blue.magic
Rising Star
I usually did 500 g rue seed extractions with low yeld (little over 10 g extract) until this time I've used more vinegar for cooking and WHOA - there were several times more precipitated alkaloids than usual.
This causes many struggles along the way. For example, I dissolved all the alkaloids in 1 500 ml of hot 3% vinegar, then added 150 g of salt (the prescribed 10% of volume). To my surprise, the harmala HCl crystals crashed too quickly, making yellow sediment of the bottom.
I filtered the liquid and added base to see how much alkaloids were left behind. It was still a lot, like half the previous amount.
I therefore ran another Manske on these alkalkoids, dissolved in 1 250 ml of vinegar, added 125 g salt. Unfortunately, nothing crystalized this time, even after agitation and scraping with a stirring rod.
My theory is that maybe all the harmalas crystallized and these are companion non-harmala alkaloids so they don't crystallize from saline solution. On the other hand, the alkaloids are of same color as the harmalas.
I am tempted to run an experiment, testing many harmala/salt concentrations in different conditions (vinegar, water, impure harmalas, pure harmalas). This would take 100 test tubes and lots of time, but maybe we will finally have empirical data for estimating how much salt to add to get the best crystals.
This causes many struggles along the way. For example, I dissolved all the alkaloids in 1 500 ml of hot 3% vinegar, then added 150 g of salt (the prescribed 10% of volume). To my surprise, the harmala HCl crystals crashed too quickly, making yellow sediment of the bottom.
I filtered the liquid and added base to see how much alkaloids were left behind. It was still a lot, like half the previous amount.
I therefore ran another Manske on these alkalkoids, dissolved in 1 250 ml of vinegar, added 125 g salt. Unfortunately, nothing crystalized this time, even after agitation and scraping with a stirring rod.
My theory is that maybe all the harmalas crystallized and these are companion non-harmala alkaloids so they don't crystallize from saline solution. On the other hand, the alkaloids are of same color as the harmalas.
I am tempted to run an experiment, testing many harmala/salt concentrations in different conditions (vinegar, water, impure harmalas, pure harmalas). This would take 100 test tubes and lots of time, but maybe we will finally have empirical data for estimating how much salt to add to get the best crystals.