Hello everyone! This is my first post, although I have spent many hours reading on this site. Thank you to all the knowledgable folks here for sharing their insight
As my title states, after many, many hours of research I have finally completed my first A/B extraction of san pedro cacti(or "Sacred Cactus of the 4 winds", as I like to call it
). I do however, have some questions about the results. I have my own theories of what may have occurred but I am still a beginner, so I was hoping to throw them out there with hopes of some clarification. If anything is redundant I do apologize, but I am generally quite meticulous about my research before I ask a question in a forum such as this.
Let me start by saying I used Kash's A/B tek for this(thanks, Kash. Great writeup). I have an elementary knowledge of chemistry(i've taken a course in college, but my major is computer science so it was an elective type deal) but it does not stretch much beyond that, although I do love it in general and have soaked up as much as I can.
DISCLAIMER: A few big things definitely went wrong during this tek. First, my pH meter broke after the initial acidic boiling phase. My solution was acidic the whole time, anywhere from 3.2-3.5, so that part was correct. Due to time constraints, I was only able to do 2 pulls from the (homemade)cactus power/chopped up core tea. Instead of jumping straight to base, I decided to defat using 2 xylene pulls. Layers were separated with a separatory funnel. Once my solution was defatted, I added the recommended 50g NaOH/water to aqueous solution. Since my pH meter was broken(and it was 3 am and I couldn't find any strips other than aquarium ones that could only test from 6.2-8.6) I could not reliably test how basic the solution was. This may have been my first issue.
Second major issue occurred during the salting stage. I definitely did not mix nearly as long or as thoroughly as I should have. By this time it was almost 8 am and I had to start wrapping things up, so I began to rush. In the process of rushing, my separatory funnel broke at the stem
I instead used my finger(with rubber gloves) to slowly separate the layers out of the funnel as best I could, leaving a clear aqueous solution with trace amounts of xylene in it. Using the admittedly terrible aquarium strips, I tested the aqueous layer and it seemed to range anywhere from 6-6.8, which had to be good enough at that point. I placed aqueous layer on an evaporation dish, set it in proximity to a space heater on low, and let evaporate. NOTE: Xylene solution had quite a yellow tint. I saved it in the original container and stored it away.
Now, after about 10-12 hours of evaporation, my dish is left with mostly white crystals and a tan-colored bit of water that is nearly evaporated(<2 mL). From all my research on this site, it seems that the tan colored liquid is normal and this should contain my mescaline Hcl. However, I did not think the dried crystals would be this white without a solvent wash of some type(I plan to use acetone). With all that given info, here are my questions:
1.) Could I have potentially lowered the pH so much during the salting phase that I brought unwanted stuff with it? Like I said, it was in the 6 range based on color(orange) but without a meter or better strips I could not distinguish the exact shade. I used .5mL of muriatic acid to salt, with a concentration in the 30%s (no molarity was labeled, maybe 8?). My best guess was that these white crystals are some other crystalized alkaloid, and the tannish liquid is my mescaline Hcl. Please correct me if i'm wrong. I plan to test the evaporated(and cleaned) crystals with Marquis reagent, which should turn orange if it is indeed mescaline.
2.) I realize my yield is low due to the issues that occurred during the tek, but could there still be more mescaline suspended in the xylene solution I saved? Since I didn't mix as thoroughly as I would have liked before separating, I thought about re-salting with the saved xylene I have, but if anyone thinks this would be a waste of time please let me know.
3.) Is it possible that the cacti I purchased was just really weak? I realize this is incredibly ambiguous, but still a possibility nonetheless.
Those are the 3 big questions I have. Considering the somewhat catastrophic issues that occurred during the tek, I feel like my first run went ok. I would love to improve my craft, though, so i'm open to any information, advice, or even speculation(from those of you who are more advanced than I).
Thank you to those of you who read this, and even more thanks to those who give their inputs. This site is a fantastic reference filled with a plethora of brilliant minds, so I hope to prove myself here and *hopefully* contribute one day.
Cheers, fellow psychonauts
TL;DR: My A/B went somewhat well, but yielded some odd results. If you think you could help me, please read the rest
