Working with cactus powder - What's your method?

[Fiashly]

I know there seem to me more options when working with chips or chunks but assuming you already had cactus powder to work with, what method would you use?

What is the cactus powder? Is it dried, green flesh without skin?

I am not happy with the yields I am getting so I just think there has to be a better way…

You have to know what chemicals you need for the teks you consider. Which of those chemicals are available to you, in pure enough form?
How foodsafe do you want it to be?

I use xylene, labgrade HCl, and then labgrade 99%acetone and 99%IPA for washing, so i get what i think is a fairly pure mesc-HCl product.
Very nice :d

 

[Virola78]

^ do you have all the equipment and chemicals to do the tek by 69ron?
do you want mesc-HCl or mesc-acetate? (mesc-HCl is fairly easy to purify if you have the chemicals to do so)
do you want to wash the product? (full spectrum vs mescaline, full spectrum vs foodsafety)

for 69ron tek was used:

CaOH (aquarium grade lol)
xylene (fairly pure)(next time limo will be used)
HCl37% labgrade
99%acetone and 99%IPA labgrade
funnel separator

about the safety goggles and gloves... use them with any tek
i was talking about foodsafety
things to consider imo

 

[Virola78]

^ less than full spectrum means purifying the crude extraction product. Purifying always leads to loss of product.
The more you purify, the lesser the yield (assuming the yield is purified product).
So what do you mean when you say "...I am very pleased with the effects of the full spectrum extract using limo and vinegar, but at this point I would totally settle for a less than full spectrum extract if I could just do the whole thing inside of a week or so and obtain a decent yield."

About 1%-2% yield from 69ron tek should be possible when using decent cactus.

"But after testing the extract I estimate I got less than 50% of the total alks from the material."
Ime 4 pulls is enough to obtain decent yield (~1%). What was your yield?

"Most recent time I used lye water instead of lime but the yields are still quite poor."
You used lye in the 69ron tek? No snot?

Sorry if i have more questions than answers...
Feel free ofc.

 

[ouro]

Some ideas that might help ya:

do you wash your limo before reuse? I don't have any proof, but its possible that your limo has too much other stuff dissolved in it to dissolve enough actives. Washing with strong acid and then some base could help.

If the moles of interest aren't migrating to the NP I would guess the ph isnt high enough. Also, if the paste is very thick mixing it more thoroughly while in the presence of NPS might help. Your wrist will probably get very sore.

A titration mistake/miscalculation could pull much less out of the NPS than possible. Are you certain you are salting everything out of the NPS? Titration can be very confusing.

 

[ouro]

One more thought: if you make any mistakes carrying some basic sludge with the NPS into the acid water, the sludge base will neutralize the acid instead of the alkaloid base. I'm not really familiar with the numbers 69ron gives in his tek write up, but if you have ph papers you can test the salting acid water before and after mixing it with the NPS. After mixing, the ideal ph for the acid water is about 6, any higher and there are still some alkaloids left in the NPS.

 

[Virola78]

...So I am using the ratio in the 60ron tek but whereas he suggested 25ml vinegar in 300ml limo and then repeat that step twice more I do 70-80ml all at once and let it sit.

:idea:

In the seperationfunnel there will be a balance (equilibrium?) between %mescaline in limo and %mescaline in vinegar. If you do only one pull with vinegar, then allot of mescaline will remain in the limo. When you put this limo back with the cactus it might not have much capacity to pull the mescaline, because there is still allot of stuff already in the limo. Stuff (and mescaline) you did not pull with the vinegar, because you did only one pull.

btw do you use a sep funnel 500ml?
it allows for 25ml pulls.

of course im willing to help. I am new to mescaline myself. You are helping me too.

 

[ouro]

I don't believe multiple salting from the same NP are necessary... The alkaloid base will migrate to the acidic water and neutralize the acid there. The more acid you add to the water, the more alkaloids will migrate across, depending on the pKa of the alkaloid in question. If too much acid is added, other junk that is dissolved in the NPS will start to migrate as well. If not enough acid is added, the migrating alkaloids will raise the water ph and some alks will stay in the NPS. When the ph of the water in contact with the NP is around 6, almost all (95% i believe) of the mesc will have migrated to the water. That's how I understand it anyways.