Hello all,

I got a few chemistry related questions,

I got a background in chemical engineering so I'm familiar with the theory for most teks around here. Since I'm more into physical chemistry than organic, I'm trying to be careful to not spoil substrate when playing with extractions.

Those of you familiar with extracting compounds from cactus tissue probably know how easy it is to make emulsions.

Does anyone got any trick for dealing with these surfactants?

Something to wash them out or stop them from forming stable emulsions?
Naphtha does help, but its takes quite a few washes. I was thinking of trying to soak dry material in diethyl ether, but its a pretty expensive solvent.

When doing AB extractions i simply add rock salt and you wont have any emulsions form. You can also try gentle heating and/or adding more base. Im not experienced doing STB on cactus.

I didn't get much result from adding salt. Naphtha with some xylene for paint thinning helps but I'm afraid it might adsorb some of the valuable stuff.

I'm leaning towards fractional leaching dried material with bioethanol (fuel grade), then recycle the solvent with a condenser. I have a feeling that a lot of the unwanted stuff is bound up a lot stronger than the portion I'm trying to separate.

Strange the salt did not work although im not sure exactly what tek you are using or what stage your at but i always add salt when using a nps to extract from a tea and i never get emulsions at that stage or later when salting.Mescaline is not really soluble in Naptha but it is in xylene.Kash's tek is very good if you havnt read through it yet. Good luck mate.

According to the wiki, mescaline freebase is "practically insoluble" in VM&P naphtha.

Are you doing normal boils or pressure cooking? What base are you using? How much salt are you using? Is the emulsion being formed after you add the solvent? What do you mean with adding xylene and naphtha, to do the pulls, or in the acidic phase for defat?

Regarding the biofuel thing, I think you`re probably making this way more complicated than it is.




If you`re doing an A/B, pressure cook instead of normal boil during acidic phase will def help separating liquid from the snot.

Also add plenty of sodium hydroxide, as well as plenty of salt (not just a spoonfull, like a few), to increase polarity difference between the layers.

Another option is to not do a normal A/B but rather a dry tek with calcium hydroxide (reffer to `69ron tek' in the nexus wiki), you wont have to deal with such problems.

Or lastly, another possible clever solution: https://www.dmt-nexus.me...&m=329538#post329538

I did normal cactus boils and I'm using a/b like Kash's tek. Its not lacking lye to say the least. I'm wondering if it could be the xylene I got, could be it had some additives causing it to make stable emulsions when I started to add the solvent.

So I separated the emulsions, to get the boils and the emulsion phase into separate containers. Then added water and acid to the emulsion flask, along with naphtha. So then emulsions started to break down and I did a few naphtha pulls on the emulsion mix until most of it was gone. Talking of extra work, haha

On the alkaline mix I tried the same, adding naphtha watching as it changed color. So after a few pulls there, I could finally start adding xylene again without getting stable emulsions.

I'll finish the flask with cactus brew before the other with the recovered water phase.

So, about the dried cactus. I got it dried and powdered from overseas. Most likely E. Peruvianus but, could also be E. Macrogonus. I dont know whether E. terscheckii grows in that area. You know the vendor he delivers reliably good quality, not sawdust like some others.

Thanks for the link Ufostrahlen

It looks like the brand of xylene I tried the first round was a pretty crude mix. I used another brand the next round and it works fine.

YW ManicMongrel. Happy extracting.