STB Xylene pulls are Reddish in color!

[yaxar]

I have previously had successful extractions from notilca and MHRB. Last night i started extracting from 600gms of Acacia Notilca through STB (4 Liters water and 600gms of NaOH)
Upon my first pull after 2 hours, i realized that the xylene was reddish in color. The lye solution also has a tint of red to it. I dont understand how did the red pigment got in xylene ? :s Seems like the blood of the tree but anyway, wanted to ask if it was normal for fresh xylene to go red on first pull.

 

[endlessness]

yes its normal for xylene pulls to have red tint with MHRB (research 'jungle spice', check our FAQ and all). I have no experience with acacias but I can imagine this can be possible with them too, getting red tone to the solvent.. You can make a sodium carbonate wash in the xylene just in case, to make sure that red tint isnt tiny droplets from the basic solution but rather just normal plant oils and alkaloids that xylene pulled.

did you check the msds of your xylene to see if its pure?

 

[yaxar]

thanks for the tip endlessness. I will do a sodium carbonate wash just in case. I did a FASA on a portion of the xylene and currently see some nice white furmates, the whitest i ever have had.
the xylene is pure and have served me well in past extractions.
This will be my fifth extraction and am really enjoying it.
Cheers!