Hi friends,

I've got a mix of dried chopped cacti consisting of several species - bridgesii, pachanoi, peruvianus, l. williamsii and huarazensis. A friend of mine told me that I could grind the mix to a fine powder and soak it in IPA for several days, strain the IPA and evaporate it which is supposed to yield a gooey substance that contains all the good stuff out of the mix and should produce a pleasant effect with minimal nausea.

I have no idea how true that is, and if someone knows a bit more about it please help me out.

Is it true, and if yes - how exactly do I do it? What should I expect as a yield and later on physical side effects? Anything important to keep in mind during this concentration process?

Thanks a bunch! Love & Light.

Looking foreword to your results.

I so far tried extracting with Toluene and as well made a simple water extract.

I really don't understand how people can work with this nasty Toluene.

Next is the IPA you are planing to do.

Most of the time the toluene is enclosed in the bottle. If it is open to the air, people use respirator and air ventilation. With little practice working with it is not problem at all.

Sure you can handle it so that you don't get in touch with it to much. But even buying this stuff feels bad. It just feels like mega unhealthy to me.

@Nydex Did you start your extraction? It seems pretty straight forward. Soak the dried powder in the alcohol for some days and shake from time to time, then filter. Do this maybe 4 times.
Collect fluid and evaporate.

cactus powder in jar
add alcohol to cover powder by 1 inch
shake jar over course of a day, decant alcohol
fresh alcohol, longer pull more shaking,
maybe do a third
combine all
filter well
reduce
ensure there is no IPA in final product (low heat)
keep in silicon/wax paper in freezer


this was the first extraction i ever did, was very slow but worked wonderfully

How did you filter? coffee filter

mostly decant, and thats the trick with alot of cactus prep for me. let decanting do the majority, finely filter the rest with a hankerchief or two (layers make a better filter)

you should be able to get 90% of your solution off cleanly w no filter in a single pour

Good idea with the decanting. I used plant milk filter bags which did a great job.

glad to hear of the success!
muslin bags/ hankies/ or that steady steady hand of a tall vessel being decanted. they all are great!

Thats a hint at the source of your aversion. If we are told over and over that something is bad it starts to feel bad even if we are not exposed. If we are told something is good then it often feels good.
Toluene isn't healthy. But keep in mind that toluene is available specifically because it is more healthy than benzene, which it replaced. To some people it gives them happy memories of boyhood days building model airplanes.
We are told limonene is healthy so people have a bias thinking the odor is like being wrapped in a warm blanket of oranges and love. But, actually, its toxic and harmful in more than tiny amounts and people can become allergic to it after repeated exposure.

Minimize exposure to any solvents whenever possible. But if you cant avoid breathing a little, just relax.
Stress is bad for you too

The mescaline and other alks are more soluble in water than IPA or other solvent
My first cactus extract was with IPA, but for the only reason that the cactus was already powdered ( so, if water would be added, it become an impossible to filter sludge. While with IPA, it doesn't get that messy)
But if you have whole piece of cactus, i would never work with IPA again; it gave me an annoyingly sticky goo, hard to ingest and digest. I would just make water boils and reduce. Much cheaper and more effective it seems to me !
But i'm not that experienced, so please tell me if i'm wrong

Thanks for the remote diagnosis . It is a decision based on information I obtained. Above that I didn't feel well while using it. But I hadn't proper ventilation. I don't want to use chemicals anymore which I have to bring to the hazardous waste station after using them.

@Quetzal7: Did you completely dry the goo? When I did my last water extract the extract was a sticky goo till I gave it a final dry on the heater and oven. After that it was more like very hard rock sugar I had to chop out of my glass oven dish. Will try silicone dish next time.

double boil tea
stir until taffy
scrape up while hot
add little water to dish to redisolve unretrieved resin
reheat until resin is condensed and now ewasier to retrieve the last bits

no oven is needed, no need to dry it that hard. more annoying later to rehydrate imo, just freeze ur resin anyway

wax paper/ silicon / nitrile gloves are all non stick surfaces for cacti resin as well





i wouldnt use ipa unless you have powder, if you dont have powder i wouldnt use ipa, id go w tea

quetztal brought up a good point there