for Rivea, and anyone else interested in the application of ultrasound in extraction and chemical processes.

20 mins of sonicating plant material typically yields more product than 7 hours of soxhlet cycling.

Sorta off topic of the particulars from that paper, but could you theoretically put your STB vessel (HDPE jug, mason jar) in an ultrasonic batch with the lye emulsion MHRB further separating the spirit molecule? I.e. better pulls?

oh, I agree..
and naysayers are just skeptical because they support the vast right-wing conspiracy

It seems like this would work well...now to just find an ultrasonic big enough.

i think the book goes into discussion on US-assisted extraction in acidic phase, not sure about basic though. either way, it accelerates the process. keep in mind, the power distribution in a water bath is much less than a titanium probe-type cell disruptor (near the tip), but references were cited where an ultrasonic water-bath was used to accelerate extractions

I remember assisting a grad student with thc determination from hair samples using LC-MS; he did an acidic digestion on the samples in an ultrasonic waterbath for several hours, prior to injecting an aliquot of the analyte, so it does work.

occaisionally eb@y will have some good deals on power sonicators (probe-type...they're not cheap though); a 400 or 500 W power supply with a 1" (diameter at tip) horn can effectively handle up to 500 mL at a time. you can easily fit 100 g powdered MHRB in that, and process it in 5 - 20 mins.

Sh!t! It's never enough; now I have a new piece to add to my arsenal. I was sure that would work, I am definitely going to start looking for some of that equipment now.
I'm real tempted to get a little Ultra-Sonic just to start testing some of this out.
Thanks Ben!

Do you think that using sound like this would be equal to heating up the container like one would for the last few pulls? Basically, would the sonic waves move more alkaloids and other jungly stuff into the solvent as well?

yes

there are a number of things the ultrasound radiation accomplishes; in biochem, we primarily exploit its ability to break open cells, releasing components into solution. however, it's also used to homogenize solutions, i.e. creating emulsions from two immiscible phases.
for this reason, you wouldn't want to use a probe to break up emulsions, it would just create more emulsion (an ultrasonic bath might work to break them up though).
and yes, the solution does tend to get warm after a few minutes of sonicating

after sonicating the plant material, you'd filter it and proceed with the extraction as you normally would. you just replace several hours of boiling or simmering with a few minutes of sonication.

I take it you are more familiar with A/B type teks?

also familiar with STB, which gives a more broad-spectrum product.

the base-catalyzed hydrolysis of the cell walls serve the same function as the
US-assisted method discussed here; the advantage to the latter approach is less base
is required. the disadvantage is cost..sonicators tend to be a bit pricey, but they are serious
tools, like drill presses. a couple of us have them, and enjoy the rapid extraction benefits;
used one to get a good amount of alkaloids extracted from mushroom aborts in cold methanol, from about 10 mins of sonication.

Benzyme,

Thanks for the documents. I have done an extraction with my 1/2" probe, 700 watts. I may have overdone the sonication doing 40 minutes each on two 250 ml beakers of liquid/bark. It got quite hot almost 170 deg F. My yield was lower (0.67%) than with previous A/B extraction using three soaks simmering heat (1.0%)

Next time I'll try 20 minutes with 500ml and a 3/4" probe and some cactus material possibly late in Dec.