So to put it all together here's what I did to get this far!
First up I made 1L of acid solution, 1L of saline solution and 500mL of basic solution following the guidelines of Earthwalker's tek but just approximating the volume of acetic acid to 1/2 cup (which is 120mL) and rounding up the NaOH to 100g for 500mL water (I used de-ionised water for the whole tek) and 80g salt as per EW's tek. I also put 1/2 a large pot of tap water on the stove on high heat to get the water to a simmer.
As I had not yet made a basic stock before I was extra careful and slow to add the NaOH to the water, and I used a Pyrex jug for the heat. Although it was exothermic, it wasn't as reactive as I had assumed (of course this does not mean I will take any less precautions in the future)
With the stock out of the way, I made a slight change to the tek in the first step of adding water then adding acid, instead I added 500mL acid stock to the dry powdered root bark and mixed well (I figure that it's just one less step for the same result) I placed this bottle in the now hot water bath (at this point I turned the flame to its lowest setting) and I left this in here for 90 minutes (swirling and tipping over the bottle to keep the solution moving. this is what I ended up with: you might see below that there was a fatty layer present on top of the acidified solution.
After 90 minutes, I poured my saline solution into the bottle and mixed well:
Leaving the bottle in the water bath to keep the temperature up, I then added 300mL of my Basic solution to the bottle (reserving the last 200mL for the clean up). the solution turned a deep purple/almost Black as expected:
I left this in the bath on low heat for 2 hours, always swirling and turning over to move the material around and occasionally turning off the heat to stop the water boiling.
After 2 hours I removed the bottle from the water bath and placed it on a towel, I turned the flame off and filled a small jar with Shellite 3/4 full and lowered it into the hot water bath with the lid just loose to release pressure, after a minute or two the shellite started to bubble much the same way a glass of champagne releases bubbles in a stream from a glass. Before the shellite started to boil any further I removed it from the water and Pipetted 50mL of it and placed it into the 2L bottle. (It would be worth noting here that if you have a turkey baster you should bring the jar mouth Close to the bottle as when u lift the baster out it will drip and squirt)
Swirling and turning over for up to a minute and opening the lid to release pressure, I placed the bottle back in the water bath and let it separate for 3+ minutes (I didn't look at the clock I just left it for a bit):
Not easy to see but the solvent floated up and sat on top of the soup.
I very carefully Pipetted out as much solvent as I could and squirted it into a clean jar, instantly the Shellite turned milky with a pink hue, obviously there was some base and some plant fats still present which accounted for the discolouration, however this did not concern me as I had still a Clean up to perform.
I did this 4 more times but because the jar wasn't big enough, I filled the soup with whatever solvent was left ( I think about 100mL) and gave it one last decent mix and Pipetted the last pull into the other jar I used to heat the solvent with.
While this was somewhat a lack of preparation on my behalf, it (unwittingly) showed me that there was not much that remained in the soup in terms of alkaloids because the second jar was no where near as cloudy as the first! I essentially, accidentally evaluated the base soup with the final pull.
I poured the remainder of the acid stock into a 1L bottle ( again lack of preparation because I only had a square bottle not a round one but oh well) and added my Pulls
I mixed considerably, popping the lid to release pressure. The issue I had now was, I had a square bottle, so it made it difficult to avoid emulsion, which is what is mentioned to avoid in EW's tek, I had no other option so I just shook vigorously not taking this into consideration. There was little to no emulsion after the bubbles separated and to my delight the layers had exchanged exceptionally well, the solvent was slightly tinted but mostly clear, and the acid was slightly cloudy but slightly tinted which I expected.
I Pipetted out 99% of the solvent and stored it in a jar and then I poured the remainder of my base stock into the bottle
All that is left now is to do a final pull, and I'll update this post tomorrow with the results
I hope this was as good a read as it was to write!
Peace