Swim has never got this before. He did a stb using 1:1 g ratio for root/lye. He let the root sit in the solution a few hours then did 4 400ml pulls with naptha. He did 2 sodium carbonate washes followed by a water wash and then an epsom salt wash. He noticed right away the naptha was very red which he has never seen. He threw it in the freezer and strained off the now yellow naptha into another jug. He had this at the bottom. is it just dirty spice or some kind of other alkaloid? Is it salvageable? He put the strained naptha back into the freezer and sees some white spice at the bottom.

Yup, happened to my friend. We could not find the cause or a quick fix. Recrystalizations (multiple) and washes do not help.

Only happens with STB. There is no way that I have found to clean it up except to do an A/B extraction on your red/brown extract.

It smokes ok, but is very strange.

I guess swim will try adding it too acidic h2o, boil it alittle, base, then try pulling again with naptha. Think that would work at all?

He was able to salvage some by doing an a/b with vinegar water. He is thinking maybe since he had the jug in a hot water bath that the heat pulled over alot of fats and oils that and maybe having some fatty root. Think thats what could have caused this? He has 1 lb left. He said he will try it again without the hot water bath.

Yes... I have had this happen too. I did manage to get it worked out by multiple recrystalizations. I did get clean white spice..but in the end there was allot of active goo left which would not recrystalize.I figured it was n-oxide.

I was using STB as well.

He is going to just keep trying to pull and clean. He has got only 5g out of 3 lbs so far...

That is why I heat the naptha nice and hot and then let it cool before removing it. All that brown crap drops back down into the Bark/Lye solution. A small amount of spice may also fall back out but I would rather do a extra pull than contend with cleaning out more crap later.

Those big chunks are mostly DMT you should be able to salvage it. I just thru out some jars of brown red crap I had sitting for some time. There were some nice reddish crystals in the oily crap so I washed them and gave them a try.

It was very strong and kicked my ass on second toke I was gone. The taste was horrible and my lungs felt like they had just been raped by something big and nasty. This suff is active but I have no plans to try again any time soon. Now a aya brew make be something I will try with it.


PEACE
MV

I'm having the very same trouble with my current extraction

I have tried all the tricks that I could find in various posts (adding more water and lye, adding salt, cleaning the cloudy naptha with a basic water solution) to no avail.

I get small amount of small crystals on the sides of my freeze precip. container and a bunch of brownish sludge at the bottom.

Any tips for how to get the DMT out of the sludge? I'll try a heptane rextal and see what happens, but if any of you chaps with a blue flask under your name want to give a suggestion I'd sure try it!

Thanks,

Pokey

Swim is soaking some powdered root in acetic acid he is going to try and a/b tomorrow night so that it will have sat in the acid for 3 days. He will let you know if that works too get rid off or lessen the fat.

yoiur naptha should not be red after seperating, to me that says that there is lye/rootbark powder trapped in the naptha (possibly emulsion)

Usuall cause is ph not being close to 13. Also, if using powdered rootbark and your basified solution is too thick, that may be a problem too. Ive read qite a few times that more water should be used with powder than with shredded rootbark.

On any of the extractions that i have done, my basified solution has been quite thin, and no where neer gloopy. I also added a little extra sodium hydroxide to ensure that ph was right and my naptha would seperate within 10 seconds after mixing leaving a nice clear naptha layer with a hint of yellow.

i dont know of anything in rootbark thats picked up by naptha that will leave brown/red colouring on crystals. after obtaining crystals, it should be white or in later pulls be yellow.

Ive only ever done STB and everytime my first pull has been very clean crystals, white on the first pull. 2nd pull is a mix of white with yellow, and 3rd same again.

even the slightly yellow crystals were very easy to smoke, very potent and not harsh at all when vaporised correctly.

I think the OP got a shitty batch of bark. There is some going around from CS.

My first extraction resulted in goo similar to yours. Its very active and will combust if you accidentally touch it with a flame. I therefore think the goo is a combination of plant fats, dmt oxide and trapped naptha. I did multiple washes and it did not purify any further. Smoke it and see for yourself its unique qualities...

Nah he said he will pass on that. He has tried 5-meo and oxide and doesnt like either. They both feel like corrupted nn if that makes sense. He just smokes white nn.
He has just been doing more pulls and cleaning and re-xtal them. He hasnt got what he hoped for so far but not as bad as before. He is doing a re-xtal with heptane on the good spice. In a day or so he is going to try one last pull with xylene. Probally tomorrow he is going to do his last one thats been sitting in acetic acid.

I think your best bet would be to redissolve the sludge in 5% HCl or vinegar (minimal amount). Don't throw it away!
Filter out any crap, defat with naphta, basify, extract again with naphta and evap/freeze prep. It's fun to watch the milky white freebase crash out when basifying, you don't see that in the black STB sludge.

Just do an A/B extraction and never have to worry about it again... I mean, if the end product needs to be cleaned up with an A/B anyways.....

^ Yes, but this final step needs only tiny amounts of solvent compared to the full A/B tek and it's very quick and easy.
It's a purification tek rather that a total extraction tek. Any waxy or fatty stuff in that sludge won't dissolve in the polar acid, and after another defat the DMT (acetate or HCl) will be much purer, whatever the preceding tek.

My first extraction attempts years ago were A/B but I just couldn't get the layers separated without a proper defat of the original acid extraction. To me, STB so far has not produced these emulsion troubles. I don't like defatting large volumes of liquid (prefer test tubes to crock pots), that's why I converted to the STB post-defat school

But apparently, some people have trouble with too much STB junk. I've never seen that but I haven't ordered ner root bark for years. I hope it's not some contamination in the bark.

He said the a/b worked out fine. He will just stick to a/b from now on. He hasnt tried stb since he first did an extraction over 2 years ago. He just wanted to do something different this time. He prefers a/b anyways, easier too manage.

The red naphtha is not just naphtha with suspended particles, at least not in my case.

It was pumped through many lab grade micro filters, was left to sit over a week, and no particles could be seen with the naked eye. It wasn't cloudly, but clear as a bell, even after sitting undisturbed for over a week.

The naphtha seems to be absorbing something red...

Aye, the naptha is absorbing something red and it precipitates in the freezer. The gooey sludge that precipitates can be dried with some patience and a small fan, then rextalized. There is good stuff in that goo!

After lots of additional pulls with some evaporation then freeze precipitation, things are looking better with my project

Still working, so mo final yields to report yet. Proves that perseverance pays off in the end!

Pokey the Persistent

what do yah know, ive now been having the same problem, though not as bad as some. I had purchased 500g of rootbark as i had been so impressed with the quality i got from my previous extraction of 100g of rootbark (very very clean on the first pull, and the 2nd and 4rd pulls were still pretty clean)

It must be the rootbark, ive hgardly had any white crystals, mostly yellow. and once it comes to 2nd and third pulls my naptha layer looks like it isnt seperating properly. Imt oo getting that dark coloured, almost redish layer.

Ive freeze preecipitated and i get lots of DMT crystals, some which have a redish colour to them but they do dry out. So im just assuming its other stuff.