Howdy!
So my friend has recently carried extraction using Cyb's salt tek, he thinks that he correctly followed all the steps (only difference is that he used ACRB (he got it by the name acacia confusa inner root bark) instead of MHRB) and after freezing the pulls for 15h, taking them out of freezer there seemed to be no xtals at all. after evaporizing the naphta only thing left was drop of brownish liquid, when he scraped the precip dishes this is what he got - https://imgur.com/a/UC43BfV .
So is there any way to determine if the alkaloids are still in in the soup? (if the bark has any alkaloid at all they still should be SOMEWHERE, am i right?) he still has some ACRB powder, is there any relatively quick way to see if the powder is of any alkaloid content? i dont know if it matters, but in this step when he added NPS, tutorial says shake.separate step should take about 45 mins - he did it like in 10 mins since the layers were separating very quickly . he also told me that he just found out that the vinegar that he was supposed to use according to Cyb's tek is white distilled vinegar 5% acetic acid...and he used spirit fermentation vinegar 10%. you think it might be the issue?

I can't recall which one of my posts contained the mini extraction to see, it might have been the one about freezing. What I can say as far as the shaking and separation is

4 x shake over the course of an hour, then 4 x shake over the course of 45mins. Basically you're waiting for the layers to form two very distinct layers, at which point shake again.

And I got caught on that one as well, as it reads like "shake and leave for an hour, then 45mins" and on and on.

As far as the goo it does come out like a waxy paste as I had my last attempt (one of my threads further down) with ACRB, using the same tek. Few of things I would say:

- Definitely do a RE-X; it doesn't sound worthwhile when you start, more than likely you're over the moon at getting SOMETHING, but I'll wager when you looked at what was produced vs. the images in the tek you were left scratching your head. If it's your first attempt, and you have the time and means I would say do it. If nothing else then to see how it looks.

- I have only just tried it so I can't attest to the results but definitely attempt to do a defat on your next go, in the Tek it does say ACRB extractions benefit more from a defat than MHRB so by doing so you might get a different result.

- How long did you leave the base in for and what was the colour of the soup? If you've been mixing for 2hrs it should look black but with a purple hue as it's settling on the sides, and the purple only gets deeper, like a plum colour the further it gets. With all that brown I'm wondering if it wasn't based long enough or if your friend pulled up emulsion

"4 x shake over the course of an hour, then 4 x shake over the course of 45mins. Basically you're waiting for the layers to form two very distinct layers, at which point shake again. " the layers were forming very quickly so maybe he has messed up smth in earlier steps...

he left the base in warm water bath for 1,5h, shaking gently every 15 min - the color was very black (the color didnt change, its still very black), no purple at all.

he told me that yesterday he tried pulling 2nd time (this time he heated solvent (zippo lighter fluid) in a hot bath before pulling) after freezing overnight, today he is pretty shure that he saw VERY little brownish looking xtals on the dish, and after scraping he got 200mg of this https://imgur.com/a/rQs0l6z does this looks similar in any ways to the goo people get? should he try making changa of it?

EDIT: this is how the zippo lighter fluid looks like after pouring it to glass container from precip dish https://imgur.com/a/hfskgkw it is a bit yellowish, but i am curious what is this layer at the bottom? are these impurities? how do i get rid of them?

peace!