1 gallon (3785 ml) of d-limonene costs about $30. That's enough to perform 4 separate extractions of 100 grams each. So the cost of extracting 100 grams is about $7.50 worth of d-limonene.

The vinegar costs about $2.20 for 32 oz (946 ml). That’s enough for 4 separate extractions of 100 grams each. So the cost of the vinegar used is about $0.55.

100 grams of San Pedro cactus dried outer green flesh costs about $30.

100 grams of calcium hydroxide costs about $1.80. That’s enough for 4 separate extractions of 100 grams each. So the cost of the calcium hydroxide is about $0.45 for one extraction.

The coffee filter papers cost about $1.50 for 100. That’s enough for 33 extractions of 100 grams each. So the cost per extraction is $0.05.

San Pedro cactus dried outer green flesh yields between 1-5% alkaloids, so 900 ml is enough d-limonene to extract 1-5 grams of mescaline acetate from 100 grams of dried outer flesh.

1-5 grams comes to 5-25 200 mg doses.

In total we’re talking about a cost of $38.55 ($7.50 + $0.55 + $30 + $0.45 + $0.05) to extract 5-25 doses of mescaline acetate. That’s a cost of $1.54 - $7.71 per dose, depending on the quality of the cactus. That’s not bad.

sure isnt bad..

limonene smells AMAZING

I updated the OP to include photos of the crystals produced by this tech. (NOTE: the photos were NOT taken by me.)

Nice updates ron. This is one of the best tek's I've ever encountered for any substance. Great job!!!

What kind of yields can SWIM expect using 100g of cactus?

From 200 grams of San Pedro dried outer flesh, SWIM got slightly over 7 grams (3.5% yield). That's the highest yield SWIM ever got. Of course you need good quality cactus for that type of yield.

SWIM played around with different bases, different solvents, different acids, and finally found this particular method to be the highest yielding so far.

This is an extremely high yielding tech because it's optimized specifically for mescaline. When extracting mescaline there are a few key points that need to be followed that SWIM discovered: A - don't use heat for the initial extraction because it degrades the alkaloids in their natural state in the cactus; B - get rid of the mucilage which hinders extraction; C - don't have any available water during the freebase extraction phase because it hinders extraction; D - use a non-polar solvent that freebase mescaline is highly soluble in but not one that dissolves everything in the plant (bad choices would be chloroform, DCM, etc. because too much junk would get into the final product).

The initial extraction is a straight to base (STB) extraction except that the amount of water used is extremely small so there's essentially no water layer to separate and not enough water present to hold any freebase mescaline. That's important. That's one of the main reasons why this tech gives really good results for mescaline. Freebase mescaline is water soluble so in order to better make it go into the non-polar solvent, we make sure there's no water to hold on to it.

The other reason this tech is so high yielding is because calcium hydroxide destroys the mucilage. The cactus has horribly slimy mucilage which helps prevent the extraction of mescaline. The mucilage acts like glue preventing the solvents from getting to the mescaline. Because the calcium hydroxide reacts with and breaks down the mucilage, the base and non-polar solvent are both allowed better access to the mescaline.

The third reason this tech is so high yielding is because no heat is used in the initial extraction phase. SWIM has read many reports of heat reducing the alkaloid content of San Pedro if used for the initial extraction phase. Apparently the natural form of alkaloids present in the cactus are not heat stable. SWIM has read this from dozens of different people making this claim. I assume it's true. Apparently mescaline acetate is heat stable, so at the end a little heat can be used to help concentrate the mescaline acetate without loss of alkaloids.

The fourth reason this tech is so high yielding is because d-limonene just happens to extract freebase mescaline really well. Much better than xylene can and unlike DCM or chloroform, it doesn't extract a lot of other junk along with the mescaline.

This tech will outperform a standard wet STB based on sodium hydroxide and xylene, and will also far outperform a standard A/B extraction for the reasons outlined above.

The thing I like to most about this tech is that all the ingredients are relatively safe to handle. There's no dangerous caustic lye (sodium hydroxide), no toxic solvents or fumes, no dangerous acids. It's all safe food grade material that's used. And it's relatively simple. You don't need pH papers to monitor the pH. You don't need any fancy lab equipment. It's nice to use a separatory funnel at the end to separate the vinegar from the d-limonene, buy it's not really needed. You can just decant the d-limonene to separate it from the vinegar. Also, you can re-use the same d-limonene a couple of times to save money.

The only downside I see to this tech is that the final product takes a while to dry and it dries to a waxy texture (somewhat like DMT but more waxy), and it's not 99% pure white odorless mescaline acetate, it's about 85-95% pure depending on the alkaloids present in the initial cactus material used. There's no easy way that SWIM knows of to clean up the mescaline acetate to get it up to 99% purity. However, even at 85% purity, it's good enough to put into capsules.

To get 99% purity, you can use dilute HCl instead of vinegar and then wash the resulting goo with acetone to get it very light tan, and wash with 99% IPA to get it white and odorless.

okay... my fishy is done one limonene soak 10+hours mixing throughout... was dark green filtered and poured into separatory funnel .... 25ml vinegar was added and rolled around lightly for about 10 mins then separated... no emulsion... didnt pick up distinguishable color... another 25ml was added to the limonene this time fishy held the funnel (best not to ask how) and oscillated it to swirl the liquid inside at a high rate of speed thoroughly mixing the two liquids... seems fishy now has an emulsion the likes of which his fish eyes have never seen been about 20 mins its clearing somewhat... just give it time i told fishy... see what happens...

fishy did ask me to ask some questions for him....
when the second limonene soak is done should he add it to the original 300ml and just continue to do vinegar pulls or do the pulls separate... the only real disadvantage he sees to combining them is the volume of liquid he will then be dealing with....

fishy brought to my attention that the emulsion is half cleared..... goood goood its all going great i think

on my third vinegar pull experiencing heavy emulsion takes 30-60 mins to clear havent tried warming funnel yet... if i do maybe 90 degree bath any thoughts on this? is warp speed swirling not necessary? i feel like it may work better but you have heavy emulsion then which clears eventually.. any thoughts?

tested ph of third vinegar pull read ~ph4
my fish says he wants to continue pulling with vinegar till it comes through ph3 his thinking is that it will eventually and at that point whatever is there to have been gotten would of been gotten

Did you following the tech exactly or did you improvise?

That doesn't look right at all. SWIM never saw vinegar and d-limonene form an emulsion. Several of SWIM's friends tried this tech and that never happened. Did you really vigorously shake it?

Also, the d-limonene should be yellow with a slight greenish tint. The vinegar should be very light yellow. That looks very different.

What brand of d-limonene did you use?

No, that will increase the quantity of impurities in the final product. Treat each d-limonene pull separately.

No, I mean the d-limonene should be yellow with a slight green tint after it's used to pull the mescaline from the cactus.

D-limonene is clear.

Pure white vinegar is clear.

After pulling the dried San Pedro cactus flesh and wet calcium hydroxide mix with the d-limonene, the d-limonene should take on a yellow tint with a hint of green.

After pulling d-limonene with the vinegar, the vinegar should be light yellow.

the only way i deviated from the tech is i used ~450ml of water in the first step so it was wet but not watery... and after i added the limonene i dumped the crude extract i had (via alcohol soak then evap) in to the mix which turned the limonene that dark color... yea the vinegar was swirled in quite vigorously the third pull has been sitting for hours (60 degrees) still 1/3 emulsion

i tasted ~5ml of the vinegar from my first two pulls... something was active so hopefully im on the right path... i regret adding the crude extract now as i feel that will lead to impurities.. but its done and i have much more material to experiment with... the second limonene soak appears as the first one did before adding the crude extract light green cloudy... the vinegar from the first two pulls looks yellowish ph4

The crude alcohol alkaloid extract that was added definitely helps explain the color difference and maybe even the emulsion trouble. The excess water is going to make things a little worse, but not much I hope.

i noticed no water bubbles in decanted liquid and no pooling water in the measuring cup im using to mix it .... so hopefully its okay.. the wetness seemed right there was no excess or free water eh ill do few more vinegar pulls (till ph comes to 3?) then decant the second limonene soak and see if that forms emulsion..

thanks for all your help man

second limonene soak upon heavy agitation emulsion clears near instant...
i believe that dumpin that crude extract in the mix was what messed me up somewhat but i believe no harm done ... iv been tasting the vinegar you know i cant help myself... today i believe i got a decent dose of it been about 8 hours and i still feel it strong hard for me to explain how it feels as i have nothing to compare it to... it feels somewhat similer to mdma which makes sense to me.... its nice i cant wait for the vinegar to evap

im doing 3 limonene soaks and 4 vinegar pulls each... does this seem excessive?

That looks more like it should look.

4 vinegar pulls from the orange oil (d-limonene) will get probably 97% of all the mescaline out of it. Usually 3 is enough. I wouldn't go beyond 4 vinegar pulls. It's like the first pull gets about 55%, the second something like 30%, the third maybe about 10%, the fourth maybe about 2%...something like that. It's about the same for the initial orange oil pulls, but SWIM hasn't really tested it that thoroughly yet.

thats what i figured thanks for all your help man ill update when its done evapin

this is from two limonene pulls 4 vinegar pulls each i havent pulled from the third limonene pull yet...

i havent scraped it yet i dont think its fully dry but all excess liquid is gone it doesnt run
no crystals to be seen and it sure dont look like much... i suppose anything could of gone wrong with too much water and the crude extract with its horrid emulsions eh i dunno perhaps the cactus was bunk i know the stuff is active though im waiting for some free time to try a weighed dose im thinking 3mg/kg be a good place to start i got strong head or should i play it safe with 2mg/kg

eh im fucked i feel im leaving something out eh.... i dunno

I'm sure the mescaline is there. I think the emulsion brought something over that is maybe preventing the crystallization. The crude alcohol extract that was added probably caused problems.

It takes a long time to dry completely.

How did you dry it?

How much cactus was used?

thats what i was thinking...

i had the pan sitting on a heater about 90-100 degrees till it dryed.. its now sitting on top of my monitor about 80 degrees

100grams per tek and the extract from 30 grams

im gonna start over this time follow per tech

i dont have food dehydrater tho is my drying method sufficient?