om
Some here will disagree with me here but my friend (through much trial and error) simply cuts into lengths that will fit in his food dehydrator (10 inches). Then slices it into strips leaving out only the woody core. He leaves on the skin and spines. The reasoning behind this is there are actives in the white flesh and the skin is a pain to remove. It blends beautifully to a powder in the blender. Never any problems with the skin being left on.

Hey guys,
Does anyone have a link to lorax's acetone precipitation method. I have seen a brief description of it in this thread but would like a full description.
Thanks.

How would isopropyl alcohol as a solvent and sodium hydroxide as a base work for mescaline extraction?

IPA is a solvent that pretty much strips anything of everything - probably not the best choice for a solvent for a Mescaline extraction. Are you having trouble finding Xylene?

A Mescaline extraction is very simple. Your sodium hydroxide (NaOH) comes into use first when you make your large NaOH solution. Get around 700g of distilled water (don't forget - 1ml of H2O = 1g of H20). Mix 300g of NaOH with the H20 to make your solution basic. You now have a 30% NaOH solution. Add your Cacti to this - around 100g

Then you're going to add your solvent (preferably Xylene) - IPA isn't a good idea here, as it is soluble with water, so you wouldn't even be able to do a pull. This will be your Non-Polar extract.

Use a separatory funnel to collect the organic (Xylene) layer.

Extract the aqueous layer one to four more times with Xylene.

Separate.

Now, you need to make an acidic solution, whether that's with citric acid, hydrochloric acid, or sulfuric acid. Make a 2% acidic solution. For instance 2 grams of citric acid dissolved in 98 grams of water. You can do the same for the others. Take 20ml of your solution and pour in with the xylene. Use a separatory funnel. Keep the aqueous (bottom) layer this time. Evaporate it, and you will get your Mescaline!

Don't forget all of the extractions need to be performed numerous times in order to get all of the goodies.

Hope this helps you.

Peace.

Thanks mate, wonderful information! I am aware of the basic principles of the extraction, but it is not a bad thing to get it repeated! I was hoping that IPA could work, as I do indeed have trouble finding both xylene and d-limonene... Any other solvents than these two that may be used?

Your welcome!

I've been thinking about this, and Dichloromethane is probably going to be your best best. You can use the exact method I listed above and substitute Dichloromethane (DCM) for Xylene. I'm 99% certain it will work, and DCM is a fairly common organic solvent, so you'll be able to get it from a chemical supplier over the web. It's going to be pricier than Xylene, though, so I would save it and reuse it.

Oh yeah, Chloroform would probably work, too, and it's easy to synthesisze (Sodium Hypochlorite + Acetone = Chloroform). It would take a while to synth as much as you need for the extraction, though. I'm 80% positive this will work.

Chloride is an extreme no-no in my book! I think I will have to try and order some d-limonene from abroad... Thanks for the help, mate!

Tell me more or give me a link please!

EDIT: Never mind, it was a quick google search away.

i cant believe this is posted as if it is original info, w/o credit to the authors, foaf and owen. posted in 2004 originally

Mescaline Extraction Video


i hope people reading this sticky dont use this, i know zim would say it is very outdated. it was outdated when he made it.

Hey everyone!

I will very soon do my first extraction on cacti. I will be using 69ron's d-limonene extraction, and have everything I need. In that regards, I am wondering how I should do things if I want a result as good as possible.

The recipe calls for 300ml of d-limonene per pull and 25 grams of calcium hydroxide per 100 gram of cactus. Do I really need that much? 9+ liters for a kilo of cactus seems to me like a very large amount of solvent to spoil. It also seems like a crazy amount to evaporate. Is there any feasible way to crash the mescaline acetate out of the d-limonene solution to allow the solvent to be re-used?

Also, what is the thought behind 25 grams of calcium hydroxide? I have seen others speculate if their calcium hydroxide is apparent in their end-product, so I want to get things right. What is the calculations this is based on? What PH is the wet solution supposed to be after the addition of calcium hydroxide?

I don't need an extremely pure product, and I don't mind any extra alkaloids except mescaline being extracted. In fact, a full-spectrum alkaloid extraction would be favored, if the final product is crystalline. That is my main uneasiness - will this tek provide me with crystals, or will it more or less be an oil? I don't mind it being a bit waxy though.

Any help is much appreciated!

Hey dg- I know that video's been around for some time, but what makes it outdated in your opinion? It's missing some detail in some steps, but it looks like a pretty standard cactus STB (admittedly, I didn't watch the entire thing from start to finish or read this entire thread). Just wondering because I've seen similar approaches work out well. I prefer to see safer bases and solvents used- is that what you're referring to? Would you care to outline your preferred approach?

Thanks for your help!

-JM

Jmax- EG,
i dont mind helping, and will, but i am spending a lot of time going over the same stuff.
i'll start a new thread later tonight, and just link replies to it
dg
or maybe q and a in chat later??

Hi Evening Glory. I hope your extraction goes well!



The limonene can be reused from pull to pull. I've seen it reused for several complete extractions without much impact on yields. After a while, it may start to dissolve less alkaloids because it's holding 'other crap' but I think it takes a while for it to cause major problems. Also, the limonene is not evaporated. In the tek you referenced, the alkaloids are salted out of the limonene with vinegar. My preference would be for HCl, but limonene should not be evaporated because it doesn't volatize completely at normal pressure and temp. It leaves behind some oily stuff that's not pleasant to consume. It's also worth mentioning that you're likely to lose some limonene in the cactus goop. I've witnessed a few hundred ml become absorbed in some cases, never to be seen again.


I'm not a calcium hydroxide expert or a chemist, but I believe the pKa of mescaline is 9.56 (https://wiki.dmt-nexus.me/Psychedelic_Compounds_Chemical_and_Physical_Properties). If I'm not mistaken (someone please correct me if I am!), 99% of the mescaline will be in free base form at a pH two points higher than the pKa. So 11.5 is probably a good goal to shoot for. Remember that, after each pull, the pH will change. A lower pH may result in less mescaline free base, but it may also allow for purer pulls. Like I said, I'm no expert so this is speculation.



I don't believe that Mescaline acetate is normally crystalline. That's why my associates prefer HCl as the salting acid. It produces nice sparkly off-white crystals.

Let me know if you have any more questions!

-JM

Fiashly, you're too quick! Or I'm too slow at typing. Either way, thanks for the input!

-JM

Thanks for your replies guys! Of course, the vinegar is what is evaporated, I can't understand what I was thinking while I was writing the post... High I guess!

I am currently doing a first extraction on 100 grams. I am wondering what temperature will do to mescaline's solubility in d-limonene? If I keep my container with cactus and d-limonene in the fridge at about 4 C, will more or less mescaline merge over to the solvent? What about the other alkaloids? Or gunk in the cactus? Or does it even matter a lot with the temperature difference from ~20 C to ~4 C?

In general, a warmer solvent is better at holding alkaloids than a colder one because solvents typically (always?) hold more solute at higher temps. I'm not sure if temp can be used to alter the alkaloid selectivity and 'junk pulling tendency' of the limonene or not. I believe your pH and solvent choice probably have a greater impact than temp in that regard.

I hope your extraction is successful! Please let us know the results when it's finished.

-JM

Thanks for the reply!

This is my result from 3 pulls with d-limonene on 100 g of peruvian torch - 2.753 g of impure mescaline. The product has a black color and a sticky consistency, nearly as bad as resin. When I scraped the pan, however, most had a dark brown color with a somewhat crystalline apparency that glittered some.

I think it can be assumed that the product is highly impure, I guess around 30% mescaline is a good estimate. As I don't own a seperatory funnel, some d-limonene was apparent in the product I evaporated. I assume most of the impurities is due to gunk in this d-limonene.

I'm not planning on washing the product, as I don't want to loose any alkaloids, be it mescaline or anything else. I will have to try it to test the potency and report back.

Hey EG, how did you evap the vinegar? Any use of heat?