First, I'd like to express my gratitude to guys like Vortex, Cyb, Noman and all the others for their contributions in helping so many people gain access to this incredible tool... The knowledge I gained from reading everyone's experiments, trials and errors has saved me many, many headaches and helped gain much improved yields and cleaner results, not to mention more profound experiences.

SWIM's initial guide has been the "The Lazy Mans Guide to Extracting Mimosa Hostilis Root Bark by Vortex" which SWIM first tried in like 2011 as is and eventually changed significantly once SWIM understood a bit more about how it all worked. SWIM swapped out almost all the materials for more convenient/lab-appropriate ones and changed the ratios of ingredients.


The latest batch yielded 5.43g or about 2.1% of light yellow to yellow crystals from 250g of powdered bark.

Below is the latest iteration of the process used for 250g of powdered bark. SWIM try to keep it simple and as efficient as possible with an STB tek. SWIM's thoughts are that they are already getting a very light-yellow color result, if they want it to be even purer, SWIM can always re-x it.

1. Add 200g of NaoH in 1.5L R/O water in 2000ml beaker
2. add 50g of sea salt to that as well.
3. pour into dry 2000ml Erlenmeyer flask with powder and 4.25 inch stir bar already inside
4. Set on hot plate/magnetic stirrer, get liquid to about 43C to 45C and allow to mix/break down chunks for an hour
5. Add 200ml Naphtha
6. Leave on magnetic stirrer for 48 hours.
7. transfer Naphtha into two 9 x 12 glass baking dishes with airtight lids
8. pre-evap most of the solvent and place in freezer for 24 hours.

Collected 3.87g of light yellow crystals

8. Add another 100ml Naphtha to base mixture
9. Allow mixture to stir for another 24 hours at 45C
10. Repeat steps 7 + 8.

Collected 1.56g of yellow crystals

decided not to do 3rd run.

next, SWIM is trying 210g NaOH + 1.6L water + 70g salt + 72 hour 1st run stirring on the magnetic stirrer/hot plate with liquid at 43C, followed by 2nd 24 hour run at same temps. The goal is to maximize yield and minimize amount of pulls.


SWIM would greatly appreciate any input making the process even better. Thanks in advance

Did you tried adding an acid step at start then cook a long time while stirring before basing ?
If you have more time to spend it can be interesting to compare

what would be the benefit of doing all that extra work rather than simply letting the solution keep stirring longer on the magnetic stirrer and adjusting the NaOH + Salt until SWIM finds the perfect ratio and amount of time it takes to get the maximum material out?

if SWIM wants extra purity beyond almost white/light yellow they're already getting or if darker material gets pulled at the end, re-xing with heptane later just seems easier

The acid used can help to break more the cells' bark, then could help converting more salt into the bath.
Maybe the acid step can help you to get a bigger yield. A side by side comparison can be the solution to compare if your yield increase or not, and if the effort can be appreciable.
It's for that purpose AB are used by many, with method like Cyb's AB, in few hours you can get your final product.
Maybe in your process, adding a 12h acid cook and less longer pull would achive the same yield & purity, or something different.