Here's the background:
A month ago I did an extraction on 100 g of mimosa. I used a turkey baster with a rubber bulb to transfer the solvent from the jar to the glass precipitation dishes.

After I did 4 pulls (over about 24 hours), I finished up. I took the baster apart and rinsed the rubber bulb with water. After it was dry, I packed it away with the rest of my extraction equipment.

Today, I had some reason to look inside the box where I stored the baster, and I noticed that the rubber bulb had gone piebald. My first thought was that the rubber was falling apart. But when I took a closer look, I saw that the white parts were a coating of pure white crystals. See the picture below (if I succeed in attaching it, that is)

There are more crystals inside the bulb, too – although it's hard to tell how much, without cutting the bulb apart.

A couple of facts:

The rubber bulb was definitely in contact with saturated solvent when I did my pulls, since I always turned the baster upside-down in order to keep the solvent from dripping out.

If it's relevant, I was using Cyb's Max Ion tek and pulling with bestine and naptha.

So, here are my questions:

First, am I reasonable in assuming the crystals are DMT? They sure look like it. But then, maybe there's something about the behavior of rubber that I don't know about.

Second – if the crystals are DMT, then the million dollar question is whether they're safe to smoke, considering the fact that they were not only precipitated ON rubber, but THROUGH it. (Since I rinsed and dried the bulb before I put it away, all the dmt that crystallized out over the last month had to have come from solvent that was absorbed by the rubber. But, for what it's worth, the crystals are stark white – much more white than any crystals I've ever gotten the 'usual' way. If color is a sign of purity – a controversial point, I know – then these are very pure.

Third – if those are DMT crystals, any ideas about why they showed up on the rubber baster bulb instead of in my glass precipitation tray? I searched the site for references to crystals appearing on rubber, but couldn't find any. Yet, I know lots of people use turkey basters – and my turkey baster, at least, seems like a spice magnet. As far as I can tell from eyeballing the bulb, I got a LOT more crystals, proportionately, from the few drops of solvent that were left inside the rubber bulb each time I did a pull than I got from the solvent that I put in the freezer.

Well, thanks in advance for any insights you can provide.

That's very strange, but I don't think the crystals are DMT. DMT has a characteristic smell to it. Do the crystals smell? My guess is that the solvent reacted with the rubber and leached phthalates, or something worse. This is exactly why using glass is important. Regular turkey basters aren't designed to hold up to a caustic solvent mixture. I think turkey basters vary quite a bit too. Some are plastic, some are higher quality glass. Also, I think most just suck up the solvent into the glass/plastic portion, and don't expose it to the rubber.

When I first started, I bought a turkey baster from the store, and experienced nothing but frustration. I can see how you would be tempted to turn it upside down because it doesn't really hold a vacuum. I quickly abandoned it, and bought a 3 pack of glass syringes. It cost around $25, but they really are one of my favorite extraction tools.



I highly recommend that you obtain a glass syringe, or a pipette. It will be one of the most important tools to assure a successful extraction. It's not worth it to save a few dollars if it could impact your health.

The rubber is not compatible with naptha. You should always avoid direct exposition.
Also, I strongly suggest avoiding turkey baster and acquiring 50ml glass pipette (not with wide outlet) and rubber bulb. It's quite cheap and works well!

Have you seen where someone posted that they flip a funnel with a long enough stem upside down and gently press it down over your solvent and sludge and then he used a little dropper or pipette like you have to pull the solvent from out of the stem? I’ve been wondering if that actually works well. It looks like it would.

Interesting idea, but I prefer having the solvent with the sludge enclosed whole time in the bottle. The only point of contact with this solution is the pipette, so it is very practical and clean.

Yes, I learned this when the plunger tip of my 50 ml BD syringe was rendered inoperable (dries out the rubber, stops working mid pull) thank you for the pic, this is on my get list.

I once pulled xylene with a Baster with a rubber bulb and it melted all the inside of the rubber into a gluey mush haha waste of money

Yes, xylene is a good solvent for rubber. Limonene also dissolves rubber to quite an extent, but not as well as xylene.

Good at melting it yes but don't see how that's good for it definitely not good to use rubber to work with it as I learned and nearly ended up with rubber glue in with my spice thinking it was spice stuck in the bulb lol didn't realise xylene would do that as its okay with plastic and other NPS don't do that to rubber anyway I'm out
Peace

By "good solvent" I mean it's effective at dissolving rubber, rather than it being a desired solvent to use if you're planning on using rubber equipment. The statement about limonene that followed should have provided sufficient context to get that point across.

Smoking rubber-contaminated DMT may adversely affect your trip.