How about some good ol' ghetto engineering humor?
Yeah, I'm from the south; so what?
Ok.. So I got a new sep funnel the other day and I was too excited to wait for a proper stand. I had to try it out ASAP.
1. I had 50g of m. hostilis soaking in a 200ml acetic acid (vinegar) solution. It had been soaking for around 3 days.. enough for me. This is only experimental anyway.. if I get product, I'll be even happier.
2. I poured the MH/Acetic solution into a pan and boiled for around 15 minutes. Added 200ml more water and some more vinegar. Boiled some more and turned the heat off.
3. Took an old t-shirt, some chemical gloves, a 1000ml glass jar, and filtered the hot solution through the t-shirt. The chemical gloves were perfect for protecting my money makers from the hot solution. The reason for this filter is because the bark seemed too thick for sep funnel purposes (it would clog it). Plus, I have nothing else to do.
4. I then
slowly stirred into a lab jar 100ml water and 20g NaOH using my highly prized chemical gloves and clear plastic eyewear. Safety first in this step, everyone. Your eyes and hands aren't something you want to mess with. Treat these chemicals with respect!
5. Using this basic solution, I slowly added it to the 400ml solution stirring the whole time. This turned caused a change into a black, aqueous solution.
6. While the solution was still hot I carefully poured the 500ml into the sep funnel.
7. I measured out 80ml of naptha and slowly poured it into the sep funnel.
8. I had a hot water bathe in the sink ready for heating and rolling of the sep funnel. I highly recommend this (even for Mason jars), as it's easier to roll (they float) and keeps a nice gentle flowing motion of the solution without being to harsh and causing emulsions.
9. Five or ten minutes of intermittent rolling in the hot bathe and the sep funnel was placed back on the lovely ghetto stand with a hemp necklace slip knotted from the top to a cabinet knob for extra caution with my new baby. The knob is turned and the basic solution is drained until only naptha is left. Here I found that some letting it sit for a minute and light taps on the base of the sep funnel produced a collection of basic solution on the bottom which was then drained again.
9. After all of the basic solution was drained, the non-polar solvent (the naptha) was decanted into a mason jar and set in front of a fan for a little evaporation (makes crashing the solubles a sure thing if they are present).
10. Steps 6 through 9 are repeated three more times, with decremental amounts of naptha used in step 7 (80ml, 70ml, 50ml, then 40ml in my case).
11. After I'm satisfied with the amount of naptha in each jar, I placed them into my freeze on the coldest setting possible.
I will update this post with some more pictures when I'm done with the crystallization. For now you will have to just laugh at my redneck sep funnel stand.
Either way, though: if you guys can find one of these sep funnels, do it! They make extractions 100X more fun, in my opinion.
Also, if this post needs to be moved, please do. I don't know the proper place and don't have much access!
Criticism welcome at all times.
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