I am fairly new to the whole extraction process. I've only done two successful extractions using a very simple STB tek. I have been using, and plan on to continue using, Acacia Confusa root bark. The first part of the tek has me putting basified water and the root bark into a jar. Now from the research I've done, the use of a base serves to break down the root bark and help the alkaloids extract better. But, the bark I have is very finely powered (consistent with powdered sugar or flour). So considering how finely ground the root bark I'm using is, is basifying my water serving a purpose? Can I just skip the lye and just soak it in plain water? Does the lye help draw out the alkaloids in another way other than simply breaking down the material they're contained in? I would love to be able to use a pH neutral extraction, if possible.

You cannot do a straight to base extraction with neutral water, by definition almost.

When doing STB with bark, a strong lye solution helps to break down cell walls and cell structures, helping to release the dmt. This seems to be especially helpful with acacia material, which is harder to get to give up its alkaloids than mimosa. Some people even freeze and thaw the moistened plant material to help break down the cell walls and structures.

You also need the base to turn the alkaloids into freebase form, but this requires much less strong base.

When doing STB, there is no way around using lye AFAIK. If you have no lye, you could do an A/B extraction: then you can make a tea with boilings in neutral water. A slight acidification might help a little, but it is not as important as strong lye is with STB. Of course, even with A/B you will need to add a base in the basing step, but when you already have boiled out the alkaloids into the tea, usually sodium carbonate (washing soda) will suffice to turn the alkaloids into their freebase form.

You cannot do either STB or A/b extractions with only neutral water.

And, as The Grateful One pointed out in your double posted thread, reading the FAQ, studying a few TEKs from the wiki and acquiring a fair bit of basic chemistry knowledge helps immensely.

Thanks. I guess I just need to bite the bullet and read everything there is on here. I usually can learn this kind of stuff in bit and pieces but I'm slowly finding out how little I know.