Hey folks! Hope everyone has enjoyed their weekend! Im here at the nexus once again seeking final bits of info before actually moving on into the process.

I have for quite some time now been interested in Mescaline, and have been doing quite a bit of research on the proper extraction route. After finding a very large cacti which i believed to be San Pedro i followed up with some IDing and am 99% sure what i have is T. Pachanoi.

I have been researching tens now for quite a while and have slowly been getting the necessary tools and what not. In doing all my research I found that peoples accounts with the mescaline they had extracted were very beautiful stories, and very uplifting. Something I am very much looking forward to. And it seems that the process is a bit more tricky/precise than for that of spice. SO to help things go as smooth as possible I have purchased an orion pH meter from a famous auction site, and have read on how to calibrate and be sure of its reading. To be even more sure i am here asking some final questions.

Two teks will be used. First will be Kash's A/B HCl tek. Here are my questions regarding Kash's tek…

1. it seems for pH is very important in the mescaline extraction process…What should the pH be when the cacti powder, water, and vinegar are all together?

2. I have also read quite a bit saying that MORE base is better! Lye will be used in this procedure. the tek calls for 50g of lye dissolved in100ml of water. Should more that 50g be used? NOTE: this will be done in cold water bath.

3. Mescaline HCl is the desired final result. Klean Strip Green Muriatic acid was purchased at a local hardware store. The bottle does not specify the concentration and when looking up the SDS i found two different results. on saying it was at 20% concentration and another "<30% specific percentage of composition is being withheld as trade secret." Is there a way to test for the percentage of its concentration? or does anyone have a recommended substitute that is a known concentration?

4. Are all the Toluene pulls be collected and added together? or is the 100.5ml HCl/H2O solution being added to each individual toluene pull?

5. It says to add HCl in .5ml increments until the pH is at 7 or below… what is the ideal pH for it to be at? and what pH should it not drop beneath?

6. MEK is illegal in california. it says that anhydrous acetone could be used to wash. I have Klean Strip brand acetone and the SDS say that it is 100% acetone…is this considered anhydrous? I know that anhydrous means containing no water or something along those lines. I guess what Im asking is, is this Klean Strip Acetone okay to use? Or do i have to bake epsom salt to make my own anhydrous acetone?


The Second Tek to be done will be "Heavenly Pursuit's relatively quick tek…" This will be done with "fresh cacti" (frozen and thawed 3 times) My questions are as follows…

1. Again what is the ideal pH, what not to drop below and what not to go above in the beginning boil/pressure cook stage?

2. The pictures are no longer working in the thread…what does it mean by suspending the cacti in water? i assume that mean let the cactus sit/float/hang in water.. but what water, why, and for how long?


Thanks for reading and responding to those that do and did. Very excited about all this! I think with these questions answered, things will be ready to rock n roll!

Ive recently done Kash's tek for the first time on some san pedro powder and ran into a few problems. Main one was adding too much hcl at the salting stage. If youre not sure of concentration, start low and check pH after each addition of 0.5ml hcl/ 100ml water. Mix well and wait for separation before measuring the pH of the aqueous phase.

I tried scaling up the acid because I was using three times the amount of cactus. So used 1.5ml hcl, didnt measure final pH and when evaporated left me with black crystals. (Cleaned up ok eventually).

So dont go too low with the pH at this stage. Just under 7 is good I think, ie,between 6 and 7. That's the point at which a salt is formed, and not too much excess acid is left.

pH at the cactus boiling stage is not so critical. Vinegar will create a weakly acidic solution which should be enough to extract the alkaloids into the water.

For the basing, what the tek says seems like plenty of base. Its not a stb tek so the plant matter has already been broken down at the acid boil stage.

The tek says to combine all the toluene pulls before salting, but you could salt each one and see how much each yields. I did 5 pulls but didnt get a great yield so went back and did a couple more a few days later. Warmed the mix in a hot water bath too. This got me a bit more.

Acetone-wise, even if the label says 100%, theres still a possibility that some moisture got in. Best to be sure and add some baked epsom salts as these are cheap and readily available.

Good luck!

Thanks for your reply ijahdan! i really appreciate you taking the time to read and reply to my post! i will certainly be adding the hcl/h2o solution in very small increments.

the reason i asked if more base should be added is cause many posts i have read (including "heavenly pursuits.." tek; the other tek i plan to perform on "fresh" cactus) calls for quite a large amount. Their reasoning is that the excessive amount of lye destroys all the pulpy material making it easier, and faster for layers to separate and slim to no chance of an emulsion layer.

If anyone else out there has any input id love to hear/read it

Thanks again ijahdan! Ill report back soon enough after things get underway

What specifically were you still curious about?

-eg

Other than the aforementioned questions, nothing specifically. Just I guess tips, advice, pointer, experiences using the teks... that sort of thing. Super excited for all this!

There's a book titled "A Laboratory History of Narcotics, Vol. 1 Amphetamines and Derivatives" by Jared Ledgard, this book has a section in front that outlines common chemicals in laboratory synthesis including their chemical properties, uses, safe handling, structure, and any other essential information. This section also includes diagrams of common laboratory ware, glass-ware and equipment, as well as diagrams depicting various arrangements of said equipment for various tasks. The book explains IUPAC nomenclature and explains how to depict and understand the structure of molecules. It gives you all the essential foundations of organic chemistry in a clear and understandable manner, and while an individual with little to no chemical knowledge could take this book and be able to successfully understand, preform, and complete any synthesis outlined within it, an experienced chemist and those highly educated in chemistry will also be able to enjoy this book, as it is not patronizing and conveys concepts in a very readable and entertaining manner...

Any way, the point was, this book has an excellent section regarding mescaline extraction from trichocereus cacti, and also contains tons of additional information you would need in relation to the chemistry involved, not only does it teach you a chemical work-up, it teaches all the basics in chemistry which are crucial for an individual to truly understand and excel at these processes.

Out of curiosity, what was your reasoning to decide to produce the hydrochloride salt?

And what is it that led you to decide to use the mentioned extraction work-ups?

-eg

I have done this tek quite a lot recently, and honestly I think I way overshoot with the amount of HCl I use & have never had a problem like the 'black crystals'. I put 15 ml of hardware store muriatic acid in 85 ml of water for the backsalt & it works well.

I don't think you need to change the base amount, it works very well.

If the T pachanoi you found is the PC variety, realize that you will need quite a lot more cactus than what the tek calls for to get a good yield. I got ~100mg alkaloid from over 1 kg of fresh plant material with that clone.

If you look at the 'Cactus Analysis' thread in the Plant & Substances part of the forum you can see my work with the tek & a bunch of spp's and clones.

https://www.dmt-nexus.me...aspx?g=posts&t=71353

There is the thread. The only thing I would suggest is to be sure and use a hot water bath when you are pulling the tea with your NPS. I had a few times where there were bad emulsions at that step. Adding some salt can help to break them too.

Also take pics of your cactus, and your final product, figure out fresh % alkaloids, run TLC on it, and ad it to the thread! I'd love to see results from other folks.