Great, thanks. I will have a read.

Further speculation regarding the solubility of benzoic acid in xylene here.

So i have started to do the preparatons before i do some extractions.

Does anyone have the ratio more or less for how much fresh cactus is needed to get 100grams of dry cactus? I did some research and i think the ratio is around 6-7%+-. Do you think this is correct?

So far i have processed 2.5KG of fresh cactus(green skins only).

I know it is very difficult to measure as there are variables in how much mescaline content is in each cactus, but lets say on average, how much more or less should a 100g dried cactus yeild? Just a ballpark figure. They are good strains and some of them have been chopped and have been in the dark for quite some time now.

So now i just need to try and figure out if I should rather do two seperate,smaller extractions with a 100g dried cactus each. Or if i should try a 200g extraction and if I do go for a bigger extraction would the recipe double or is that not how it works in this case for extractions? My guess is it would probably be best to do two smaller 100g extractions?

I am still looking at doing both the AB and Celio extractions. I am getting all the rest of the ingredients to try my hand at both of them. I am deciding which option I am going to try first.

Thanks everyone

Yes, 6.5% dry mass is reasonable.

Smaller extractions are better on first runs since mistakes can happen as you learn.

Good luck 🙂

PS: Congrats on the quick promotion to full membership

Okay great, yeah i thought so I must try not to get overly enthusiastic for my first extraction haha. I will stick to smaller extractions then.

And thanks

Hey guys,

Thought id post a quick follow up.

I have completed my AB extraction. Everything went well with no emulsions.

Here is a picture of what i have, still need to be scraped up and weighed. From 1.7kg cactus skins ( equates to 105G dry)


I am now midway through with the Cielo Tek as well.(in the waiting period now for crystal formation) So far everything has gone very smoothly for this tek as well.

Once i have completed both and dried both, i will write a more detailed post on my findings. I have used the exact same cactus and amounts in both these teks.

So lets see.

Cheers guys 🌸🌵

So here is what I got as my final product i got from Kash's AB HCl extraction.

I did wash the crystals in ice cold Ethyl Acetate twice. The total amount i got is 1.3 Grams 1.7KG fresh (around 103g dry).

What do you guys think of how it looks? Any feedback would be great as this is my first ever try at doing an extraction such as this and I'm a little nervous to try it just because it is my first time and i do not know exactly what to look out for.


Thanks guys

So here is what I got as my final product i got from Kash's AB HCl extraction.

I did wash the crystals in ice cold Ethyl Acetate twice. The total amount i got is 1.3 Grams from 1.7KG fresh (around 103g dry) cactus.

What do you guys think of how it looks? Any feedback would be great as this is my first ever try at doing an extraction such as this and I'm a little nervous to try it just because it is my first time and i do not know exactly what to look out for.

But all in all, I am very proud of myself for what I got out for my first try. It was such a great learning experiment.

Now I am just waiting for my Cielo Tek to complete before I write up a post about my experience doing both.


Thanks guys

Looks good, 1.3% is a solid yield. It'll be interesting to see how the Ceilo tek compares. Just remember the dosing is different based of salt forms.

Thanks, I am very happy with my first try and that I had no issues such as emulsions.

Yes I saw on the Cielo tek that it was 68% in comparasion to the HCl AB extraction.

Will work it all out to see how it compares.

Looks good. I think the conversion factor was 61%. Where did you see 68%?

Seeing any xtals in the CIELO jar(s) yet? Did you pull an the extra quart as recommended for newcomers so you can check for extra yield there?

Hey there,

61% it is then 👍 must of misread or remembered wrong.


I did 7 pulls from my paste before it got too soggy to deal with. Its quite hot where i live so did what i could.

I added the 5g citric acid about 16 hours ago. So far i dont see any Xtals. I did go cloudy as soon as i added it in though.

Here is a picture i took after i added the citric acid.

Um.. there should be some xtals by now. Are you sure you don't see any even if you shine a light?

You did the fridge rest, right?

Ill have to look again carefully when im home again. Yes i did the full fridge rest and decant through a coffee filter. I also left a tiny little bit of ethyl acetate at the bottom where a couple of water droplets were.

Hey, so i went and checked my jar. Im sure by now a lot more xtals should be happening. I think i see some very fine ones. Then i tilted my jar a bit and realized that there is this sort of tranparant layer im the bottom. I will attach a picture for reference.

Is this goo? I was so carefull after my fridge step and even used a pippette to pull the EA into a new dry jar. I also left a little layer of EA in the old jar as to make sure i was not getting any of the few(and i mean tiny few) water dropplets that i found after the rest. I also sent everything through a coffee filter and even doubled up on 2 coffee filters as i was nearing the end of my EA jar.

Im just not sure how it could be from water. I also know its good cactus as my AB HCl extraction did okay and im using the same cactus.

Any advise would be appreciated..
Thanks

Certainly looks as though the solvent was too moist somehow. Draining the EA off and covering the watery stuff with fresh, dry EA should pull enough water out to push it in the direction of crystallising. Repeat if necessary.

Did you use a French press? If so, how hard did you push it?

Dry EA?


I did not press on the french press at all. 😕 i was so carefull about the whole process so feeling a little bummed now as i barely saw any water dropplets at the bottom after the 24 hour fridge rest. I even left the few with a little EA behind in the other jar.

I agree with DWZ.

It's hard to see, but looking at the jar right after salting, isn't there a thin water layer near the bottom? I think I can see a light green layer on the left side of the image.

You are xtalizing at room temp, right?

About 20x the volume of fresh EA absorbs 1 volume of water (assuming your EA is dry out of the can which it should be).

Also, leaving EA behind does not guarantee some water does not get into the salting jar. It can slide under the dark EA.

Perhaps we should suggest use of a flashlight when decanting...

Your EA should be dry out of the can. Try adding it to the salting jar, the water layer should get smaller and disappear at which point cloudiness and xtals should appear.

I am a little lost at the moment. By dry Ethyl Acetate, my Ethyl Acetate is in liquid form? Is this the problem? I did not know that it was dry as mine i ordered was not?