SWIM is having difficulties with an extraction sitting in his kitchen.

SWIM is using 69ron's tek and is not sure what he did wrong, but knows he made some errors and will mention them in order.

SWIM completely powderised 42g Peruvian torch which has been sitting in his room in a ziploc for some time. The skin is not entirely green there were yellowish-white elements to it.

--SWIM is correcting all ingredients by x0.4 because 40g is 40% of 100g. SWIM thought 2g would make little difference.

--SWIM added 10g Calcium Hydroxide which is pure white and food grade. SWIM stirred these powders together with a chopstick. SWIM used a liquid syringe to add 120ml H20 (filtered water). SWIM stirred this with a chopstick THOUROUGHLY.

--SWIM added 150ml (2/3 of a cup) d-limonene (it is a cleaning product that says it only contains d'limonene. "all plant based ingredients" but it was coloured very orange so perhaps it had surfacant or emulsifiers added) and stirred vigourously with chopstick. The mix became very doughy like a paste. SWIM left this mixture overnight.

--SWIM was using a french press, he depressed the press only to have it stop like it was against concrete when it reached the mixture. SWIM tried stirring with chopstick and attempting again. Same effect. SWIM pushed harder. a little juice came up through the filter, but cactus slime oozed up over the sides of the filter and mixed with the juice. Swim scraped it all back into the beaker and attempted to filter again. Same effect. SWIM pushed so hard the glass broke.

--SWIM removed glass and attempted to filter using a hemp coffee filter, found it to be too absorbant, so used a t-shirt ... same deal. SWIM was getting cactus juice all over the place and felt it was incredibly inefficient. He tried leaving the mixture to slowly drip over several hours. The mixture hardly moved and was still basically the same texture.

--SWIM tried using a metal tea strainer and it was not very effective. SWIM wrung out the liquids from his filtering objects, used a small spatula to scrape juices into a glass. collected all liquid he could and collected solids for another batch of d-limonene.

--SWIM added another 2/3 of a cup to the remaining solids. SWIM realised he should be using 120ml. SWIM noticed that the mixture hasn't become doughy like it did before, it also isn't green sort of tan now. SWIM is currently straining this mixture into a glass with cheesecloth and it seems to be working better .. there is a mixture of orange oil and white chunky oozes sinking to the bottom. SWIM is letting it sit and it continues to drip.

SWIMS first mixture looks like a thick white-green mixture on top, with a thin dark green layer on bottom. SWIM forgot to mention that he added 25ml of vinegar to this mixture (he did not x0.4; so he used about double what he was supposed to)

Any assistance in SWIMs search for this glorious alkaloid would be much appreciated. SWIM bought a new coffee press and will be more careful with this one .. it seems to have a tighter grip on the sides of the beaker and is just a fine metal screen attached to HDPE plastic instead of the more traditional 3 peice all metal screen. That is the type of filter SWIM used before; SWIM hasn't used his new coffee press for anything.

Is this referring to the remaining solids or the collected liquids?

Adding the vinegar to the sludge will introduce acetic acid and neutralize some of the lime. The pH of the mixture must be high for the alkaloids to migrate to the limonene. Throw some more lime in there. The goal is to completely separate the limonene with no solids in suspension and then add the vinegar to salt out the mesc.

The sludge seems to be very limonene absorbant and can lead to much frustration. I always use more than the stated amount. I also never strain out the sludge until the last pull. You will get those trapped goodies eventually. I feel straining early on can remove some of the water and lime from the cactus mix which will then need to be replenished for the next limo pull.

I was referring to the first limonene pull which had 25ml of vinegar added to it. I have been keeping solids seperate.

You don't want any solids in your limo pulls. If you added the vinegar to a contaminated pull the mixture should be:

Top- Limo
Middle - Vinegar
Bottom Layer (film) - Contaminates (crud)

Remove any solids and put liquids in a new container
If you don't have a clear separation of liquids, add more vinegar. The only downside of more vinegar is longer evap times.

Did SWIM see if it said 'D-Limonene FG' anywhere? FG as in food grade. The only Limonene I have seen is clear, not orange.


My first strain with the french press was similar. I was convinced it wasn't working and needed to press harder. SWIM is simply worrying too much. The orange oil should basically sit on the mix and you just dump it off, not nearly as much straining as you would think. Also, it will be easier on the 2nd and 3rd pull.


Simple fix, SWIM just needs to use standard coffee filters in combination with the french press.

Tell SWIM good luck, sounds like he is learning a lot from mistakes

Its not food grade. SWIM got some clear d-limonene (new stuff, orange stuff is a no go he was just giving it a tester with his 40g) from a eco friendly cleaning supply source. It is clear and says it contains 92% d-limonene. He asked the store clerk and was told no emulsifiers, surfacants, etc. ALL orange ingredients, SWIM isnt sure if this assurance was a SURE thing ... sometimes clerks dont know what they are talking about.

The only FG d-limonene available to SWIM is greenterpene and if SWIM's next extraction (with 100g of new cactus and adjustments for his learned mistakes) he will order from green terpene. SWIM is hoping to extract in time for Tuesday so he is just attempting to use this d-limonene ... is there a way for SWIM to test if it is actually a Non Polar Solvent and what he is after? SWIM knows he might be making a mistake not using FG, but he just assumed it was safe enough because its a non-toxic cleaning product which will evaporate.

So basically ... dont press the french press just like use it like a strainer ... compress it down to the "water level" and then pour it through a paper coffee filter.

SWIS finds "solid" an abigious term. The cactus is well powderised. In a squeezed out cheesecloth I have the hunk of what SWIM would call solids-Gritty (very limey and alkaline to the touch). SWIM then has a mixture of the prior pull and the second one filtering into a gravy seperator with a paper coffee filter elastic banded around the top. There is an aqueous orange tinted liquid and then this white .... goop or slime or beads of ooze. are they solids? or will evaporation tell SWIM?

SWIM is right, alot of clerks don't know but will talk anyways. I'm not the final expert but I wouldn't trust %92, but that's just me.


No clue but I doubt that ever comes up much. If it is %92 percent D-Limonene than it is %8 something else. I would try to find out what that something else is. Can SWIM contact the company?



Solid as in not D-Limonene. If SWIM washed the powder mix in Limonene 3 times then it should be good to toss out. I will tell SWIM more once my first evap is done...

I think your right about the 8%. SWIS says the oil turns white when mixed with water which if I am correct is a SURE sign of it containing emulsifiers. I was lied to ... damn clerks. Probably a coconut emulsifier that I was pretty much specifically asking them "is this ALL orange oil or a emulsifying solution" to so thats a waste of coconuts.

Its called "citrus solution" and if my chemistry is on base that means it ain't pure. SWIM is unhappy not so much that he has 10 litres of this fancy stuff, but that he wanted sugar for a week long camping trip he is doing starting tuesday SWIM can't find ANYWHERE in town that has PURE D-Limonene ... maybe he should call chemical supply companies .. but they always seem to avoid selling to individuals. SWIM hates how society uses fancy fixes like emulsifiers when it could easily just be shaken prior to use ... anyways .. SWIM will try to evap d-limonene/vinegar mixture in his pan.

SWIM evappped mixture in a dish @ 145F overnight. He was left with tiny white crystals and a brownish goo/resin/tar/honey. SWIM believes this is what he is after (but spilt solution, was incredibly inefficient, etc.) so he has quite a tiny amount .. probably at most 50mg. SWIM will let dry, weigh and then bioassay.

Just for hypothetical sake is it possible to skip the gravy separator step (SWIM did) and just evap the d-limonene? SWIM couldn't really get clear layers to form.

you dont need a gravy separator,a glass dropper will do just fine, also what works well for the shaking of Vinegar and limonene part is a magic bullet or a blender,

it will save you lots of energy and time .The magic bullet is the best for that;the vinegar layer becomes like milk and its much easier to separate + you will get more goodies in your

vinegar.

Also you could potentially evap the whole thing up but its gonna take forever and you will end with an even more dirty product . Swim doesnt recommend it.