i got problems my brothers and sisters.....big, fat extraction issues...
here's the poop as it stands thus far:
1. did a STB tek with 1/2 lb. mimosa bark. mixed with a little less than a gallon of water and 1 lb. lye. dissolved lye in water in one jug then added it to the powder in another. what i'm left with is a gallon jug 3/4 full of soy sauce. perfect.
2. didn't do any defats....just added warm naphtha (200ml) and pulled. put in jar, straight in freezer. like you do...
3. did step 2 one more time in a separate pull jar and placed in freezer next to jar #1. again, totally according to plan.
i wanted to see how much spice would precip out because i was starting to think i had purchased some bunk bark. i found a special online you see....6 lbs for $250. i went for it hoping for the best. it arrived in 12 half-pound bags....how cool is that?? i figured it was a sign for me to diddle around with various teks to find the 'perfect' one...
i did two previous A/B teks and got horrible results. i think i'm just an STB guy at heart...
anyways, this third time i thought i'd go with what i know to see if it was the tek or the bark that was not working.
couple hours later i peek in the freezie and there appears to be a good amount of magic crashing out. HOORAY!!
so...here's where things get funky... :?
i'm running low on fumarate, so instead of going for a third and fourth naphtha pull, i decide to do two 200 ml xylene pulls to get everything out and convert it to fumarate. i do the pulls (piss yellow) and proceed to do a sodium carbonate wash on them. two sodium carb washes and one water wash (about 50 ml each go).
i add 2 grams of fumaric acid to 200ml acetone to make a super-saturated FASA and i add about 50 ml. to the cleaned xylene.
poof. cloudy. perfect.
i shake the bejeezus out of it and wait to see the magic crystals appear.
nothing. :shock:
i add a little more FASA.
exact same deal. :?
like the moron i can be, i say screw it and add the whole lot to the xylene and shake it like a polaroid picture only to have bupkiss. nada. zilch. the big bagel...
NOW THEN: i KNOW i didn't snatch all of the magic out of 1/2 pound of MHRB with just two 200ml naphtha pulls. i KNOW in my heart that there is a bunch of spice in that xylene....after two hours, the jar has a little bit of oily yellow sludge on the sides but nary a single fumarate crystal. what do i do? is there a way to get the FASA out of the xylene and just try to evap the xylene down?
are there any tricks i can do to make this tragedy come good?
i'm prayin' over here....:roll:
WITH THE DEEPEST LOVE AND GRATITUDE!!