The basic idea is to simply cover the root bark with water basified to pH ~13 with NaOH and pulverize the material, creating an aqueous solution in which the DMT freebase is not very soluble. An excess of the NaOH is used in order to physically break down the bark and allow the DMT to be exposed to nonpolar solvent. Potassium hydroxide (KOH) could be used instead of sodium hydroxide (NaOH), but it's generally more expensive.
