I've never understood the point of this at all, why bother?

Because if your extracting it right..most if not all the active alcaloids are in the liquid and the bark fiber is spent...
This is true for me after i do 4or 5 acid boils...the bark is spent of its active alcaloids..

I figured it eliminates additional material for the NaOH to break down and increases the possibility of cleaner solvent pulls.

If you're doing the extract quickly over the weekend or whatever, maybe it's not as necessary. But if you're leaving the basified soup on the side for a little while because you haven't had time to do that last pull or whatever, fridge decanting and filtering out bark particles certainly won't hurt.

Also it give the acidic soup a much nicer shade of transparent red

I think depending on the equipment at hand it might be better to filter. A case of this would be using small mouthed containers. It can be a royal pain trying to get bark into small mouthed containers.

Also, it depends how finely shredded the bark is.

Real small bark particles may tend to cling to the organic layer forming something of an emulsion, jamming pipettes and coming over in the solvent. We're preparing DMT, not ayahuasca. So there is no justification for bark to be present in the crystalizing dish.

Ideally, you want to do liquid to liquid extractions. This cannot be done when you have large contaminating debris in your liquid. It seems like alot of extra work, but do what you want. Good in, good out..

Yes, that's true, but still dont think it hurts to leave it in there, so why do extra work?



That's possible; it would be interesting to see some tests done.

I think this is the best reason mentioned, but then again a little bark in the crystalizing dish doesnt hurt...

Depends, bark slipping through probably means sodium hydroxide is in your product. You can recrystalize it, for sure. But that wastes precious spice. Just do it right the first time if you have the means to do so.

I see these threads pop up from time to time. This is one of the larger frustrations many people who do not bother filtering seem to have happen. Filtration is merely a matter of waiting. What is so important you can't play a round of v-games or tidy the house for 10 minutes while your liquid filters? There's a very real effort <-> success ratio, and you will see a great many posters who put in very little effort complaining about a lack of success.

This problem pops up periodically. I believe the vast majority of people noticing this aren't filtering out their bark.

I hope this removes any further confusion on the topic, it was a fair question to be sure. Best of luck!

Particulate equals emulsions, basically. If you're in a hurry, a bandana or a shirt will work well enough. One or two runs through that and you should be good. Alternatively if you're not in a hurry, you can let the mixture sit overnight or for even longer. Eventually all the particulate will sink to the bottom of your vessel, at which point you can just pour off the juice.