starting material: cuttings, fresh cactus, echinopsis lageniformis aka trichocereus bridgesii-found growing in La Paz, Bolivia in a residencial zone
steps
-- tea extract
whole cactus minus the core diced and liquified in a blender and then boiled in acidified water. tea squeezed through cloth filter, further separation from solids with a day or two or sediment settling, and then the tea was concentrated by boiling/simmering to a light paint consistency,
5 12 inch cuttings were used which were reduced to about 200ml of concentrated tea(i didnt measure exactly)
--- added sod carbonate, mixing and adding water to maintain a light paint consistency.
added sodcarb until the reaction appeared complete.
I totally eyeballed this, judging from the change in color (turns yellow),
and also when the viscosity became like gum for some reason, then I stopped adding sod carb. I didnt measure anything or make calculations, but I estimate in a tea concentrate from 5 12 inch cuttings I used somewere around 120 grams of sodiumcarbonate to basify, perhaps more.
---following the poor man's tek, extraction vessel was a container in a pot of hot water water. Vegetable oil was used, sunflower and soy blend, about 300ml, stirred and steeped in the hot basified concentrate for an hour then separated and salted with acidified water ( 1.5cup 5%vinegar/gallon water) repeated 4-5 times..
( the basified concentrate continued yielding salted crystals in later washes with fresh oil, the sixth and seventh washes yielded almost a gram of crystals)
-- acidified water combined, boiled then evaporated in a dish.. crude crystals, about 7-8 grams yield of impure crystals. I didnt bother being precise in general since I had no clue as the to weight of the starting material and am still experimenting with the technique of it all.
recommendations?
prehaps on purifying the acetate crystals?
I would like to know if someone knows how to calculate the quantity of sodium carbonate neccesary to freebase x amount of mescaline in san pedro... or maybe how much sodium carbonate per dried grm of cactus? (for future reference)
thanks again to spiceman and allwho have and continue to contribute to the poor man's tek. vegetable oil in chemistry extractions is far from the traditional solvents used in AB extractions, but proves to be quite efficiente in capturing freebase alkaloids of the cactus type and of the acacia type.