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The solution to cactus mucilage: Pectinase! (pictures in thread!)

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Crystalito

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In accordance to this thread where a commercial pectinase blend was used to degrade Peganum Harmala mucilage, an experimenter decided to try the same with cacti.

A great amount of cacti was frozen, thawed and passed through a juicer. The liguid (?) portion with quite some mucus was split into two tubs and the solids were also kept. The total volume amounted more or less to 8-10 liters , to which 2 grams of enzyme mentioned in the Peganum thread (1 gram per tub)was added. 24 hours later and with a small addition of household HCl (1-2 drops per tub, 10%) the mucilage seems to have been completely broken down! The same will be tried with the solid leftovers.

Apart from the rather "dry" description above, i am personally very amazed because the liquid that the enzyme was able to handle was complete elephant snot, with the viscosity of slime and it could be called "liquid" only euphemistically. The results exceeded my expectations so i thought i should share with others, since such a find can make one's life in the cactus fields way easier than it is.
 
an interesting tactic,
if you manage to evap that liquid i wonder what the resin may be like

additionally i wonder how much easier liquid liquid separation might be as the snot lead me to doing dry-teks with great success
 
A clarification: Due to "tempo-spatial" limitation, i operate "by proxy" (sincerely i am not..."swiming") meaning that my co-travelers take care of the procedures. As a result there might be some lag in obtaining pictures or data since they have to be relayed to me in order to provide others with the information. This project started more as a "proof of concept", a test, for which at start i didnt expect it to work so much. Unfortunatelly i do not have pictures of the starting material but i have some pictures of what became of it.

The starting material looked like this (picture NOT mine)

cacti_preparation5_12.jpg


and if left it would form two layers. The top layer that made up 1/3 of the whole "concotion" would be frothy and slimy looking like this (picture NOT mine):

cacti_preparation5_13.jpg


It behaved line a non-newtonian liquid making it impossible to filter since it "hardened" under pressure.

The "liquid" that comprised the 2/3rds had high viscosity, it formed "slimy strings" when one tried to pour it from one container to another and if shaken to be mixed with the slimy layer it took long time to separate (also bubbles in the liquid portion moved slowly towards the top indicating high viscosity)

Here are the results after adding the enzyme and overnight waiting (pictures here are ours) - jugs where shaken before photos were taken:

dsc00285wh.jpg



dsc00288ye.jpg


dsc00286zl.jpg


The black line indicates where the "1/3" layer reached before enzyme addition. Keep in mind that the "head" (slimy foam) was also "taller" and the enzymes seem to have digested it. The liquid now forms no strings when poured and hasnt got slimy appearence. Its almost the consistency of water.Also, in those jars older, boiled, slimy cactus concetrate was added after we saw that the idea was working in order to utilise the enzyme present in the liquid. Again, the mucilage was digested


Here also are the "leftovers" from the juicer, frozen, to which also enzyme will be added:

dsc00289ys.jpg



While there may be other methods as well (as dg pointed out) , digestion with enzymes is highly specific and propably can help in filtration if one chooses to filter - before going to boiling stages or utilising a pressure cooker. Also, i think such a step could shorten boiling times, and could help in an extraction the NaOH step given that the pectin/mucilage is already partialy (or totally) digested when the base is added. I also wonder how material pretreated with pectinases would extract: could pectin "hold back" water molecule trapping alkaloids as well? That could be a possibility. Also i wonder if pretreating dired material with the enzymes (hydrated of course) could lead to more efficient extractions. Anyhow i think those enzymes can come handy to those working with fresh cacti - dried cactus chips, let alone dried cactus skins or powder can be somewhat of a luxury if one is dealing with drying the material himself/herself or if his/her major supply route is a home plant not the intenet.
 
Fantastic pioneering work!

Once I bio-assayed a homegrown San Pedro... like drinking a cup of bitter snot, it's incredibly slimy indeed. This could make filtering, extracting and even drinking the cactus tea (!?) much easier :)
 
Mew, the project stopped there for the time being due to time constraints on all of the parts involved. Still, as far as mucilage goes it seems to have worked, the person i am working with reports that the "teas" with the precipitation in the fridge are stable - and also notes that they remain "thin" or going even thinner.

Sorry for being on the "very slow" side, once the extraction is completed (we are planning on pooling it with other batches, treated the same way) i will update the thread.
 
Thats certainly an option, it doesnt precipitate though so as to be removed - if thats what one would desire. I also wonder if reduction of aqueous volume after the precipitate has been removed gives a less viscous final solution to work with... If that happens, it could be an advantage.

Many roads to Rome!
 
^@ Crystallito - What were the results acheived with this? Was the extraction ever finished to give crystals and what was the yield if so? Swim is considering giving this a go.
 
The extraction is not finished yet, the big jars have been put in a freezer till time becomes less than a precious commodity... The results though that we saw was thinning of the liquid, much of the mucilage was gone and generally it seemed easier to filter and to manipulate. Its worth a go , maybe people quicker/with more time than me can chime in and help.
 
Two years later the extraction seems to be coming to fruition. Xylene pulls (6) were done with no emulsion problems whatsoever and half the liquid (eq of 3 pulls) was washed thrice with HCl water. So far these yielded aboyt 2g of alkaloids (after acetone clean-up), and the experimenters are continuing with the pulls and the saltings. Starting material was about the equivalent of 1 kg of dry whole cactus.

Pectinases seem to be working with no adverse effects on the alkaloidal content.

To clarify, product of the extraction was tried at 250mg and was certainly active for 8 hours at least (more hours till complete baseline), with OEVs and the whole mental/emotional packadge.
 
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