Hey guys,
just got my 1,7Kg mhrb powder from Pedro -the best Mhrb I've found so far- and begun extracting the spice.

Now the first extraction was stunningly successful. Great yelds. When I put the used naphtha back in
the jars though, no clear layer was formed. There is a naphtha layer allright, but its pretty dark, almost black.

I've read somewhere that this may be due to the fact that there wasn't enough water in the solution.

So, that said, has anyone got any ideas on how to clean this naphtha? I've tried so far:

~adding more water
~adding more lye
~adding more fresh naphtha.

None of these had any success.

Any ideas?

Thanks a bunch.

~Dug.

EDIT: I dont have any problem to just discard this naphtha, but there is more spice in the solution for sure, it's only been extracted once. How am I gonna get this out if all the naphtha I add turns into this black liquid?

One day after, and still the same situation.
I tried adding a lot more water, but nada.

Come on folk, any ideas? How are we gonna save this batch?

I'm thinking of extracting the black naphtha as I'd normally do, freeze precip,
and clean whatever comes out. Any info on how I'd go about doing this?

Oi, mates, this thread is starting to look like a monologue.

Very well, I'll try to solve this myself, and post here any results for future reference
for those fellow explorers seeking a similar solution.

Today I tried:

~Adding salt
~Tapping the jars on the side
~Adding even more lye

...with no improvement whatsoever.


I guess my only choice is to proceed with the extraction, freeze precip, and try a recrystalization
of the final product.

In the meanwhile, I'm gonna let the jars open so any remaining tainted naphtha will evaporate completely.

Then, I'll try fixing the lye/mhrb/H2O solution so any freshly added naphtha won't have the same fate.

...Let's see how that goes, mates.


~Dug

Black, really? I've heard of (and seen) some impure naphtha alright, but it tends to be the yellow-orange kind when it's the worst.

Either you've made yourself an emulsion (shaked a bit violently?) or you've actually pulled something really nasty from the MHRB. If it's an emulsion then you can try adding more lye, salt, heat and stirring.

If it's impure naphtha, then I recommend you pull it out and wash it three times with a solution of sodium carbonate (I use 1ml[H2O]:2mg[Na2CO3]:10mg[NaCl]). Just add some of the solution to a container with the naphtha and shake and then separate (you may experience an emulsion, but that's easy to solve). Actually, you can do this if it was an emulsion too, since you may be able to break it by washing.

Then freeze precipitate and recrystallize. Strange stuff. Good luck!

it sounds like you got emulsion.. not sure tho from your description
im assuming you did stb in which case you may not have enough solution
have you checked your PH? should be 13+
try warming the solution in a warm water bath
also try breaking the emulsion with an unbent wire hanger

Thats a big extraction the naptha may just be dirty with plant fats ect. Even if naptha is dirty you should still be able to crash out the dmt by freeze percip. Or if evaporiting the naptha to get product a re xtal will be required but that is easy.

I would

take the dark naptha and let it evaporate in a open shallow container you will see the dmt after evaporation if it is just dirty naptha. Meanwile you can add fresh naptha to one of your jars and see what happens. If it separates your old naptha is just dirty no problem if freeze percip.


and/or

if it is a emulsion you will see a nasty mess of lye, plant impurities, ect after evaporation this can be once again made into a solution and extracted if necessary.

If you do indeed have a emulsion nothing is lost as long as you haven't thrown any thing away. I just read this and realize the info was needed a couple days ago. Sorry about that. These things can be tricky until you have done it a few times.

Then its just like cooking dinner!
For the mind.

MV

I've used the same 750mL of naphtha for a couple of KG of root bark and it has never turned black. Yellow yes, orangish almost, yes, black, no.

It really does sound like an emulsion. Heat it up, let it sit, tap the sides. If that doesn't work, take the black naphtha, add some water with a bit of lye (don't need much) and a bunch of table salt, heat, tap, wait.

That's the best advice I can give you with the info you provided.

Yes if its an emulsion that would explain. But also if you can see the naptha layer and if there are just way too many emulsions in seperate the entire naptha layer + emulsion and partition it against basic water.