Hi all

A rather simple question to a simple extraction

If the extraction followed this method...

500ml water + 2 tbsp sodium hydroxide added to mimosa root extract of 50g placed in a jar and shaken vigoursly

150 ml napatha added and left for one day for the alkaloids to migrate to the solvent and the naptha to seperate from the balsified water

I would assume this would leave me with a clear naptha, but the power is surely likely to contain some of the root bark still, what is a suitable method for ensuring that the extracted naptha does not contain the root bark?

Perhaps using coffee filter material will suffice to seperate any suspended material remaining in the naptha?

Any information or advice would be a blessing!

Regards

The rootbark shouldn't be in the naptha, it will settle in the bottom layer of water and lye, the naptha will float on top on the water and lye -- your naptha may remain clear or it may turn a yellow - regardless of color their def. shouldn't be any rootbark in your naptha layer

thanks for the reply

I guess the worry is that the powder could have been very fine and is therefore suspended in the naptha? It may have had a day to settle which i would assume is long enough

Another complication is that the sides of the jar have a root bark coating now the jar has been shaken so from the side it may look like the naptha has root bark suspended but I suspected a extract from the center of the jar may have revealed clear naptha which was negative.

Are there any suggestions? Add more naptha? Add more balsified water?
Could I also ask why the root bark should be in the naptha? Is this because naptha should be incapable of suspension or is it because is should just sink to the bottom? How about the coffee filter idea?

Thanks gratEfully!

Might have cleared that up myself, add more naptha to the see the separated layer rise and therefore become transparent..

For future reference its not good to shake your extraction. Better to roll or swirl it. If you have seperation problems add more water/lye.

and for the next extraction a tip for you:

buy some lime (calcium hydroxide) and use the q21q21 tek. With q21q21 you have no problems with the seperation and the yields are good

So based on the advice received it is not advisable to shake the naptha / balsified water extract, rather one should roll it? Cheers

Yeah, either roll it or just turn it end over end a few times -- treat it like a virgin and be gentle.

Yessir, roll/swirl it.

Well he beat me to the punch. lol

Rolling and swirling is for girls lol. Shake the mix and let settle then shake some more and let settle. As long as your whole mix isn't cold it should separate quite easily and quickly.

If you find rootbark material suspended in your solvent layer then add more lye and that will sort that problem out. Also if separation isn't happening then place mix in a hot water bath, it will separate no problems

I find shaking to be bad idea.. Even though one can clear up emulsions with more lye/salt, it is just much safer to instead mix it by swirling/stiring.. This will save you on lye to break emulsion, it will save you hassles of possibly having very-hard-to-break emulsions, and it will make no difference in yield... But thats just me, each one has their own way. I would say though, that new people should never shake, or their lives might get more complicated

Roll like this:
http://video.google.com/...id=-2164471661630252647#

( 6:11-6:28 )



And if you shake and this get a emulsion you should do this steps:


1) Add more lye. A higher concentration of NaOH and a higher pH will break some nasty bubbles.
2) Add tablesalt (a couple of grams). NaCl is quite effective at preventing the formation of emulsions.
3) Give your solution some heat. A warm solution is a quickly separating solution.
4) Stir. Swirl. Try to make your solution go around and around without making your naphthalayer mix with your emulsion.
5) Pull up your emulsion, squirt it down into your solution. Repeat.
6) Tap. Give that bottle some nice taps (be careful if glass) at the bottom.

(https://www.dmt-nexus.me/forum/default.aspx?g=posts&t=5866)