorbic and more. Lot of options here.

2. To precipitate directly using acid dissolved in some secondary solvent, which is miscible with your extraction solvent and in which the acid is soluble, typicaly isopropanol or acetone. Water is not present, so mescaline salt precipitates in solid form. This method is often called FASI or CASA or similar depending on acid used. You can not use acid which is normally available only diluted with water (sulfuric or acetic), so less options here.

Different acid does not change process used for options 1 and 2, it is important afterwards, during purification by recrystalization. Some mescaline salts crystalizes very well, some not.

3. To precipitate using acid which is soluble in extraction solvent and which creates salt of mescaline insoluble in this solvent. Works only for some special combinations of solvent and acid, so very few option here. CIELO is one of them.

 

[lovelove]

Ph measurement is done on solvent after separation from cactus paste, to check if it contains something alkaloids. I am not sure if you could measure pH in limonene.
1. Yes, that's ok, combine all pulls.
2. You don't need multiple saltings, one is enough, but really good mixing of water phase with solvent is crucial here. Limonene seems to be somehow more difficult to mix with water than other solvents.
3. For purification, proposed method will work, but acetate form is not very convenient, citric would be better. Different salts of mescaline have different solubility in water and for IPA precipitation, you need salt which is not super soluble in water. Acetate is very soluble, citrate is also not ideal. Maybe with higher ratio of IPA:water (4:1) it could work. I would definitely try other acid, not vinegar. Fumaric could be better than citric, tartaric acid is also very good.

For (2), I don't mind doing 3 saltings of 50ml white vinegar each if that'll improve my yields. GPT seems to think it will allow me to salt ~95-99% instead of ~90% with just one salting. Has your experience been better with one bigger salting?

 

[doubledog]

I do only one salting. In the past, I tested this and second salting yielded nothing. First one should extract everything from the nonpolar layer. If you want to be sure, make two saltings.

 

[lovelove]

Reporting back on what I've done with some questions.
I've completed the modified ron69 process as such:

1. sliced the 1085g cactus up in half-inch thick slices
2. dried them in the oven with the door open, temperature was monitored and never exceeded 70C
3. blended the dried stars until flour-like consistency, with particles hanging in the air due to how fine they are
4. weighed the resulting powder at 90g
5. combined the cactus powder with 22.5g of PA-grade (pro analysis, intended for analytical or laboratory applications) calcium hydroxide and mixed until uniform
6. added 120g water and kneaded with nitrile-gloved hands until reaching the consistency shown in the CIELO guide, used this video as reference
7. transferred the powder into a glass/stainless steel french press
8. added 200ml d-limonene to the french press, stirred with a stainless steel spoon for a few minutes and left it for an hour
9. pressed down as hard as I could and poured off the d-limonene into a separate jar through a coffee filter
10. repeated steps 8-9 until a total of 5x200ml d-limonene were combined in the same jar; the resulting liquid in the jar was transparent with a green tint, pretty much exactly like the picture in the CIELO guide
11. added 50ml white vinegar into the jar, sealed the jar, shook the jar vigorously for 10 minutes like a protein shake
12. the solvent became cloudy, waited for the layers to separate for 20 minutes
13. they didn't separate, placed the jar in the fridge for 30 minutes
14. they separated, but the solvent was still cloudy, so I asked GPT and he said to add a gram of epsom salts to help speed it up
15. I took my 1g of my PA-grade epsom salts, microwaved in 30-second bursts until they lost their water (became opaque white instead of transparent) and added to the jar
16. didn't seem to do much, the solvent was still cloudy and there was still a separate layer at the bottom
17. figured it won't become uncloudy, so took a stainless steel food syringe and sucked the vinegar from the bottom of the jar and transferred it into a different vessel
18. there may have been a tiny bit of d-limonene in the transferred liquid, but I figured it was safe enough, placed in a water bath at 90C to evaporate off the vinegar
19. the liquid turned from slightly cloudy transparent to orange/red transparent as the vinegar heated up
20. after the evaporation finished I was left with sticky mass that still contained the epsom salts as GPT had told me
21. GPT instructed me that epsom salts are soluble in water but not in ethanol, so I took refridgerator-chilled 20ml 96% food grade grain ethanol and dissolved what I had
22. after stirring for like 10 minutes I figured everything that could dissolve did dissolve and I filtered it through a coffee filter, leaving behind ~870mg of white-colored impurities behind
23. i then boiled off the ethanol at 90C and scraped up the brown resin that remained behind. Total weight - about 500mg

Here are my questions:

Even after leaving the jar over a few days the d-limonene remains cloudy.

1. Why?
2. Does it matter?
3. Can I reuse it?

At the bottom of the jar is a bit of the vinegar I didn't suck out, there is a fuzzyness to the border as you can see, not a clear separation. This fuzzyness was also there prior to the sucking out of most of the vinegar

1. Is this normal?
2. Why does this happen?
3. What does it mean?
4. Should the fuzzyness be sucked out or left in the jar?

These were the impurities left behind in the coffee filter after I dissolved the evaporated vinegar solids in the ethanol, they weigh 870mg

1. Are these just epsom salts?
2. They tested positive for mescaline using the marquis reagent test, is this because they just contain a tiny bit trace mescaline?

Here's the final product I got, weighs about 500mg. It's very sticky and difficult to handle

1. Is this how it's supposed to look?
2. Any way to make handling it easier? I want to load it into capsules