3 related questions on the topic of cactus extracion.

SWIM has some cactus resin obtained by dried chips and live material through warm acified water extraction and evaporation (basically house's tek). Could this material be used as a start for some further extraction such as the limonene based tek?

SWIM isn't necessarily interested in pure mesc - an alcaloid mix would be ok as long as it's possible to cap it up in gel and dose almost accuretly (which tar isn't, with all the sugars and waxes).

- Does such re-extraction make sense?

- Would the yield from tar be substantially different than using directly the cactus material?

- Is there an alternative way to clean up the goo without using hard-to-find, foul-smelling stuff?

Any explanatory answer will be appreciated.

I am in the middle of my first extraction myself, but have mad resin a few times. Phlux's extraction tek begins with a tea, so if you soak/heat/mix your resin, you'll get a tea that you can then extract from. The yield should be the same, assuming you didn't burn the resin in the evap, or overcook it at too high a temp. Have you thought of using D-limonene from greenterpene? Smells nice and is easy to order (will order some soon myself!)

Good luck,

JBArk

I did exactly this. Re-dissolved resin and extracted with Phlux Tek. Yield was low but perhaps because my resin was weak in thhe first place.

Please note, that the secondary alkaloids of san pedro can be very nice.

I don't think SWIM burned anything while simmering or evaporating. She says the simmers were short and carefully monitored - water never boiled. Evaporation was performed in a ventilated food dehydrator at 158 F (70 C). The doubt SWIM has relates to the double passage (water first, then other solvents): she's wondering if all the good stuff actually gets into the resin or there's a loss due to the first step.