Hi everyone. These questions are regarding the 69ron tek for extracting mescaline from cactus using limonene. I couldn't find the answers from searching.

1. When do you know when to stop pulling with limonene? Does the limonene ever stop changing color while extracting?

2. How long do you leave the vinegar in the limonene when salting?

3. How do you know when to stop salting with vinegar? Is three times enough to salt out everything?

1. You'll want to do at least 3 pulls, and you can re-use the same d-limo after salting out the goodies. It'll still be colored from the first pull, and color doesn't tell you much of anything. You can't know when to stop until you've evaporated the vinegar pulls and see how much mescaline you got from it. Each pull will diminish in yield until you decide it's not worth your time anymore.

2. As long as it takes to mix it thoroughly. I have the d-limo and vinegar in a jar and shake as hard as I can in many directions until it's frothy and I let it settle out and re-separate for a couple minutes. Then I shake again, repeating ~5 times over 20 minutes or so.

3. I just follow the tek on this which says 3-4 times. I use 100ml of diluted hcl and split that into four 25ml pulls. The majority is probably gotten in the first 2 pulls. But either way, it doesn't matter much since you're re-using the d-limo and anything you didn't get the first round will be gotten in the next.

That's what I was afraid of. I was hoping that somewhere along the line someone had figured out a way to determine when the cactus material was empty while pulling, and not leave us guessing until the end. It would be such a shame to waste any of this precious material by assuming it was all extracted when it really wasn't.

Eight pulls have been completed, with the limonene changing from a urine-like amber to a pale light-green. No limonene was reused so that any changes could be observed, with the bottles lined up next to each other.



OK, thanks, that's about how it's being done now.



OK, thanks, it's being done four times.

To explain why I'm being so careful: the tek was followed previously with little to no result. A mistake must have been made somewhere along the line. The problem is that it is impossible to determine exactly where, since it is difficult to determine if anything is happening in any of the steps.

The cactus doesn't noticeably change color after any of the pulls.
The pure, clear limonene changes color, but the colors aren't explained.
The white, clear vinegar becomes slightly cloudy without changing color, but what it should look like isn't explained.

Just do one last pull and evaporate it separately from the rest. If it still contains something significant versus the amounts in the previous pulls, then keep pulling.

Regarding colors, forget it. They dont really indicate anything, you can have transparent pulls that are full of goodies, or vice versa.

As for low yield, it might be you simply had bad cactus to begin with, which seems to be a common problem. In my experience often cactus seems to take longer to 'give up the goodies' versus a normal dmt extraction, so you have to do more pulls. I'd def make sure the last pull is really not yielding anything or barely, otherwise I'd keep pulling.

Thanks Endlessness, that will be done.

More notes about the previous extraction, so you better understand the confusion: yielded slightly over two grams of sticky resin, ranging from light to dark. After homogenizing, a small amount was tested to establish a dosage guideline, but there were no results. Letting some days go by, the entire remainder was taken, but sadly also with no results. This was from a known-good trichocereus pachanoi, which had been previously tested using raw and tea methods successfully. The material was tossed after completing the tek, which later was realized to be a terrible mistake. :-(

On the side, another experiment was conducted with trichocereus bridgesii achuma, which was found to be frighteningly more powerful than trichocereus pachanoi. (Same known-good source.) An everclear extraction was performed, and upon attempting to determine a dosage guideline (about 1/4 foot of skinny 2 inch thick cutting which was assumed to equate a level 1 or 2 trip), it was quickly discovered that it was actually a level 4 or 5. This was quite unexpected, and admittedly not entirely pleasant--the intensity was overwhelming and at times actually frightening. A cutting of that specimen quickly obtained the honor of being planted, and is happily rooting itself right now. :-)

Don't write off pedro so fast - there are good pachanoi that equal your bridgesii in power, and are sometimes said to have a more positive and enjoyable headspace (however, my friend can't say from experience if this is true, only crystals for him these days). It is very likely that you simply got the common US version, the "predominant cultivar" clone, which is not representative of real pachanoi.

Your bridgesii does sound like a keeper, though!