So I've essentially followed all directions.

Definitely stumped.

No need to have an acid stage. No need of NaCl.
Simple STB is more than enough when done correctly. Everything gets out.

The shaking has to be done properly. I usually shake without mercy for at least a minute or two, the most I can, not just tilt. Many times in one pull (see in the linked topic). The water is fully mixed with the non-polar. Last 2 or 3 shake/settle cycles of last pull can be heated, but this is not necessary.

There is an episode of Hamiltons pharmacopoeia that shows how to do a simple stb extraction to get spice. It’s about as difficult as making a cheese sandwich.

Is there any reason everyone is recommending a STB instead of Cybs Tek? SWIM did his research beforehand and found the general consensus was that the salt tek was the perfect mix of high yields and ease.

From Cybs ... (Note) 1.Although an Acidic bath is included to begin with...this can be omitted and the extractor can go STB (Straight to base) if they wish. (Just start with the Salt and make sure you end up with 700ml of liquid). (Acid step is included to help lyse the material further...)

If you check the STB process in mentioned post, you can see there is 24h period of strong base soak. Strong NaOH is very effective in lysing the powderized bark. Boiling the bark is not necessary and is only more hassle

Of course NaCl can be used too, it is just not necessary.

Unexpectedly, this thread turned into a post about an extremely low yield , definitely discouraging!

Because the yield was only .200g SWIM sees no reason to re-x, he will do another 50g extraction hopefully using a glass syringe and hoping for the best. Bark is expensive, perhaps cheaping out on the supplier isn't the best option!

My first ever extraction (not counting a botched attempt with Phalaris) was a simple STB: lye, water, bark, naphtha. The hardest part was getting the naphtha back off the top of the base soup. The slowest part was the freeze precip. The results were more than satisfactory. This was back in the days when bark was real bark, yadayadayada

Since then I've tried all manner of methods - the reason why STB is recommended is that it's simple and effective. q21q21's limetek (lately popularised as "Gordo's tek") is also pretty nice. Cyb's tek is more-or-less STB with frills.

Your next attempt will be instructive. If you get the same yield you can be pretty sure it's just the quality of the bark.

@Downwardsfromzero, SWIM had originally planned to do the Q21Q21/Gordotek but circumstances made the time available too little to have the mix sit for 24hours. Cyb’s tek had pulls being done subsequently. From start to finish, the extraction was completed in 24hrs.
Also, aside from the contamination, the crystals seemed to be very white!

That also definitely got me interested in synthesis, but I don’t see myself ever working with formaldehyde/clandestine chemistry

We need to be careful with this phrase, or soon there'll be the myth that DMT can be extracted from cheese sandwiches


DMT extraction is clandestine chemistry... get used to it

If you call cheese sandwiches clandestine chemistry, I’m the biggest clandestine chemist in town.

Also, I heard DMT was found in the brainsbuns of ratscheese sandwiches? Can anyone verify this?

Could you be a little more specific ? I am in the process of my first extraction. I made 3 pulls but in every of them i have a couple of tiny brown bits. I freezed them overnight and planing to leave them for 12 hours so the naphta could evaporate.
I definitely dont want to leave them like this, so could you be more specific with what measurements
should i do the stb ? I am using right now 50g of MHRB and preparing them by Cyb`s tek.
Will i clean the crystals from the contamination from just following the extra step in his tek?

I am not in hurry, i prefer to re-do everything from the beginning rather than leave them like this.


Here is link to his tek if someone wants to see the last step of re-x.

You can see the brown downs on the picture are from the basifing mix. The yellow ones are on the outside of the glass bowl.
By far i cannot see any crystals in any of the 3 bowls which is а little disappointing.
Will wait 12hours to evaporate and see.

https://ibb.co/XxvPzck
https://ibb.co/ZWH3bG9
https://ibb.co/GH7vbCP
Just extracted my 4th part of this bark and left it in the freezer. This time I used turkey baster which was way better pull. When I pulled some of the brown stuff in went on the bottom of the turkey baster so it was really easy to squeeze it out.

Generally turkey baster are less recomended than glass pipette or glass syringe. The last two are really not expensive and are very confortable for pulling.
You have more control on pressure for intake and pull no acacia basic soup (allways be carefull).

You can wash your contamined xtalz by reddisolving them in warm naphta (never use flamme for heating, use water bath), filtering the solids, then doing a freeze precip. Suck your naptha and put it in basic soup then repull.
Naptha evap quiclky so you may adjust quantities with fresh. To be confident your naptha is emptied by freeze precip, you can take a small sample of it (few ml) and let evap. If you don't see small particules, xtalz or goo, it may be emptied and you can start pulling with.



Freebase is poorly soluble in basic, should be a better way to dissolve in acidic then doing a mini AB and pull with naptha. Hot basic environment are more dangerous than room temp.

Looking at your pics, you may try to wash your pan with a bit of warm diluted vinegar, filter undisolvable, add a pinch of H2O+NaOH to cloud the solution then pull with naptha until it's "unclouded".

STB should require sometimes to soak to release alks, but they're all 2 efficient.
It just depend the time, material you have, and implication you want to put in.
You can finish an AB in 24h or less, or you can do an AB in one week in you want.

Although I hadn't heard of this anywhere on the forum, I absolutely can't say it enough, DON'T USE A TURKEY BASTER!

They are for thanksgiving turkey and that's about it. It's not worth contaminating your product with potentially harmful basic solution.

You wouldn't do surgery with a kitchen knife...

Just a little update for you all, while SWIM does not plan to re-x the crystals, a large portion of the basified contamination stayed on the paper used to transfer the crystals. I'd assume this is likely due to the basified mix being sticky while the crystals aren't.