Root bark not aloud to dry quick enough, white mold ensues. Alkaloids damaged?

[luminarybeing]

Swim attained root bark from an acacia confusa tree. Swim did not have the immediate ability to dry the bark for days. The bark remained wet for 2 weeks or more. A fluffy white mold began to grow on the inner bark, Swim said. While cutting the bark in to managable pieces for the grinder, Swim was able to pull away the layers of inner root visibly affected by the mold on most of the bark. Swim had the question "did the mold or the many days remaining wet have a negative impact on any existing alkaloids in the root bark?". Swim is a noob and would appreciate any insight.

Swim was also wondering if Lye freezes in to a white solid. Swim used the "Lazy Man's Tek" found on the shroomery. From about half a pound, Swim came up with what could be 1/3 gram from his first pull. Swim said that seemed weak and that what Swim thought was alkaloid crystal formations in the jar did not remain crystals but quickly liguified when exposed to room temperature. Is the liquifying a result of lye content and if not then what? Swim is sorry for his inability to find the answers to these questions on his own.

 

[Mumffy]

Personally I'd be excited to see if the mold has any psychedelic properties :twisted:

Also, for future reference. I don't think it'd affect the extraction if you did it wet!

 

[Mumffy]

I should have read more thoroughly! haha. If you freeze precipitated then I'd say the melting is a common issue. When the naptha or whatever other solvent comes back to room temperatures, it dissolves the crystals again! You could try to put it back into the freezer, then when it forms again quickly filter it through a coffee filter and put the filtered crystals right back into the freezer for a bit and ween them off in the fridge. This leaves an AWFUL stink however. If you don't mind losing solvent, Id say just put all the goops on a dish and fan-dry it. It will form weak looking little crystals, but when scraped up they will be just as strong as any other!

As far as the yield, I am not familiar with your plant material!

 

[leodp]

Hi luminarybeing,
do not take it so light, some molds produce quite nasty toxins and by extracting it may as well be that you concentrate them.
Personally, I would scrap the material.
If you want to risk, it's your decision.
You may help to find some info or help at the Shroomery: growing shrooms you have to deal quite often with mold contamination.

Ciao, leodp