Hi all,

After attempting an A/B extraction over the last two days (using Kash's A/B mescaline extraction Tek) I ended up with a pretty dismal 200mg total yield after the acetone wash.

I used 150 cm of San Pedro (approx 5 feet) and it was decently thick fresh cuttings.

I used Xylene as that was readily available where I live, anhydrous acetone that I had left over from my last Mescaline extraction (for which I got about the same yield (didn't have scales at that point)), using only 12 inches of thinner cacti.

I still have the based cacti goop as maybe I did something wrong along the way.

Hoping for any suggestions,

Thanks guys (:

Mescaline extractions can be so sad lol

I think the two main reasons for mescaline low yield is bad genetics and how much one pulls from cactus itself, since it seems mescaline is more protected by cactus cells, and take longer to migrate to water or two solvent when it`s based.

I`d try doing a couple more pulls and see if you get anything else from it. How many pulls did you do?

Did you have much before the wash?

I have done about 6 pulls so far, with approx 150Ml of Xylene with each pull.

In regards to this is it best to use fresh Xylene for each pull or can I re-use it?

I did the first 5 pulls with fresh Xylene and I'm up to the 7th pull now, (been in there for about 45min) I have been increasing time between pulls to see if that helps.

I had approx 500 mg of "dirty" mescaline before the wash.

Yeah Id mix much more thoroughly now, do many cycles of mixing and letting stand before separating it and salting.

Ive gotten significant amount of mescaline even in like the 8 or 9th pull.

By the way, the cactus pieces are still there or only the filtered tea that was based?

Because if you used fresh cut cactus, then you need to do at least 4 pressure cook boils and do some cycles of freeze and thawing if possible. If you didnt do that, better go back to the cactus and try to get more goodies from it.

Wow, I'm so glad I didn't throw away my cacti after I finished.

Yes it was the tea that was based.

I blended the cacti and did 4 pressure cook pulls @15 PSI for 15 mins and then 1 pressure cook pull @15 PSI for 45 minutes.
Then I froze the strained cacti in case there was anything left.

So when you say thaw and freeze cycles should I have done that before the cooks?

This gives me some hope now.

So as a plan of attack, how does this sound:

Thaw and freeze cacti pulp 4 times.
Repeat pressure cook pulls at 15 PSI for 15 mins until liquid recovered is clear.
Let the Xylene sit with the Based cacti tea for 12 Hrs and pull till no more is recovered.

One final question, (sorry for all the questions, this is all quite new to me), should I base the Cacti tea some more after I add the cooks from the pulp?

Thanks so much for your help Endlessness (:

sounds like weak cacti, but
you could do one more pull, add a bunch more base and keep the extraction warm in a hot water bath. and heat the re-used NPS from the previous pulls

no need to freeze/thaw cacti when making tea(imo), especially if you are using a pc

i'd look at my procedure, and amount of base used- temperature-mixing etc.
(should be getting minimal returns after 4-5 pulls)

I will probably keep the next batch separate from what I have frozen, to see if I get anything from it, or maybe just make a tea from it and drink it? Would that be worth it?

Just as an idea, what would a decent yield be from this amount of cacti?
I know they say 0-3% of dry weight but I used fresh, is this meant to increase/decrease yield?

Thanks again for all you help guys.

Great community here, I am loving it!

(:

Fresh has smaller yield per weight since it is 93+% water.

Check this for some cactus analysis info

Thanks for that endlessness.

So after freezing/defrosting x 4 I did 5 more extraction PC pulls and made it into a tea (bloody putrid taste) Reduced it down to about a large coffee cup full.

I drank that 2 hours ago and have noticed none of the tell tale signs I normally get for even low doses of mescaline (general happiness, inexplicable smiling, slight warping of light). This leads me to believe that I have most if not all of the mescaline in the previous PC extractions.

So, from here I will do some more Xylene pulls over 12 hour periods and do that till no more mescaline is extracted.

I guess I got unlucky with this cacti, low yield I guess.

I guess I will have to wait for my cacti to grow over the summer (got around the same yield off less than a fifth of the amount I used for this extraction).

I will post back with my results none the less when I am finished, never such a thing as too much information in my opinion.

Thanks again guys, appreciate the help and kind words,
(:

Yeah its possible its just bad yielding cactus, believe me I know how dissapointing that can be...

But don`t give up, if it`s not this extraction to get a nice amount, it will be the next

And sharing your results is definitely appreciated!

You said you used fresh cuttings yes?

Next time try keeping them in the dark to dry them out for a week or three before using them as there have been some reports of this increasing the Mesc.

Yes, I definitely won't give up, with each extraction I have done I have slowly refined my approach and Hopefully will continue to do so until I can achieve some snow white crystals

I may try that frozen, I have 4 cacti growing in the garden at the moment, and weather down under can get quite hot here in the summer (32 + degrees Celsius quite often.). I plan on trying an extraction on each one separately to see how it feels with all there alkaloids, not just the mescaline.

If your interested they are:

*Peruvian Torch
*San Pedro
*Bolivian Torch
*Echinopsis scopulicola (No common name I know of)

Thanks guys (:

So for a bit of an update, I continued with the extraction yesterday and today, leaving the xylene with the based cacti tea for 12-24 hours and have gotten a total of approx. 1200 mg assorted alkaloids (about 500 mg of this has been cleaned with anhydrous acetone with a final yield of 220 mg.).

So at this point in time, I just finished another pull and still got a yield, albeit small, of 280 mg unclean alkaloids, this is at pull no. 9. I will continue with the extraction until I am left with no alkaloids from the pulls and will continue to report my results.

Thanks all.
(:

Awesome bro, thanks a lot for sharing!

It did confirm my suspicions that there were still some goodies in there....

Dg, regarding your comment earlier in the thread, I don`t know bro with mimosa I agree first three pulls come most yield, but with mescaline, maybe the fact that it`s slightly water soluble even as a base, I`ve always gotten some yield in later pulls even with propper mixing (though I must confess that the last extraction when I had a lot of yield in 9th pull was NOT done with the magnetic stirrer, which improves yields in the first pulls)

My main advice is to add base, and wait 24hrs or so until the mix is very runny/liquid before heating it all up in a hot water bath and adding NPS. More base is better for cacti extraction.