The d-limo smell will go away after some IPA and Acetone washes. Most probably you have some non-mesc alkaloid mixed with some orange oil left in your powder. Multiple times washed mesc still has a very faint earthy smell at least for me. I never managed to get the ultra white crystals you sometimes see in pictures. But more like a greyish off-white crystalline powder.

You'll notice that when you evaporate the wash solvent you'll be left with a waxy purplish pungent earthy/orangy smelling stuff consisting of the acetone soluble alkaloids and some fats which came over with the small amount of limo.

Thanks Poekus! That's exactly what I was hoping to hear. I think I titrated my saltings accurately enough that there should not be any significant amount of other alkaloids present in my final product.

It took me a while to get to the point of having results to share, as I've been very busy lately, but I have come to the conclusion that I may not be using D-limonene for future cactus extractions. I washed my final product several times with freezer-temperature (approx. -20°F) acetone, which did a very good job of removing undesired alkaloids. But the mescaline HCl still smells strongly of the concentrated citrus scented limonene residue. It is not quite as strong as it was before washing, but it is definitely still distinct.

I may try a couple washes with freezer-temperature 99% IPA and see if that helps, but if it doesn't I will just stick to xylene or toluene for future extractions. I realize that D-limonene is nontoxic, and the D-limo that I used is food-grade, but I am somewhat of a stickler for purity.

Otherwise I am very impressed with this tek, and I plan to use this method in the future.

My yields thus far are .639g from the first three saltings of the first three pulls. I started with approximately 4.3 lb fresh, despined and skinned Trichocereus bridgessi.

Hmmmmm.... What kind of limo are you using and at what percent. My is 99% technical grade and I didn't notice any orange smell post salting and evap.

99.8%, food-grade.

Interesting..... I even checked with my wife and she agree's it didn't have a citrus/orange-like smell post salt/evap.

I'm going to be doing another tek soon - I have some very nice torch.... and I haven't decided whether I should proceed with this tek and the limo or use another solvent... I liked this tek - everything went seemingly well, except for poor pulls at the end as a result of "landscaping pedro" actually being the "not-potent" type.... sigh.....

Strange, if still smelling like oranges after cleanup there must be something different with that limo than what most of us experience with our limo.

Maybe you could name the brand so people know which brand could have this 'stinky' issue.

I don't think there's anything different about the limonene's chemical makeup, I just could not remove my aqueous layer without pulling a thin layer of limonene on top of it. It seemed like there may have even been tiny amounts of limonene suspended in the aqueous solution, because the solution still had the citrus odor when I used a separatory funnel.

If you used limonene before with no problems, then by all means use it again. I love the idea of using a solvent which is plant-sourced and nontoxic. But if it is going to compromise the purity of my yield, like it did with this extraction, then I would prefer to use a different solvent.

I may have read something somewhere about how long you can use limo to pull prior to it breaking down into smaller distributed particles.

Don't recall where I saw that tho Entheo.

What do you mean? Like how many times it can be reused, or like it's shelf-life?

What I mean specifically, is how much time the Limo is mixed with the aqueous and such.

Prior to letting the emulsion separate and pulling the limo layer off. I do believe I read that you don't want the limo to sit in the emulsion state for too long because after x amount of hours the limo starts to pull things other than alkaloids.

Again, mind you, I have had 5 gran mal seizures - and my memory is less than accessable intermittently - but this particular detail strikes true for me and it's also why I have an emulsion that's sat separated for 5 weeks that I assume I cannot utilize the limo layer from it anymore.... is this not true?

Let me know, cuz I'll pull that off!!!

(P.S. Only trying to help - you know alot more than I do.)

[quote=Archmage
What I mean specifically, is how much time the Limo is mixed with the aqueous and such.

Prior to letting the emulsion separate and pulling the limo layer off. I do believe I read that you don't want the limo to sit in the emulsion state for too long because after x amount of hours the limo starts to pull things other than alkaloids.

Again, mind you, I have had 5 gran mal seizures - and my memory is less than accessable intermittently - but this particular detail strikes true for me and it's also why I have an emulsion that's sat separated for 5 weeks that I assume I cannot utilize the limo layer from it anymore.... is this not true?

Let me know, cuz I'll pull that off!!!

(P.S. Only trying to help - you know alot more than I do.)
[/quote]
I've never heard that, but it makes sense so it could very well be. Either way, my saltings were done very quickly, so I don't think that's what caused the problem in this particular instance.

As you're using a separatory funnel it's very easy not have limo in your aqueous solution.
Just not draw all the aqueous solution. Leave a tiny bit behind in the funnel so the limo has no chance to escape. By the time of your second or third salting the amount of alkaloids in your leftover aqueous solution can be neglected. In that way you can use a plant-source solvent without compromise the purity of our yield. If you're sure the chemical makeup of your limo is ok, it's perfectly possible to have orange smell free yield after cleanup.

Sometimes it's not looking into different substances to use, but in optimizing techniques to get the results you're looking for.

That said; all the best and fun in finding your optimal way to obtain a purity you're satisfied with, whichever you use for solvent or technique.