The Grateful One wrote:![Smile](/forum/images/emoticons/smile.png)
I apologize if this added confusion to the discussion and thank you for clearing things up, Pitubo.
I think the confusion started with 69ron. You mostly helped the discussion.
To state it for the record:
For "Manske salting": Add 100 gram NaCl for each liter of boiling solution of harmalas.
For freebasing: Add the molar equivalent of Na
2CO
3 of the harmalas HCl present in solution, plus some more Na
2CO
3 to make sure that the equilibrium is on the side of the harmala freebase. Okay, that didn't sound very "easy", did it? There are two different complications: One is the form of Na
2CO
3 you have available and the other is the amount of liquid used to dissolve the harmala salts to be freebased.
For issue no.1:
- If you have anhydrous Na
2CO
3: use (by weight) 1 part Na
2CO
3 for every 2 parts harmala HCl;
- if you have the decahydrate, use equal parts (by weight);
- if you have the mono- or heptahydrate: use somewhere in between the two above values.
For issue no.2:
Add 1 extra gram Na
2CO
3 per liter of liquid and it will be fine.
The freebasing procedure assumes that you know the amount of harmalas in solution. This may not be the case with the initial boilings of the original plant material, but for the final step after several purification rounds, you should have a reasonable indication of the amount of harmalas involved. Just weigh the filtered and dried amount of material that resulted from the last step. Keep in mind though that freebase harmalas weigh roughly 80% of the equivalent amount of harmala HCl salt, due to the weight difference from the HCl and the water of hydration.