Hello everybody, joined the forums pretty recently and this is my first post.

I have a quick question, though. I am looking to do an extraction on ACRB, and wanted to do a STB tek (time and convenience) and I was looking into Noman's Tek. I know there will be some loss in yield using STB with ACRB, but is it enough to deter me from performing it? Or, is it still worth the project?

Also, I noticed a lot of people get goo with ACRB. I know how hard it is to vape the goo (moving it around, etc.) so I wanted to make some enhanced-leaf (no MAOI), and then maybe later some Changa if all goes well. With this said, if I plan to just put my extract onto leaf is it worth it to do a recrystallization after the STB tek, or should I just go ahead and make the enhanced-leaf immediately after I get the extract? (Pretty much, is there any difference in product between STB extract enhanced-leaf and STB Re-X'd extract enhanced-leaf?)

I greatly appreciate any help you guys can give me, and I look forward to my time with this forum!

Don't do STB with acacia. I've done 2 or 3 extractions that way and the yields were either disappointing or it took weeks to do enough pulls to get everything. (I did 8+ pulls in heat bath and had to wait at least a day between pulls). The last one I did literally took 3 weeks to do. After that I decided to only do A/B extractions.

An A/B extraction can be done in a few days at most - 1 or 2 days of boilings, then 1 day to do all the pulls. It's not necessary to let the base mixture sit for long with A/B since the alkaloids are already in solution, rather than STB where you're required to let it sit long enough for the bark to break down and release the alkaloids. You then have to hope that you've mixed well enough to get the alkaloids into the non-polar solvent. STB would really only be feasible if the bark is very finely powdered and you have lots of time on your hands.

You can make the enhanced leaf immediately from the goo, but it will be hard to gauge the dosage without an accurate weight. To figure out the % alkaloids, weigh the leaf before adding it to the solution, then weigh afterwards. Subtract the numbers and divide by the final weight to get the fraction that is alkaloids. The issue with acacia is that there may be a sizable quantity of NMT in the final product which will reduce the potency of your extract and make it harder to dose accurately.

You can also use dry ice to remove NMT which can produce nice white DMT crystals if you are thorough with it.

How do you know that STB yields lower than A/B?

Recrystallizing is advisable, unless you are very meticulous about removing traces of lye from the nonpolar layer before reducing/freezing.

Thanks for the heads up, arcologist! I guess, then, I will do Cyb's Hybrid A/B Tek. Then I will turn it to enhanced-leaf using peppermint leaf. So, since you said the Acacia makes it less potent due to NMT, should I start with like a 30mg dose to see how it works? Or should I start pretty low and work my way up?

Thanks again for the insight!

Last thing, would you mind walking me through your equation, as I was a little confused (probably on my part)? Say, for example, I had 2 grams peppermint leaf, .5 grams spice, and a final weight of 2.5 grams enhanced-leaf. How would I calculate it to obtain a 30mg spice dose? Thanks so much for any help!

You should compute the % alkaloids as I mentioned, then use that percentage to determine a starting point for the total leaf mass for 30mg of alkaloids (divide 30mg by 100 * % alkaloids). Start there and then increase the dose until you're where you want to be. So if your leaf was 50% alkaloids, you should start with 60mg of enhanced leaf.

Thank you sir! Got it!

So, if I were to carefully remove the naptha layer, you are saying I (hypothetically) do not need to perform a re-x? Would there be any difference in effects from re-x'd enhanced-leaf and non re-x'd enhanced leaf? Or, would my product, if not re-x'd, just be slightly weaker in effects?

I'm greatly appreciating all the help you are giving me, buddy!

There shouldn't be a need to recrystalize if you are careful when separating the layers. If you do get any basic mixture in the solvent, just let the solvent sit for a few hours. The black/purple/brown particles will settle and probably stick to the bottom. You can then just pour off the clean solvent. I recommend a glass syringe for accurate siphoning.

NMT won't hurt, but it will reduce the potency of the extract (it does add an intense body load). It can be removed somewhat with a recrystalization, but since it is slightly soluble in naphtha, it will be impossible to remove all of it this way. The only known way to guarantee there isn't any left is to use the dry ice method I linked earlier, but even this doesn't always work 100% without repeating the process.

Acacia is a lot more challenging to work with than MHRB because there are more variables.

Thanks again, arcologist. I'll look into the dry ice method. Is NMT that bad, or something? Or is it one of those things where half the people like it and half the people dislike it?

It's not bad at all. It adds some interesting body load to the experience but doesn't really add much to the psychoactive effects. I've had some pretty profound journeys using NMT-containing extracts. Here is my bioassay of nearly pure NMT. Almost no visuals, mildly mentally stimulating, strong body load. On its own it could be used as short-acting replacement for cannabis.

However, I choose to remove it because it allows me to dose more accurately and handle the DMT more easily. Plus, since I have a higher tolerance than most people to DMT's effects, I already have to smoke a lot (80+mg) to breakthrough. Having that extra mass from the NMT in there just makes me have to smoke even more (maybe as much as 50% more).

I think you didn't notice PurpleBassHead was saying 0,5g spice in 2g leaf, so for 30mg you need 120mg of enhanced leaf.

So, I have some old lye laying around that I was looking to use. I know that the lye has gone bad if it is clumped up. So I looked in the container and I saw that there was a chunk of the lye in the container, but a lot of it was just granules. Does this mean the lye is still ok for use, or should I not chance it and go buy a new container of lye?

Peace!

Chunks of lye are fine - it just means that it has absorbed a little bit of moisture from the air. Since it's getting wet anyway, it doesn't matter.

^Helpful guy. Thanks dude!