Hello all, as my second post(after my intro essay) I decided to share a little breakthrough I had last night that enabled me to extract successfully from ACRB for the first time. I will provide background on the tek I am using and would appreciate any input as to what I could improve on/problems with this.

I live in a shared building. I wouldn't call it an apartment. My neighbors live above me, are also avid trippers, and we all get along. I have talked with them about DMT and it's beauty before so I don't want anyone to think that I am practicing unsafe methods. My neighbors know what I am doing with those jars. They have told me as long as I don't generate chemical smells they are fine with me extracting.

My tek revolves around this idea, smell free.

I use fumaric acid saturated water to boil shredded ACRB 3-6 times. Collect into a jar and when I do larger batches I will reduce this "ACRB tea" for ease of use. While boiling I convert Sodium BiCarb to Sodium Carb in the oven using the tek we all know(200 degrees for about an hour). Once the boils are done I strain through a mesh filter into a tall thin jar. Slowly I add Sodium Carb until the solution turns a greyish red and stops foaming. I have no pH meter. This is all very approximate, I am still working the kinks out.

Once the solution stops foaming I know it is now more basic than acidic(right?). At this point I add warmed naphtha and shake hard, releasing pressure every few shakes. After about an hour I roll the jar gently to clean the sides of any soup. The entire time the NPS is in the soup I have the jar in a warm water bath to keep things nice a warm. My problem up until last night was a bubbly emulsion layer that would take days to disperse.

Last night I squirted 90% IPA directly onto this foam and it INSTANTLY dissipated. No salt, no heat, no vibration. In my searching on how to relieve this emulsion I found no mention of this anywhere, am I correct in assuming the addition of IPA to the basified soup will not hurt my yields?

I then pull with an eyedropper all naphtha to a small jar. I repeat this pull 3-5 times then reduce the naphtha amount by half. Then it goes into a pyrex dish, covered with a snap on lid, and into my freezer which puts out air about 12 degrees(measured with an IR thermo).

After a day or two I remove from the freezer and quickly dump the naphtha back into the basic solution. The dish is then turned upside down with a small gap to allow airflow to get up inside. A fan is blown on it(no heat)until no naphtha smell remains. What is left is then scraped and enjoyed or else converted to fumarate salts for storage.

Quite a basic tek. I have tried a limonene tek using FASI but was sloppy in my technique. I will try this again. I am also curious in a vegetable oil tek that was used for MHRB but no documentation on ACRB.


TLDR : IPA will instantly break a foamy emulsion. Any problems with this? Also, when boiling the bark in acidified water, what temperature will DMT start to break down? I have a gas stove so even on the lowest setting I will have a constant simmer going. I can smell the product in the steam and am worried I am losing yields while boiling.

This will very likely effect your yields. You are adding another solvent that DMT is soluble in into the mix. Some of the DMT that should be in your NPS is going to end up is going to stay in the water/alcohol mix. You could probably recover it all eventually by doing more pulls, but the best thing to do is simply not shake your extraction vessel so emulsions don't form in the first place.

If you are doing an A/B (which I assume you are if you are using ACRB) you shouldn't have that many issues with emulsions if you roll it gently. If you try to STB on the other hand I can see emulsions being a problem.

My thought process was that the DMT was basified, thus not wanting to be in the polar layer as much as the non polar. This is why I use such a welcoming solvent like Naphtha. IPA being polar(correct?). Also, I am using a very small amount of IPA. Maybe 10mL or so in a solution of about 300-500 mL.

The emulsion seems to happen even if I simply stir with a spoon. Perhaps a stronger base would help?

My best advice to the OP would be to use a stronger base like lye instead of sodium carbonate. I would also always wait for the emulsions to die down themselves, and never add anything extra, especially another solvent like IPA.

I didn't think sodium carbonate was a strong enough base. I assumed you needed something stronger like lye. Actually I guess sodium carbonate works, but a stronger base like lye should give a better yield.

Also kind of unrelated, but what's with the people who are paranoid about smell? My tek uses everything from naphtha to lye. I also worked with xylene and acetone. Unless I'm standing right next to the naphtha/acetone/xylene, the worst smell I have comes from the vinegar during the acid step. The smell goes away once I'm finished, and it really is never bothersome in the first place. I don't get why so many people are worried about a "chemical smell".

I'm curious about this as well. I live in a 1 bedroom apt surrounded on all sides, but extract with naphtha, lye, and acetone...I also pre-evap and dry with a fan. I never smell anything except when I'm actually doing pulls, and my fiancee cannot smell it from the couch 10 feet away.

Thanks for the input guys. I am glad I only did a small batch with this technique, 40g out of what I have is really nothing.

Looking around my area I found Roebic Crystal Drain Cleaner which is advertised as 100% Lye. The MSDS shows nothing else as well. I assume this would be safe to use? Any experience with it?

Years ago I bought some from a website and it was shipped with MSDS labels on the box, really trying to source locally! I am going to try to grab some this week. After that all I need to do is find the time to do the test extract. I have saved all the bark/solution from my initial 100g test with limonene doing FASI as well as the 40g from this past run.

Any input on the boiling process? Is a simmer too hot considering I can smell the magic compound in the steam. I know that smell(love it btw) and am worried its the goodies being vaporized/carried away. Is a long boil even necessary when I use lye or can I simply A/B with near boiling water and keep the solution warm using a double boil method.

Final question, if I should make a new post just say but trying to keep forum clutter down..
Does anyone have experience using powdered Vitamin C pills for the Ascorbic Acid in them as a boiling acid? I cannot find pure Ascorbic Acid in my area but if I can just buy Vitamin C pills I'd use it. The anti-oxidant properties intrigue me too.

Hey guys I am just posting an update.

I took all the bark I had left over from my first 100g attempt where I used a pot warmer to warm a fumaric acid solution as my acid step and Sodium Carbonate as my base and combined it with the 40g of bark from this past attempt where I actually boiled 3 pulls of fumaric acid saturated water with also a base Sodium Carbonate. I put it into a bag to freeze/thaw with an additional 90g(making 250g of bark) a few times before Saturday when I will do a full boil with a Vinegar/H20 solution.

I also took all of the pinkish grey base solution I had left from both attempts and added to it water that I dissolved 10g Lye : 100mL H2O which resulted in an instant change of color to Black and broke all emulsion. It freed some trapped solvent as well. I have two jars, one kept separate because Limonene was used as a solvent, not naphtha.

The jars are going to chill basified until Saturday when I will be pulling from them and the bark being frozen with warmed naphtha. The pulls will be combined, reduced, and freeze precipitated.

A question I had is will trace amounts of Limonene affect my freeze precipitation. The first 100g were extracted once using 100% Limonene and a FASI was done producing very little product that mainly consisted of goo. I am looking for crystals this time. If it will I will keep the pulls from that jar separate from everything else. I managed to pull it all out of solution(that I can see) and can't smell an orange aroma but I imagine there is some still in there floating around.

More updates to come wish me luck travelers!