Greetings everyone, as you might recall from my introduction essay I attempted to preform an acacia confusa extraction with limonene and sodium carbonate. I didn't realize that I should have probably mixed them with water and added the 150ml of limonene which was promptly absorbed into the mixture, realizing my mistake I tried to salvage the extraction by adding a bit of water to try and saturate the mixture then added another 150ml of limonene thinking that might extract the dmt on top of all the other things. I shook the mixture for several hours intermittently but then had to go to bed. When I awoke the limonene had been absorbed into the rest of the material so now I'm left with a brown muddy substance and an intense orange smell that is permeating my room. I have a bit more limonene on hand, some 91% isopropyl alcohol and I believe some naptha if that would be of any help. I'm new to all this so any advice would be appreciated, I don't have much money so getting more for another extraction isn't really an option. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, if need be I suppose I could post some pictures of it later if anyone wants me to.

The extraction was originally 100g of acacia confusa and around 100g sodium carbonate, I followed the tek which is on the psychonaut wiki under "d-limonene and vinegar" if your curious.

Just add vinegar (or other acid) to reduce the pH to around 2-3 (minimum acid volume should be about 1L for 100g of bark). Mix this soup thoroughly and allow to settl. Discard the non polar layer (because the DMT is now in salt form) and continue extracting per one of the teks on the site (ie base and extract with nps).

FYI the tek you were following is ridiculous (no offense intended). It actually says "the vinegar will separate and collect in the bottom as it converts the DMT from a salt and into an acetate." Yet their tek is an stb and the conversion described by this misleading statement is the formation of the acetate from DMT freebase.

Thanks for the quick reply, I'm a bit intoxicated at the moment so I'll just make sure I'm understanding correctly. Wash the mixture in a liter of vinegar which will then contain the dmt in salt form, extract said vinegar from the mixture and then preform an extraction on that?

also just to clarify currently there is no liquid in the jar, it's all just a damp mush

That is correct. As long as the pH of the aqueous solution is below 7 all of your spice will be in there

All right man thanks a lot, you've been a big help. I'll try this tomorrow and see how it goes.

one more question while I'm at it, you said that once the dmt is in the vinegar it will be in a salt form . I'm assuming that most of the A/B tek that I would have been following would be completed and all that's left is to convert the salt into smokable form (what form would that be anyway?), if anyone would be so kind to explain that to me the process behind that or reference me to something that explains that it would be really helpful. I've been looking through the teks on the site but I'm still a little confused since most of them begin with the root bark.

What did you start with if not root bark?

Once your spice is dissolved in vinegar (check pH is below 7), remove the crap layer (limo should separate leaving you with vinegar and plant matter in the bottom). Add base to your vinegar layer to achieve a pH of around 12, then extract the spice (now in freebase form) with 4x50mL naphtha.

I am going to second BongWizard's last post.
This will be the best way to salvage your operation.

alright well I've got the vinegar in a separate jar now, but I don't really have a way to measure ph. I separated the root bark into two separate jars before I washed it with vinegar so I'd estimate each pull has about 50g of bark worth in them. Sorry for being such a hassle but could you give me an estimate on how much sodium carbonate I would need to basify the dmt? Also as for the naptha pull do I just mix the naptha in with it after basifying and collect the layer or something like that? Thank you so much, this has been a total disaster and family problems have made this week really hectic so I really appreciate all the good advice. Also I used about half a liter for each pull of vinegar.

Alright, pool your vinegar extracts (you'll know the pH is sufficiently low if they take on a reddish orange hue) into a 2L bottle. In a separate bottle, dissolve 200g of sodium carbonate and 60g of salt in about 700mL of warm water. Now, slowly add the sodium carbonate/NaCl solution to your vinegar pulls (when I say slowly I mean SLOWLY. Because the neutralisation will liberate co2. remember those science fair volcanoes? Same principle). Once you've finished adding the alkaline solution, give it a good mix. The soup should take on a deep purple/black colour now (if it doesn't, add more sodium carb). Allow this solution to permeate the bark for an hour or so, shaking occasionally.

Now for the pulls. Add 50mL of naphtha to the brew and top up with water until it's about 10mm from the top (to give better resolution for removal). Gently, but thoroughly, mix the naphtha into the basic soup (READ: roll or tip the bottle end over end) and allow it to separate fully. Repeat this mixing process 3 more times. Now remove the top (naphtha) layer using a syringe/turkey baster and place in your evap dish. Do 3 more pulls, pooling the naphtha into your evap dish.

Now you can either evap to completion or evap to about 1/4 volume and freeze precip.

Alright then, I'll try and follow this the best I can. We'll see what happens, if it works I'll make a post later and probably a trip report. Thank you for all the kind advice, this forum really is full of awesome people.