Quick summary:
I extracted about 11.5 g of alkaloids from 300 g of Syrian rue seeds (~ 4% yield). I used a standard boil & B/A technique (similar to the Tao of Rue Extraction), except I did not perform the Manske step. Thus my tech was a little closer to Gibran's caapi extraction tech I boiled the seeds 5 times and kept the boils separated through the entirety of the extraction. I found that over 75% of the alkaloids were captured in the first 3 boils.

Boil the seeds & filter:
I boiled 300 g of Syrian rue seeds (whole, not ground) in about 3.5 L (16 cups) of tap water in a stainless steel pot.
http://anonimg.com/img/4...0d57ac7aeea3650f905.png
I boiled until about 500 mL (2 cups) of liquid remained. This took about 80 minutes. I filtered out the whole seeds using a standard kitchen strainer. I then filtered this liquid through a fine wire mesh to remove medium-sized particles. I then filtered the liquid through coffee filters into glass jars. I repeated this paper-filtering step 2 more times, or until I noticed relatively little particulate left on the filter (I never removed it all).

I used multiple funnels to filter each of the boils more quickly.
http://anonimg.com/img/8...3087a854a526fe5d9fc.png
Sediment sticking to filter as tea is filtered in a funnel.
http://anonimg.com/img/b...7d39cfe94887ed2e4b7.png
Used filter with sediment.
http://anonimg.com/img/1...8550dff086f0026f8d1.png
I kept these filters and later boiled them all in a big pot in order to extract more alkaloids.

I repeated this boil/filter step 4 more times (a total of 5 boils) and I kept the liquid from each of the boils separated for the rest of the extraction. My goal was to measure the final yield of each boil in order to determine how many boils are required to yield a certain percentage of the total harmala alkaloids.

This is a very exhausting step. I spent around 5 hours on the first three boils/filters, and next morning about 3 more hours on the last two.


The first base:
I had 5 jars of filtered tea (one for each of the 5 boils). The jars each contained about 500 mL (2 cups) of filtered liquid. For each jar, (in a separate container) I dissolved 5 g of NaOH (lye) in 50 mL of tap water. I slowly stirred the lye solution into a jar of the filtered liquid. The darkish-red-brown liquid turned a very creamy color after ~40 mL of lye solution was added. Adding the last 10 mL did not noticeably change the color of the liquid.

Picture of 5 jars after 24 hours of settling: http://anonimg.com/img/a...f7bfebc30fd9b4c54b0.png
While it looks like there is roughly the same amount of precipitate in all 5 jars, for each progressive jar, the solids appear to be less and less densely packed. Boil 1 is on the left, Boil 5 is on the right.

The first acid:
I removed the supernatant above the sediment using a 60 mL BD syringe. This is more time consuming than decanting, but you can remove most of the liquid without disturbing the sediment. I then poured the remaining solids into a pot of hot (nearly boiling) water-vinegar mixture. It was 300 mL of water and 100 mL of vinegar (standard supermarket 5% strength). I stirred it in the pot for about a minute. I filtered it through a paper coffee filter (I used about 2-3 filters per jar) and then filtered again using another 2-3 filters. It seems like I could never remove all the particles.

Each of the jars were went through an additional base, acid, then base step. So, a total of 3 base steps and 2 acid steps.

Washing the alkaloids:
After the final base step, I let the solid precipitate over night (though it looks like nearly all of the settling occurs in 2-3 hours). The liquid is very basic because I used lye in all of my base steps. I found I needed about 6-7 washes to reduce the pH to slightly basic ~8.


Drying the clean alkaloids:
After the was step, I used paper coffee filters to collect the solids. I put the solids in an oven at 225°F for roughly 30 minutes, or until the alkaloids clearly powdered when probed with a knife. The solids from the 1st jar were scraped off the coffee filter into a pyrex baking pan. After they were baked, I laboriously scraped them off the pan. For the other 4 jars, I left the solids on their filters, put them on a baking sheet, then baked them. I found it to be MUCH easier to scrape the solids off the paper than off of the glass.

Yields:
Weight of solids after drying:
Boil 1: 3.5 g
Boil 2: 2.8
Boil 3: 2.4
Boil 4: 1.1
Boil 5: 0.7

I did a 6th boil/extraction—but instead of seeds—I boiled the coffee filters I collected from the processing of boils 1 through 5. This yielded an additional 1.0 g. This bar chart plots the yield of each individual boil: https://www.anonimg.com/...fd46af408862ece4ec7.png

I recovered a total of 11.5 g of alkaloids from 300 g of Rue seeds. This is a 3.8% yield. This is much better than the <1% yield from my previous extraction (of 75 g of seeds). I suspect the increase in yield is from better practice (less spillage, less unnecessary container transfers), and also from not performing the Manske step.

For this pie chart, https://www.anonimg.com/...bcb6d548f2b64e8d087.png I assumed that I could extract 0.4, 0.3, and 0.2 g from 6th, 7th and 8th boils. Using this assumption, I calculated that about 75% of the total recoverable alkaloids are extracted within the first three boils.


Using vinegar while boiling
I was inconsistent when adding vinegar to the seed-boil:
Boil 1: added ~20 mL vinegar with the water.
Boil 2: no vinegar (I forgot)
Boil 3: added 20 mL mid-boil (I semi-remembered)
Boil 4: no vinegar (I forgot, again)
Boil 5: added ~20 mL in begining of boil (I remembered)

While many suggest adding vinegar helps with the solubility of the harmalas, I am unsure of the extent of the effect.


Lye vs. sodium carbonate:
In my previous (and first) rue extraction, I used sodium carbonate (i.e., baked sodium bicarbonate) as the base. It seemed to me that because lye is much more basic, it would cause virtually all of the alkaloids to precipitate. Also, while lye is more dangerous than sodium carbonate, I felt more confident after performing my first successful rue extraction. The downside to lye is that after the final base-step it required 6+ washes to reduce the pH of the alkaloid suspension from 10+ pH to ~8 pH. When I used sodium carb, I only needed 3-4 washes.


No Manske step and Visisicicine:
According to the established teks on the Nexus, the point of the Manske step is to remove the compound Visicine, as it is an abortificant. However, since I am neither pregnant or planning on becoming pregnant soon, I am not concerned about it. It is not clear to me what percent of my akaloids are harmalas vs. visicine. It is small (a few percent) or significant (+10%)? I am also curious as to comparing the final hamala yield of a Manske vs. non-Manske teak.


Whole vs. ground seeds:
Many rue extraction teks say to grind the seeds. I am convinced that grinding the seeds is not necessary (as I and a number of others have reported decent yields using whole seeds). I suspect that the benefits of seed grinding (slightly better yields in earlier boils I would guess) do not outweigh the hassle of having to filter out smaller particles.

Random pink stain:
Towards the end of the extraction, I noticed that I kept finding dried pink stains on my utensils and countertops. I never saw a pink liquid…but I would see many, many dried stains constantly appearing. The stains can be washed away with soapy water and some elbow grease, but they're hard to get out completely. This was the first time I used lye; I wonder if it could be the culprit.

Note on filtering with paper coffee filters:
Generally, to filter out solid particles of a certain size, you use a filter with a pore size small than the particle size. For example, a 3 foot wide cow cannot fit through a gate that is only 2 feet wide -- the cow is essentially filtered out. while 1-foot wide chickens can go through. However, in the case of the coffee filters and Syrian rue tea, the tiny particles in the tea are smaller than the pore size of the filter and therefore can fit through. This is like a 3-foot cow and a 5-foot gate. Yet, filtering with coffee filters does, in fact, capture these particles. But how? While a single 3-foot cow can fit through a 5-foot gate, if two cows try to squeeze through the gate at the same time, they will get themselves stuck.

I believe a similar situation is happening with the particles in the tea. I was impatient when doing the initial filtering of the tea, so I agitated the liquid in the funnel as it was passing through a filter. While this indeed sped up the filtering process, I found that the filter paper would be stained the standard Syrian yellow, but I would not see dark particulate left in the filter. What this means is that the tea should be filtered through the paper filters a number of times, since many individual particles will make it through the filter.


Conclusion:
Even though this extraction was a lot of work, I learned a lot and was very pleased with the yields. Next time I do a harmala extraction (hopefully not for a while) I'll go for boiling 500g of seeds in one batch. I won't bother with keeping the different boils separated (it adds a bit more work). Also, I really want to set up a vacuum filtering apparatus to make the filtering step go much faster. Here's a post about my pharma experiences using the alks I extracted here.

Nice extraction. Gotta love Dūraoša! Rue knows everything and speaks to us in the language of logic and (our own) philosopy. It makes us focus on some aspect of reality or ourselfs and zoom in on it and go deeper, deeper and deeper, and analyze it while detached from our emotions and ego. Primordial instinct meets sophisticated adi-intelligence and they cooperate to redefine our notion of self at the very base of it.

Welcome to the forum.

Thanks for sharing your work!

I wouldn't worry too much about skipping the vinegar on boil 2 & 5, the solids are already in an acidic state, it's more important in the initial phase working to break down the seeds.
From what I've read, the seed coating is where majority of the harmalas are contained - making grinding not that necessary, IF one extraction alone could potentially last you years. ...saying that, I always go the extra mile and do every little thing possible as it's a thoroughly enjoyable process )

The filtering thru coffee filters the first time I tried just took took long. I'm with you, recommending a vacuum filter, or even a DIY vacuum filtration system.

When it comes to separating out the really fine particles, unless you have proper lab equipment it's next to impossible to get it all.... thou, you can get pretty close using freeze/thaw decanting

Great research work measuring the separate boils

Intezam, thanks!

Shadow, can you explain freeze-thaw decanting in more detail? I've never heard of it before.

I believe he means exactly as he says he means. For example, I was doing a sodium carbonate wash on a Xylene pull and I couldn't seem to get the last Ml of Xylene and I unintentionally left it out in my garage over night (I live in a climate just south of subarctic). So when I came back outside the next day, the still liquid xylene was nonchalantly sitting on top of the frozen sodium carbonate saturated water. All you have to do thereafter is take it and decant that jar upside down for a few seconds if you really desire (although I wouldn't recommend completely upside down decanting unless coming from a solipsistic standpoint )

Light in Love

thanks for the write up, it was pleasure to read it was written very nicely.

I will be using your information next week. However I wonder why you did not grind the seeds given your success i would guess it is not necessary?

Thanks Absent for the data on different boils, they are very informative!

I wander if the same proportion still aplies to ground seeds or if you can then get most of the alks in the first one or two boils when extracting ground material.
I would like to do the same calculation using ground seeds, however I performed a harmala extraction recently and I hope I don't have to do one more too soon!!!

Intezam - fascinating link! I'm still down that rabbit hole reading about Haoma

EDIT: Sorry OP - I meant to also attach this link - interesting article on the ancient uses of vasaka, active alk = vasicine.

Do you still have the so called exhausted seeds? Drying/grinding those and extracting them again could shed light if you missed out or not. Or just make a small batch starting from powdered (50 gr) to compare. IME, powdered beats hand down. The powdering becomes easier when they are dried/baked in an oven first. Of course if you like your workflow already enough..

Powdered filters hard, but settle/decant instead. Do not tip over to decant, as this disturbs the fines.
I use no syringe to decant (too laborious) but a second jar with 2 hoses in the top lid, sucking one hose creates vacuum in the jar, with the other hose I skim off the top surface layer above the seeds. Don't suck up the seeds-powder, stay above safely, just add a new acidic water batch for the next round. So I never have to filter seeds powder, it is simply not necessary this way.

About powdered being a hassle: if you work whole seeds, one is obliged to boil hard and long, as you did. With powdered: I never boil, just cold soak for 2 or 3 days with regular hard stirring the jar, that's all. Then settle/decant as said. For 50 gr of seeds I use like 1 liter of acid water.
Doing this 3 times, my yields exceed yours but it's unfair to compare yields of different seeds batches.

Glad you did this work and shared the results, thank you