So I have this idea of a crude harmala extraction by the simple process of boiling in vinegar, straining off the seeds, strongly filtering the vinegar water, then simply boiling down until it becomes a sludge, then scraping it up onto some baking paper, and setting in a toaster oven on 200*F until all the water evaporates.

Would this be a viable way to get the harmalas? Every time I attempt to do the Manske/Tao tek I seem to mess it up, or get something that I can't distinguish and never those pretty, ruddy crystals. It sounds like such a simple tek, but as with everything else, I always find some way to mess it up.

try boiling the seeds, filtering, and then instead of evaporating, just add some sodium carbonate, and set the liquid in the fridge.

this will precipitate all the alks, which will sink to the bottom filter that through a fine coffee filter to retrieve the precipitate, and voila, a crude extract better than the one you suggest (and just as easy to make).

to purify it, you could redissolve in vinegar, basify, and save the precipitate.


just as simple, and a much more efficacious methodology.

I presume that sodium hydroxide would be just as acceptable to basify?
And will a coffee filter be fine enough to filter the alkaloids from solution?

This, except I often use sodium chloride instead of sodium carbonate. It might result in a less pure product, but it is damn near fool-proof.

Cy6nu5, I can post the write up to one of my extractions. It's just for obtaining a crude harmala extract. It can be refined further, but I find it works just fine.

Sodium hydroxide works well, just remember to do a basified wash on your nonpolar solvent to make sure no sodium hydroxide gets carried over. And yes a coffee filter works just fine, but if you want to be super clean, use a Bucher funnel.