sodium carbonate (washing soda) for base

[acacian]

hi all, just wondering if these would be ok for the base. Redirect Notice

the back of the packet says they are made with sodium carbonate and water. and would shellite be ok to use in combination? or would another solvent be needed. alternatively i have sodium hydroxide but would rather use sodium carbonate if possible

 

[Kash]

If your talking about using sodium carbonate in place of lye in the basifying step to extract spice from the plant matter...

The answer is a big NO! The pH wont be high enough to free the DMT out of the plant material. Need to use a stronger base.

You can base the spice with sodium carbonate if it has already been extracted and you are converting from fumarate(or any other salt) to freebase.

 

[acacian]

its an a/b i'm doing and i have already boiled the plant matter and strained it

 

[Kash]

Still going to say you need a stronger base. I am an A/B type myself and I know that when pH is too low when going from acid extract to basified I have gotten this really thick grey solution with metallic looking solids in it that forms a nasty emulsion. Upon adding more strong base they dissolve.

You should try basifying with carbonate a small portion of your extract yourself and see what happens. There is no risk anyway besides extra work. You can just basify further with lye and there wont be any loss.

 

[endlessness]

Ive tried sodium carbonate in a dry tek experiment and it seems to work using ethanol to do the first pulls, even though sodium carbonate doesnt raise the pH too much... If you do an a/b and want to try using sodium carbonate, use a lot of it (saturate the solution), and use a stronger solvent like limonene or xylene or dcm etc. With shellite the yield will probably be poor.

Two other things about sodium carb is, when you add to the acidic solution, it will start foaming, so add it very slowly.. Also, there will probably be more emulsion, so dont shake the layers, stir, and if emulsion happens add a lot of salt.

In any case, if you have patience, do with part of your material a different tek using sodium carb or whatever, and compare the results, and let us know how it goes As kash said, if it goes wrong you can always add lye and pull again