Unexpected way of looking at things - brilliant!

Just wondered if some sort of water cooled distillation apparatus can't be adapted - put it in the reflux position, with the cotton wool at the bottom of the inner tube to stop the chosen solids falling out when liquid (water, etc) is poured in the top. Then, instead of cold water in the outside jacket, hot water could be pumped to keep the temp. up for better extraction. Getting the inner dimensions large enough might be a bit of a prob, but basically i see it as column chromatography with a surrounding heat jacket.

Could we not achieve the same thing with a french press coffee percolator?

Add water, leave for 10 mins then press, replace water and repeat.

You can make a nice homemade percolation cone out of old glass bottles that are wide at the base and narrow at the top. You just need to cut the bottom off the bottle - draw a circular guide line around the base where you want to cut it off, then use a glass etching tool to etch all the way around. With some gentle taps and a little luck, the bottom comes right off. Or you can use a diamond saw (eg a tile cutter) if you have access to one. Then all it needs is a little polishing with a belt sander to smooth the rough glass edges.

If the bottle has a screw-top cap on it, you can vary the rate of flow through the bottom filter by keeping the cap screwed on, but loose. If you have a glass bottle with a cork (eg a cognac bottle) you can incise two small, vertical lines part way down the cork, then how fast the liquid flows out depends on how far the cork is pushed in. For best extraction results, you want it to drip only once every couple seconds.

Sifting your herb to remove any larger particles helps the percolation, as does pre-moistening whatever herb you are putting in the cone, by soaking some of it overnight in whatever liquid you plan to use - not so much liquid that the herb is dripping wet, but just enough that it swells up and is evenly moist. That way, when you add more liquid to the cone, it is less likely to just run through quickly.

Dagger,

Isn't 10g of caapi on considered to be a super low dose? I'm super sensitive so maybe that is the right dose for me as well. I just don't know what is the best way of shredding a vine and measuring low doses, I wonder if some parts of the vine contain more alkaloids than other parts etc.

I'm using THP this weekend with Toddy Coffee Maker, can't wait!

Here's an idea: a friend of mine got an old fashioned glass coca-cola bottle, and used shop equipment to take off the the bottom, and used that as the tube.

It's small, so you have to do more pulls, but since the bottle itself is glass, you can make your water as hot as you want. He used all glass containers, plus cotton and an old (but well-washed) t-shirt and it worked beautifully.

I know not everyone has access to toys that can safely cut glass, but if you do, this seems like a great way to go.

Blessings
~ND

not necessarily. all you need is string and a flammable solvent (and something to sand the cut with to get rid of any sharp edges)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHWYjMlYH50
basically this:
- tie string around bottle (wrap it around a coupe times, especially if it is thin string)
- slide the string off the bottle, soak it it in flammable solvent (isopropyl and acetone are commonly used)
- slide the string back on the bottle, around where you want the cut.
- light the string on fire, while rotating the bottle. when the flame goes out, dunk the bottle in cold water (goggles aren't a terrible idea).

then you just sand the cut.

Thanks, that's a fantastic way of cutting glass.

Incidentally, does anyone have a rough estimate of how much more powerful actives extracted with THP are compared to actives extracted with a traditional simmer? 2x as strong? 1.5x?

Instead of adding water over and over again, can't you just reheat the extracted liquid and run it through the perculator again?

Also, if one ends up with 1.5 litres of extracted liquid, do they drink it all? Is there a way to reduce it without losing the active ingredients?

Sorry to resurrect this old thread, dearest Nexians, but there's a couple unanswered questions in this thread screaming to be heard:

1) could the same effects be achieved with a french press coffee maker?

2)

I don't know the answer to #1, but it seems like #2's answer would be "No," because the water would get saturated with alkaloids and wouldn't pull as much off as the fresh water. Is that correct?