Heya there,
My friend has a question about some trouble he is having with his spice production

He has used many different teks from many different internet sources including the lazymans tek, a basic A/B tek w/vinegar and many, many STB teks.
The problem he is having is simply final precipitation/evaporation - the substance that is the final 'product' is a slimy green goo. EVERY TIME

The ingredients are as follows for the Lazymans and STB tek
- Caustic Soda: 98% sodium Hydroxide
- Demineralised or tap water (depending on source)
- Coleman's camping fuel: Naptha
- Various Acacia including Longifolia, Maidenii, Melanoxylon, Podalyriaefolia and Auriculiformis

All of these trees grow in his yard or in his neighbor hood and are flowering at the moment.

Has this happened to anyone else?
Could some one help my mate?

What are the other 2% in the caustic soda?
Have you checked the MSDS for the camping fuel? Google "coleman's camping fuel MSDS"

I guess your problem is your solvent.. solvents that are sold as fuel many times have anti-rust chemicals and other stuff... get away from this! try to find better solvent

Colemans is the devil it does have a high amount of anti rust inhibitors as well as lubricants and other crap. But still it has never in the past resulted in a green color that I know of. if I were you I would purify with recrystalization or something to get rid of as many impurities as you can. Back when I got goo I would do a solvent wash and it done wonders. I would go from yellow goo to pure crystals in just a short time.

That sounds very wierd to me...ive never messed with acacia, but that sounds not normal...I ordered my NaOH from a chemical site so im supplied with pure food-grade lye beads, and with the non-polar solvent, i ALWAYS do an evap test to see what is in it as impurities

Spice collected by evaporation tends to be yellow. Coleman has a blue anti-rust chem added.

Yellow + blue = green

Mystery solved. Recrystallize at LEAST twice before even thinking about trying it.

I wouldn't touch green spice. That sounds like a heap of trouble.

Thank you all for your quick and helpful responses

My mate checked the Coleman's camping fuel MSDS and it simply confirmed that it is 100% naphtha but also has been 'lightly Hydrotreated' - (A chemical engineering process in which reaction with hydrogen is used to remove impurities). He's not sure if this would have any effect. HOWEVER he's been researching the green slime topic more and found a similar Thread with people having a similar issue when testing their Coleman solvent in the UK. Also, it does have a definite green tinge to the fuel on closer inspection which may confirm the anti rusting additive option.

In relation to the Sodium Hydroxide, he hoped the 98% would suffice as it is very hard to get completely clean NaOH because of a certain stimulant drug epidemic here in Aus but he'll have a look online but is doubtful.

Finally, in relation to the recrystallis(z)ation option - The trouble is that in this gooey green substance, there is nothing that could really be classed as a crystal, there are lumps of something underneath but they are not solid.
My friend's a little confused as to the way he would go about the recrystallisation as he's have not done one before and cant seem to find a step by step approach to it, although he seems to have a small understanding of it from what he's have read.

Will the fact that the final product is not crystallised alter the recrystallisation method or outcome?
Could someone please link or scribe a brief overview on what recrystalisation entails?
And in relation to the materials, should he change to Shellite which is another naphtha brand or should he try to look for a different solvent all together?

Thanks again

If your naphtha is what your MSDS search said it is, you do not have to switch to Shellite (Unless I'm missing something with the hydrotreated, but I doubt it).

If it puts a few nerves to rest, Shellite is the EU equivalent of Naphtha, switch this if you feel it is necessary.

With the product you have, recrystalization should yield only a favorable outcome. But repeating what vovin stated, do it multiple times before you even think about trying to consume the product.

If you need help recrystalizing, it is a very simple process:
-Place your current green goo into a tiny container (Shot glass should do it)
-Fill the container with naphtha and mix until your product of green goop is dissolved. You should see another goop form at the bottom of the container.
-Remove naphtha with an eye dropper or in another careful process to preserve the goop in the container (As so far, yes, you have lost a tiny, tiny amount of your spice).
-Place into freezer for 24 hours.

Re-x (recrystalize) again just to be safe about cleaning it.

To see if it is yielding anything at all, check the container in your freezer after a few hours. I have never heard of this green goo, but your best bet is to try to re-x the spice before considering buying new products for the extraction process.

I use Colemans fuel all the time. Never, ever had a green goo situation.

well yeah i guess in different places, coleman has different components..

but people said, recrystalize your stuff at least twice.. use a minimum amount of solvent (which you're gonna have to find, some pure solvent... always do an evap test to see if it leaves any residue before using).. If one can weight the goo, its about 25ml per gram of impure product.. otherwise just slowly add the solvent and mix a bit, and only part of the product should dissolve in the naphtha, while some goo should remain at the bottom.. and as said, just separate the solvent from the goo and then add the solvent to the freezer. .Repeat process at least once more, and you should have a reasonably cleaner product

The goo hasn't separated when i mix it with around 30 mL naphtha.

It mixed in well and the naphtha simply became a darker shade of green.
There is no separate layer, substance or anything.

My friend has just begun another extraction with about 400g trunk bark from A. Maidenii instead of the stem bark.
It wont take long as he is using the lazyman's tek from -

https://wiki.dmt-nexus.me/Lazyman's_tek

Once it is reduced, i'll record his results and he'll retry the re-x

Thanks again guys

Just to confirm his method, my friend wants to add photos of his process and list his method

Ingredients
- 300mg NaOH (98% in photo)
- 2000mL tap water
- 400g of 3 different types of A. Maidenii including: Thick, dry, crispy bark from the trunk base; Yhick, red, fresh resinous bark from the branches; And white thich fresh bark from (seperate) a young Maidenii.
- Around 250mL of Naphtha (coleman - in photo)

- He broke up and chopped the bark as much as possible to about 1-2 cm X 1-2 cm (1/2 in X 1/2 in) aprox
- Added the water and NaOH solution
- Mixed briefly and left for 1hr
- Mashed with 'tato masher for 20min
- Added Naphtha, mixed briefly
- Left for 25min
- Separated using sterile syringe
- left infront of fan until (Where he is up to presently)

Well, I wish I would have come in here earlier to suggest that your friend to use a smaller amount of MHRB if what your friend keeps getting is this unusable green goo. If it comes out as the green goo again, which it doesn't seem like it should, PM me and I'll toss your buddy a 1/8th pound MHRB extraction method that I have been working on. It uses a much smaller amount of MHRB and if your friend is having trouble with his extractions I highly suggest working with smaller portions until he can get it right.

Please keep us updated on this batch your friend has going.

You need to tell your friend chances are he's going to get the same stuff he got last time if he uses the exact same process. You need to switch out that solvent for sure. Secondly make he isn't using any kind of PLASTIC containers. Finally if I were you I would try the suggestion above using much smaller amounts of MHRB. If it still fails use a diffrent tek and put up the process in detail stating exactly what chems you are using. Personally I think the odds are real good it's the colemans. As you said it dissolved in the naptha which is what the chemical would do.

The process is complete and the results are less than acceptable and the same as before.
Anyway i took a photo of the substance even though it wont make a difference.

Maybe the thickness of the bark was too much, ill grind it down in the future to ensure better extraction.
Also, first thing tomorrow - ill be off to the store to get some Shellite (Different brand of Naphtha).

He's also collected about 250g of Maidenii leaves.

If anyone has experience with A. Maidenii it would be most helpful if they could give my friend an idea of the best part of the tree to use for extraction purpose.

The only plastic that any of the materials came in contact are most likely unrelated to the problem, they include
- plastic shopping bag to assist with collecting
- NaOH container is plastic
- The syringe i draw up the Naphtha with - as i don't have a turkey baster

Thanks for your continued support

Does your friend use this metallic rod-like thing to mix the lye solution/naphtha as shown in the pictures??? Yikes.

This may be the problem here; lye may corrode away something from the rod that is soluble in naphtha.

Also, did your friend evaporate the naphtha down as a test on its own to see what it evaporates down to (= negative control)?

Haha that metal rod thing is an old Australian potato masher.
He has only used it on that extraction, what would you suggest a mixing tool?

Tried an evaporation earlier and a similar goo was left. Does this mean there is something wrong with my friend's tek?

He will be definitely getting another solvent tomorrow morn and trying again with less bark.
Honestly, he has done about 14 failed extractions.

no offense but, you should have realized by the second wrong attempt that something is wrong and start changing specific ingredients (the top one of the list being the solvent) to see if thats the problem (like when one has a computer problem and starts testing part by part to isolate the variables).. and yeah, your solvent is very likely the whole problem and you should try to get a couple of new solvents and do an evap test on them before using in the extraction !

That would be insane! What one does is repeat the same process over and over again expecting different results.