Hello cactus experts. A friend of mine recently extracted several grams of mescaline HCL using 69Ron's D-Limonene tek. The source material was supposedly Bridgesii, but she says it actually looked more like a Pachanoi. Live cuttings were obtained, then dried in her home and ground to a powder before extraction. She tells me that the resultant product is a very light tan powder and is quite active, but that there's a lingering citrus smell from the limonene and the unpleasant taste hangs around after ingestion. Orange-flavored burps don't sound too bad to me, but evidently she does not find them to be pleasant during the experience so she'd like to remove the remaining citrus contaminants, if possible.

I suggested a recrystallization, but there are quite a few different methods out there and I'm not sure if one would be better/easier than another in this scenario, considering the nature of the contaminants. Can someone suggest a good one for removing this specific impurity? FWIW, the final product was well-cleaned with acetone and IPA after extraction, so my friend thinks that most of the 'good stuff' in there is, in fact, mescaline HCl (if 69Ron's assumptions are correct, that is). She assumes that the unpleasant impurity at this point is limonene or some component thereof.

So would a full MEK re-x be absolutely necessary? My friend hopes not, as boiling flammable solvents and using fume hoods complicates matters quite a bit. Any ideas for non-MEK re-x approaches which may help here? If not, MEK is a possibility but it's definitely not preferred.

Please feel free to ask any relevant questions and I'll act as intermediary between my friend and the incredible brain trust that is the Nexus.

Thanks in advance for any advice you may be able to lend. My friend truly appreciates it!

-JM

Couldn't the material just be capped and swallowed bypassing taste all together?

Thanks for the response, Opiyum. Capsules have been tested, but the orange taste and smell remain. My friend claims that the burps are the unpleasant part, so it seems logical that capsules would not help with that since they eventually dissolve and release the limonene into the stomach along with the actives. FWIW, the other method of ingestion that's been attempted is mixing the material into a cup of coffee. My understanding is that the taste of the coffee was certainly not improved in any way and the orange burps were still an issue throughout the experience.

-JM

If this is a 2 or 3 times washed product than that means this orange flavored impurity couldn't be more than 10-20 milligrams per active dose. Maybe even less than that. It's crazy to think such a small amount of this material could cause orange burps for for hours and hours.

Maybe just cover it with some mint gum...I don't know.

Can Mesc HCl be RE-xed with water? If so maybe that would free up the limo, giving it a better chance to evaporate.

Yes, three washes with room temp acetone and two with room temp 99% IPA. I agree that it seems crazy that the orange flavor would be that strong but, alas, here we are.


The product was originally recrystallized in distilled H2O and the mixture was left to evaporate at just above room temperature on a pyrex plate, leaving orange taste/smell in the matrix along with nice looking plate-like crystals of goodness. Perhaps heating the water further would improve the chances of the limonene evaporating though. Any other opinions on that? Thanks again for your help Opiyum.

Does anyone else have any other suggestions? Before playing around my friend would like to have several options to try. She is willing to attempt several different methods, if they are presented, and report back on the efficacy of each.

-JM

Was the 'washing' step of 69Ron's tek followed? Washing the product with anhydrous acetone and/or IPA would remove any traces of limo. Also, dissolving in hot water and running the solution through a coffee filter may remove additional particulate matter. It should be glittery after drying and scraping up.

Thanks Touche. Please see my last post for the washing method used.

I believe 69Ron's tek was followed to the letter and with great care, and additional washes beyond his recommendation were even performed to try to keep it as clean as possible. However, the limo smell remains. Another tidbit of potentially helpful info is that the limo used was from Green Terpene- not the tech grade variety.

Dissolution in H2O and filtration will be added to the list of potential approaches. Thanks again!

-JM

You could try dissolving the salts in h2o in a narrow vial, skimming any residual limo off the top and fltering out any limo gunk solids before reevapping. But honestly, whatever you do to clean up will result in losses could be more of a concern than a few limo burps.

maybe indeed redissolving in water and filtering would be a good idea. and you shouldnt have any losses if there's no loss of liquid. Just run some fresh water after filtering the dissolved alkaloids, so that any active solution that is in the filter is washed away. I think a tight cotton plug style filter might be more effective at removing limo than a coffee filter, but Im speaking in theory here, didnt do this myself. Whatever you try, let us know

Thanks Endlessness and ouro. Your advice is appreciated. Since the orange burps seem to annoy my friend quite a bit, I think that some loss is acceptable if the upside of the trade-off is a cleaner product.

It seems my friend has three potentially viable options:

1) Redissolve the material in distilled H2O, then re-evaporate using higher heat to hopefully force the remaining limonene to volatize off.
2) Redissolve in DH2O and remove the top layer of limonene, if one is present.
3) Redissolve in DH2O and filter to try to capture any impurities.

As luck would have it, my friend is working with about 3 grams of material. It seems as if 3 experiments are in order unless someone else has additional suggestions.

Results will be posted, but it may be some time before the above can be performed. I promise to get back to you ASAP, but your patience is appreciated.

As usual, the Nexus community has come through in the helpful and courteous manner I've come to expect. It's great to know that I can depend on you all for advice. Thank you, thank you, thank you! And thank you one more time for good measure Much love and gratitude to you all!

-JM

Redisolve in hot(140 Deg F) H2O then filter and freeze solid..any residual Limo wont freeze...then just pour off any remaining limo and run a bit of warm tap water over frozen top to wash off any lingering limo...Then Defrost, Evap and enjoy!!!

In the future if this freeze,wash step is done to salting liquid before evaporating you should get 100% of limo and alleviate any Limo Burps...

^ wow futura. good tip

btw about water filtration... there is a great in-depth post/thread about this somewhere. If you want to go filter the water then i suggest searching that post/thread since it contains some crucial info on how to go about. I remember in the LSH threads there is info on filtering watery solutions to get rid of fatty/oily substances.

Benzene is carcinogenic, so are xylenes and toluenes. You shouldn't eat solvents.

owen was the first one to use this method, and has worked ok as a "sep funnel"
i have my doubts it will remove the orange oily taste though

Jmax, if she had just done the mek work and skipped all the "washes" she would have been better off
(ps i've never needed a fume hood or glove box for this, just work outdoors with a fan)

Good luck

instead of a bit of warm water to remove the rests of limo, better something limo is soluble in, like IPA/acetone.

Anyways, the best way to remove limo traces is wash/re-x of dried mesc (or dmt or etc) salts with a solvent that limo is miscible with (also for example IPA/acetone)