Greetings Friends:
I have found the following technique useful when trying to process larger batches of material, say more than a few hundred grammes or material which is particularly bulky/fresh, using less water. It applies mainly to the water-acid extraction part of an A/B extraction tek and can be used with any material which is being extracted by this process.
I find that it is a particularly good method for those of us who have limited energy resources available (or alternatively, are choosing to reduce their energy consumption) to run large amounts of electricity or gas, say because they are off grid and have limited solar available or getting butane/propane requires a monumental effort and many kilometers of travel on dirt roads.
It is clear by searching the forums that most of us are aware that in order to perform a good extraction it is necessary to increase the surface area and make repeated soak/extract cycles preferably with hot water/acid +/- boiling. Multiple freezing/thawing cycles if using fresh material is also useful. I would like to share this method which tries to optimise all of these components and attempts to combine them in a way which uses up less energy overall. I did not come up with this myself and would like to acknowledge the source: the wonderful workers at an Ayurvedic apothecary in Kerala where I apprenticed twenty-five years ago.
THE METHOD:
1. a) The material is first repeatedly frozen and thawed if it is fresh and green. Each time it is taken out of the freezer to thaw and it is still crunchy, it should be crunched up by hand as much as possible. Three or four times is usually sufficient. I find that when this process is finished, the material needs no further grinding/blending/processing.
b) If the material is in a dry state it is broken up coarsely. In my case, I am unable to run a blender or grinder, so a combination of knife/hammer/secateur and some elbow grease does the trick. If you are fortunate enough to be able to run machinery then this is a relatively easy operation. I find that a coarse grind is best rather than complete atomisation into a powder as powdering makes the later filtration process quite slow and tedious.
2. Dividing the material into five equal portions and putting them into their own containers which have been labeled from 1 to 5, is the next step. Increasing the number of divisions increases the efficiency of extraction, uses less water/acid and uses smaller containers but the downside is that it requires more containers (and the associated cleanup). I found that five divisions is a good balance in getting most of what you want out of your material without giving yourself too much work to clean up. Depending on the nature of the material being used, it is possible to decrease the number of containers to 3 or increase it up to 7 or 8.
3. Make the first batch of acidic water using your choice of acid and water depending on your preference and the particular material you are trying to extract, eg. vinegar, citric acid, phosphoric acid, etc and heat it up to boiling. Once the solution is boiling or at least very hot, pour it into container number 1. You are aiming to add enough liquid to cover all of the material and reach about 1 cm above it. Let it sit that way for an hour or more, stirring/mixing well every ten minutes. If it is possible, it is helpful to apply heat to keep the solution hot during this time though I have found that keeping the container warm just by keeping it insulated works just as well.
4. Once the amount of time has elapsed, decant/strain the solution from container 1 and reheat if it has cooled down too much before pouring it into container 2 (this is when I find that I am grateful for not having processed the material into fine powder). Make another batch of acidic water, heat it and pour it into container 1. Stir/mix both containers and wait the required amount of time.
5. Continue and repeat this process: decant from container 2, heat and add to container 3; decant from container 1, heat and add to container 2; make a new batch of acidic water and add to container 1. Repeat this and move up to container 4 and then 5 until all 5 containers have been filled with acidic water.
6. At this stage, we start collecting the extracted solution into a final sixth large container (large enough to hold the liquid from all the previous 5 containers). It still needs to be done in stages, similar to steps 3 and 4, WITHOUT making any new, fresh acidified water: decant from container 5 into large container 6 (usually a pot for later reduction of fluid); decant from container 4, heat and add to container 5; decant from container 3, heat and add to container 4;...;...; once container 1 is decanted into container 2, the material in container 1 should be well spent and can be discarded.
7. Keep on repeating step 6, each round increasing the amount of liquid in container 6 and getting rid of the material in the last container...first 1, then 2, 3, 4 and finally 5, when all of the liquid will be collected into container 6.
8. Container 6 can then be evaporated and the resulting liquid filtered and used for the rest of your A/B extraction.
NOTES:
1. If the material is dry, each time a container is decanted into the next (new) one the liquid level may lower. This is only a problem if the material ends up sucking up all of the liquid. Just add some fresh/new acid solution to take the level of liquid back up to 1cm above the material again. With fresh material this isn't so much of a problem and I've found that I don't usually need to top it up.
2. This method requires patience, organisation and mindfulness, it is not for those who are in a rush or hurry.
3. Try and remember that fresh acidified water in only added to container 1, container 2 only gets liquid from container 1, etc; the final collection container (number 6) only gets liquid from container 5.
ADVANTAGES TO THIS METHOD:
1. Less processing of starting material is required. Useful if you lack access to machinery/appliances or power/energy to run them.
2. Less/faster filtering at the end of the process.
3. Less water needs to be evaporated at the end. Again, useful if power/energy is an issue.
4. Smaller containers can be used.
5. A relatively large amount of material can be processed all at once but in smaller aliquots.
6. Effective at performing a more complete extraction. This is advantageous if it is difficult to procure material easily where you are.
DISADVANTAGES TO THIS METHOD:
1. A lot more physical manipulation is required.
2. More glassware and containers needed.
3. Need to keep track of what happens next and which solution goes where.
4. More clean up.
5. May take more time, depending on how organised you are.
Okay, that is the basic process. I hope that some of you will find this useful.
My apologies if something like this has already been posted, I haven't read every page in the forum yet and my initial search did not reveal such. If so, please ignore it.
I welcome comments/suggestions/improvements.
Kind regards and respect.
Vi veri vniversvm vivvs vici.