http://www.dmt-nexus.me/forum/d....aspx?g=posts&t=5572 might be of some interest to you. Guy gets blue crystals from accidentally using Coleman, and recrystalizes a few times to remove impurities.

Thanks for the quick advice guys. SWIM will try some more with different solvents and be patient until the product looks good.

Hello everyone. this is my first post here and i have some specific questions on a/b extractions. I have experienced DMT a few time and find it quite rewarding. i seem to have found some spiritual meaning in my with with its aid. I am interested in a very pure product and would love to be able to post on this entire site. but that is just about me and my want to be a full member here are my questions.

1. What would be the perfect pH level for the initial acidic solution that MHRB is soaked in?
I know its between pH 2-4 but whats perfect for purity. I have a digital pH reader.

2. For how long should MHRB be soaked in this acidic solution?
It would be soaked and filtered about three times. the first should be 1-24 hours. but which? and the second and third time for more like to days. is this overkill?

3. After the acidic solution is filtered from the MHRB, to reduce it to a more workable volume should it be gently baked or evaporated?
Is this even necessary?

4. What would be the perfect pH level for the basic solution that will be added to the acidic solution. And with that basic solution what would be the perfect pH level to bring the acidic solution to?
This question was hard to articulate. please indicate if it is confusing.

5. If using naphtha for your non-polar solvent, how many ml should be used for each (pull) extraction? And should each (pull) of naphtha be kept separate for freeze precipitation?

6. How much sodium carbonate and distilled water should be added together to wash naphtha of sodium hydroxide?

7. How would someone super-saturate or completely saturate naphtha for freeze precipitation? Should it be gently baked or semi-evaporated?

8. What temperature is needed for DMT to become completely insoluble in naphtha? How slowly should the temperature be dropped as naphtha is froze?

I know these are very specific but but they are my questions. please be as specific as possible in your reply.
Thanks.

I believe just a pinch or small amount of sodium carbonate in your water, for your first wash (pH ~8.5), then just use distilled water on it's own for the other washes (at a scale of around 25 ml sodium carbonated water to 300 ml of naphtha or the equivalent ratio to your particular specifications). I must point out however, that this is what I have found during my own research, and does not come from experience. Though I'm sure the nexus is full of people and information that will help with all your queries.

If you check, if you have not already, the DMT-Nexus Wiki area, this is full of information to help. You can find a range of things discussed here.

Omalley,
you think much too complicated!
Forget everything about ideal extraction.
Just do your first one and you'll learn a lot. Maybe you begin with 40 grams of Mimosa if you don't have that much.

It doesnt matter, it will make very little difference... if you're obsessed with purity, when you get your final product, just recrystalize it.. its easy, fun, and definitely waaaaay more effective than some change in pH in the acid step.



it also doesnt matter much, most of the alkaloids will come out in the first minutes anyways.. simmer/boil (on low fire) for 1 or 2 hours x 4 seems to get basically everything out.




It helps when one doesnt have such a big container to make the mixing with the solvent in the later step, but its not essential.




It doesnt matter much... you have to understand the process, not worry about numbers.. The final pH should be 10 or more, because at this point like 99.9% of the DMT is freebase, making it insoluble in the water but soluble in non polar solvent.. If pH is higher it wont hurt in any way (will maybe even help reducing risk of emulsions, but they are not as common in A/Bs than in STBs anyways), but if the pH is lower then some dmt might not have converted into freebase, so better aim for 10+...



SWIM usually uses 50ml naphtha per 100g bark and makes 5 pulls. Pulls dont HAVE to be kept separate but what if they are all together and you fall down spilling everything, or whatever? Better not put all your 'eggs in one basket', right? Also the first pulls usually are whiter/cleaner and last pulls usually more yellow, so if you dont mind them getting mixed up (like if you going to recrystalize later on anyways or whatever), then its ok to mix.. Or go mid-way and dont mix all, but more like, mix pulls 1+2, pulls 3+4 and pulls 5+6, so this way you dont have so many little containers, but you still have them reasonably separate by quality and also if something happens wrong you still dont lose everything at once.



Doesnt matter, a pinch is enough.. I would say pH 8.5 is minimum, better make it 9 or 10 to make sure all your dmt will remain as freebase.



No heat, evaporate the naphtha a little bit.. if you are doing 50ml per 100g bark warm pulls, then it can work to go straight to freezer without pre-evap (but there might be still some dmt in the naphtha after, so reuse the naphtha or evaporate it all to yield any left-overs after yielding the crystals from freeze precip)..



Just have your freezer at coldest setting, your naphtha saturated and thats it... The temperature drop doesnt make any difference in ammount of crystals, it only makes a difference in size of each crystal (but total yield will be the same).. Dont worry about this for now, this is more aesthetics, just put in coldest freezer and thats it.

Hey, SWIM has a couple questions about Nomans process. They have read it quite a few times and don't really understand it. They have also read the forums and could not find anything except something they weren't clear on. Their issue lies in the recrystallization process.

Swim's question is "Filter the solvent and separate the crystals from the slag." Does this mean use a coffee filter with ammonia?
Is ammonia used at all after recrystallization? SWIM read somewhere that it's safe without the ammonia, is this true?

SWIM thanks you for a response and appolgizes if it is a noob question.

Don't use ammonia, it wastes product. Usually a recrystallization isn't even necessary. But if you get some really nasty product that you can't bring yourself to smoke then you can try the sodium carbonate wash method. UTSE for that.

forget ammonia! You dont need that.. for recrystalization just redissolve your impure crystals in a small container with minimum amount of warm (40-60 celcius) naphtha/heptane/hexane (like, say, 30ml per 1g impure stuff). On the bottom will stay some oily dark gunk, and there will be a clearer layer of solvent on top.. just pippette it off into a new container, and put into the freezer (gunk can be thrown away)

<3! SWIM thanks you both much!

SWIM did a mescaline extraction on trichocereus bridgesii obtained from a reputable vendor following 69ron's d-limonene extraction technique. SWIM followed this technique nigh to the letter and everything looked good. SWIM dried using a fan and crystals very similar to those of the images in the wiki article appeared. However, SWIM found 220mg of these waxy and amber crystals to be entirely inactive when taken with coffee.

SWIM thought the one mistake SWIM may have made was not squeezing any amount of d-limonene from the cactus mixture for any pulls until the last (which no one has yet sampled.) For this last pull SWIM used a cotton shirt to squeeze the cactus mixture (mostly) dry and what appeared to be calcium hydroxide came out after the d-limonene and sunk the bottom of the d-limonene. SWIM, unsure if this was bad or good (and having used food-grade sodium carbonate) left it in the mixture when adding vinegar. This resulted in cloudy vinegar. SWIM now has this pull drying.

SWIM's questions are:

1. How reliable are crystals, like those featured in the wiki article, as a sign of a successful extraction?

2. Why might the product of the first two pulls have been inactive?

3. Is the d-limonene supposed to end up merely tinted (slightly cactus coloured,) or also cloudy?

4. Should the vinegar be tinted or cloudy?

5. Was what came out from the shirt squeezing the calcium hydroxide?

SWIM knows this may all be caused by inactive cactus, but wishes to rule out other possibilities first.

Many questions, but SWIM would be very thankful for answers to even a few.


Update: SWIM finished drying the final pull. The earliers are clearly darker and of a more waxy consistency. The final is lighter, a bit sparkly, and more "dry powdery"-like.

Update, Update: The final material also seems inactive. Guess SWIM just got inactive cactus. Answers to questions 1, 3 and 4 would be very appreciated still, though.

Swim is doing a simple STB extract with Naptha and Lye. Swim accidentally added the naptha before Swim left the lye mixture soak. Is this bad or can Swim just wait an hour that Swim normally would then the extra half hour that the naptha would take and go from there? Is there some problem that will come of this?

The jar is probably hot because the lye / water reaction... so your pulls may come out a little more yellow. That kinda sucks because usually the first pull can be pretty white stuff.

for algorithmic

the limonene will be clear but tinted before you add any vinegar. once the vinegar is in there it becomes more opaque (maybe from vinegar droplets disbursed throughout the limonene)

The vinegar will collect at the bottom and be clear again, slightly tinted.

Crystals are good. Non-crystals can still scrape up into something good. If you kept it all food-grade it can't hurt to try it out, right?

Also.... consider a cheap french press coffee pot. Pour your limonene through a coffee filter before adding vinegar. The T-shirt just adds some variables (dye, detergent residue, etc)

Ok, can someone salvage this? Friend forgot to mix the cactus powder and calcium hydroxide mix with water prior to adding the d-limonene during an extraction. Now, instead of a clear greenish fluid,he has a pea soupy liquid. What is the best way to salvage the maximum goodies from the goopy mess he has? Is there anything to salt out of the d-limonene, or did the lack of H2O prior to adding the solvent brevent proper basification? How to save this mess? Ideas from the chemists out there?

So I'm doing my first extraction using the very famous D-limonene tek to extract mescaline from some cactus. I have a couple questions reguarding both the tech, supplies, and risks involved.

My first questions is about the basee. This is kind of a question for 69ron, but I'm sure theres many of you that could tell me the answer. I understand that 69ron found that KOH is actually better then lye despite its lower pH because has some properties to help break down the mucus and plant matter. I also saw alot of people with concerns over KOH not being basic enough. So my question is: would it be worth my time to try starting with the KOH and then adding lye to the solution? KOH breaks down mucus, NaOH creates a super high pH to freebase all the mescaline.

So I've ordered the d-limonene and a separatory funnel to my residence so far. I've had trouble finding really almost any ingredients I need in stores. I still need to order my base, the cactus, possibly a scale, and the acid. I might be able to get my hands on the base and acid from a friend. Would I be taking a big risk ordering all these supplies online to my house? Also, do any of you have tips on finding this stuff locally (I live in ATL at the moment).

My final question is about the cactus source. I was planning on ordering IcaroVerde. I hear alot about FV, but I'm not sure what the place is. Would I be getting more mesc for my money getting it from a different source?

You mean Ca(OH)2 instead of KOH?

Err, yes. Yes I do.

Madcapv2, thanks for the tips. SWIM has a coffee press on the way. SWIM supposes that although there were crystals, perhaps the rest was inactive junk and SWIM's 400 mg dose perhaps contained <100mg of active alkaloids.

SWIM is now trying the "Pure white mescaline HCl from cactus using d-limonene" technique.

Just done first extraction and was wondering HOW fine the bark has to be. Mine was pre powdered but still had alot of the stringy crap and i thought it would be ok just to put it in like that because it would break apart in the liquid? This will be ok yes?

Suppose there evaping now so, only time will tell but reassurance is always good.