Hey Everybody -
I was wondering if I could get some expert's opinions on these issues.

1st Extraction: I used 100g of San Pedro. I followed the extraction exactly with the exception of adding only 200mL of water (this seemed to be about the right consistency).
To mix the vinegar, I swirled my separatory funnel pretty intensely for 5 minutes. Did 3 limonene pulls and 3 vinegar pulls.
My problem with this tek was that my cactus mixture absorbed darn near 295mL of the initial limonene pour. I added 300mL and proceeded to do the 3 pulls.

Final Yield: 500mg of really brown resiny goo. I tried 100mg doses twice and got really odd results. I didn't get euphoria but more of a disphoria. I was questioning my meaning in life and overall felt very uncomfortable for the day. I tried a 300mg dose and got pretty crazy visuals and definitely felt like I was exploring foreign areas of my mind, but again no euphoria. Very uncomfortable. I assume that means I pulled out ALOT of non-mescaline alkaloids.

2nd Extraction: I did two seperate extractions. 200g of San Pedro and 100g of Peruvian Torch. I had the p.torch in my french press, and the san pedro in a big bowl. I followed the directions exactly (added 300mL and 600mL water respectively).

The next morning, the peruvian torch absorbed about 250mL of the limonene and the san pedro (the big bowl) absorbed none. I swirled the vinegar vigorously and pulled (into the same drying pan which was my mistake). Did 3 limonene pulls and 3 vinegar pulls.

Final Yield: 1g!!! That's only a .35% yield! I cleaned it in MEK and ended up with 200mg of whiteish powder. I bioassayed my drying pan with some diet coke (I must've picked up about 100-180mg because I had euphoria and pretty psychedelic visuals. I visited my grandma at the top of my peak for a couple hours and she was bragging to my mom about how great a visit we had ).

I had saved the limonene from all these pulls in a gallon jug and let it settle. I pulled out about 10mL of leftover vinegar that I'd gotten in their and evapped that. Interestingly enough, I got 200mg of pretty whiteish looking powder with crystal formation on the tray (Haven't tested). Why?

I then poured about 28oz of sparkling water into it. Shook it pretty hard about 10 times letting off pressure when I felt the jug expanding too much. I evapped this with heat and the oven overnight and ended up with 500mg of really powdery almost pure white crystals (Haven't tested).

So I guess what I'm asking is what is the reason for this? I bought from a bay seller that seemed pretty legit to me. I purchased dried outer flesh grown outdoors in AZ. Again, their is no way to know this is true, but I feel it is.

Reasons:
1. Bad Quality Cactus
2. Limonene getting stuck in my cactus goo is screwing me up (How do I stop this from happening? Stop using the french press)
3. Vinegar is only pulling the alkaloids from the mixture and not the mescaline (Is swirling wrong?)

Can anyone shed some more light on this? The issues I'm having with this extraction are making me consider some of the more toxic extractions just to see if it is the cactus or not...

I've been playing with this tek for a couple of weeks. I've always lost limonene in the cactus. Lately, I have been doing 400ml for the first soak. This leaves me with about 300ml of limonene after filtering out the cactus. Lately, I will let the water/lime/cactus mix dry out for a whole 24 hours or more. The first couple of extractions, I did the limonene soak only an hour to 3 hours after I added the water and lime. I've also been adding less and less water. I did 250 ml the first time, then 200 ml, and worked down to 150 ml per 100 grams. The less water I add at the beginning, the more limonene I seem to pull out. Also, I'm thinking that letting it sit for over 24 hours to "dry up" helps.

I've been putting my limonene/vinegar into a bottle so I can shake it easily. I don't like to shake my sep. funnel, I barely like to swirl it. I have a glass vinegar bottle and it works great. When you shake it thoroughly over a couple of hours in a glass bottle it develops something of an emulsion. This emulsion isn't really an emulsion by definition, I don't think. I can get rid of it by letting it sit for hours, heating up the limonene/vinegar, or by swirling the separatory funnel. The glass bottle works great for carbonated water. I wouldn't dare shake my sep.funnel with carbonated water in it. I am very careful to burp my sep.funnel when using carbonated water. I find leaving the vinegar with the limonene over a long period pulls more out. Whether it pulls more gunk or more good is not known.

I think the french press works great, but after the last soak I will wring the cactus mash through a tshirt. The tshirt will let some plant matter though, but this can just be re-filtered. The french press is very convenient, but not efficient. Could one used something that would "mash" oil from seeds, etc.? An oil press?

About yield. The first extraction I used bridgessi and got a beige to light orange waxy stuff, not very sticky or stinky. Ever since, I have used sanpedro and peruvian, and I get a dark red/maroon/brown sticky, stinky, waxy stuff, that smells much worse than the bridgessi. The first couple of extractions I used only vinegar. Lately, I have been mixing the carbonated water pulls with the vinegar pulls to get a product that is much easier to worth with, less sticky. I don't like powder, but I don't like dealing with a sticky mess. If I use only carbonated water, then I get a white/beige powder.
With the first extraction with bridgessi, I used fresh cactus that I cut and prepared myself. No core or white flesh was used. Very little skin and even fewer thorns were used. I got an amazing 9.1g from 100 grams. Ever since, I have been using pedro and peruvian that has the skin and thorns and some white, I pull off about 3 to 5g from 100g. I have been drying out my "dried cactus" in a food dehydrator at 155f/68c. The dried cactus flesh still seems to hold moisture even when "dry." It powders much more easily after a couple hour is the dehydrator. The dried powder I prepared myself was much greener than the dried flesh I get from sellers. I'm sure some skin, thorns and white are left to add weight. The greener the powder the higher the yield.

For every 100 grams, I will do 4 soaks, and 4 pulls on each soak. That means 16 pulls on each 100 grams. I hope this helps.

*Shaking instead of swirling will probably help.
*I let the limo and cactus sit for 24 hours, stirring every 4-12 hours.
*I let the vinegar and limo mix for at least an hour, sometimes I will let it sit for a whole 24 hours. I'm sure this will lead to a more impure product, but I don't want to miss anything. Hence, the long time periods and 4 soaks.