I ground my bark up before boiling. After adding more base and heating the naphtha i yielded some more goo last night so it seems the dmt is where it belongs. With the same technique i got 1% although i used an acid. Thank you for the help.

Hey all!

So I've been vising this site for a while now and recently have attempted to extract some spice of my own. I ran into issues with one, while the other had a much lower yield than expected, so I'm hoping to find some guidance on how to proceed. Any help is much appreciated ❤ I've added [Q's] next to things I'm uncertain about and would like a reply on if anyone has the info.

For both attempts I used Earthwalker's ACRB Tek (https://www.dmt-nexus.me/forum/default.aspx?g=posts&t=58064). Ingredients used were:

- Demineralised Water
- Acacia Confusa Root Bark (Powdered)
- Table Salt
- White Vinegar
- Caustic Soda
- Extraction A: Acetone
- Extraction B: Shellite


Extraction A
I followed the guide, then got to the Clean Up Steps, Step 3 after you have added your pulls of solvent to acidic water. Here, I ran into the issue of the liquid not separating into 2 layers. The liquid is also a golden colour... which I don't think is right. There was lots of suspended white particles floating about in it. I tried researching how to fix this and came across something saying to keep adding loads of lye and/or salt... I ended up putting a whole bunch in, but it never seperated. Any idea on what has happened here? [Q1] I've left it a few weeks now and it still has a similar golden colour, but now has a layer of red stuff on the bottom. Any recommendations on how to proceed would be great. [Q2]

https://imgur.com/E3XldYc Pre-pulling the solvent.
https://imgur.com/mYDS0jN Layers not separating.
https://imgur.com/WnYb1yq Trying to get a shot of the suspended particles.
https://imgur.com/0gYhCOH After a few weeks.


Issues:
- During the Cleanup Step 2, in which the solvent is being mixed with acidic water, I shook this quite hard... and then read you are not supposed to do this Serves me right for not double and triple checking/reading ahead.
- I used half the materials for everything, hoping to use less material in the case of failure. However, I was reading in a thread somewhere (can't remember where exactly at this point), that you can't just double everything - this leads me to believe you can't just halve everything either. In the FAQ though, it says you can scale up/down, so I'm not sure if this is actually an issue. [Q3]


Extraction B
I followed the guide...
https://imgur.com/nkhLsq5 Step 1: Warm Acid Bath
Then added salt in Step 2.
https://imgur.com/Ir3IZPP Step 3: Warm Alkaline Bath - mixture went black as described in the Tek.
https://imgur.com/D2vrPjj Step 4: Added the Shellite, mixing, letting separate and then repeating multiple times.
https://imgur.com/szDRlhb Step 4: I took 5 lots of Shellite pulls and put them into a jar. Image shows the microscopic bits of base soup that the Tek mentions.

CLEANUP STEPS:
https://imgur.com/psKKsq1 Step 1 + 2: Added vinegar + water to the jar, resulting in the solvent going cloudy white. I then mixed the two layers together for 15 minutes. I did not notice a 'brown fatty substance' as alluded to in the Tek, this could perhaps be because the ACRB I am using was very finely powdered? [Q4]
Step 3: I siphoned out the top layer and set it aside (just in case it will be useful/I fucked up)
https://imgur.com/wxsKUtN Step 4: I made an alkaline solution and added it to the acidic water, resulting in it going cloudy white as described in the Tek. https://imgur.com/biYuz8N I added water as well and the liquid went to being clear, with a little bit of brown stuff floating around on the top.
https://imgur.com/u3I2ZeL https://imgur.com/eMF4nBh Step 5: I added Shellite, once again mixing (this time shaking heavily, as the Tek says "shaking won't cause an emulsion", is this OK? [Q5]) and letting settle multiple times before pulling the Shellite out onto a tray. When pulling into a Turkey Baster, it did not turn "white and thick as soon as it hits the [siphoner]"... is this OK? [Q6] The pulls were crystal clear when placed into the precipitation tray though. I also kept the liquid in the jars.
https://imgur.com/Y1pyYOl Step 6: I pre-evaped manually by waving it with some paper (would have used fan but circumstances meant this is all I had available at the time). The shellite didn't go milky... but I waited until it was half evaporated, then wrapped in glad wrap multiple layers and put it into a freezer.
https://imgur.com/76SNvJf Step 7: I took the tray out of the freezer, pouring off the excess Shellite to be stored for later use. I immediately placed it on its side and blasted it with a fan for 1.5 hours.

I ended up with some crystals... https://imgur.com/6rwE4f3, but upon scraping and weighing I only got 0.07 grams. So I must have not picked up the DMT at some stage... I'm thinking there could be some left in the Shellite I poured off after pulling it out of the freezer? [Q7]

In general really just trying to understand why I did get such a low yield. Still yet to confirm the final product is DMT, but it sure looks like it, smells like it and will be testing soon to check it is it.


Issues:
- Containers were not 100% watertight! When mixing liquids in them, a small amount would leak out 😞
- Possible issue: After Step 3, I waited overnight before continuing with the Tek. At the time I did some searching and found posts indicating this is ok to do [Q8], I'm hoping this didn't have an effect.



I feel like I'm asking so many questions in one post! Wanted to ask properly though so I've included everything I did as well as photos, so hopefully someone can help me out. Once again, much appreciation if anyone can. Cheers.

Edit: Images aren't showing up, despite the links being wrapped in the [img] tags. Posted the direct links as well next to them just to be sure they can be viewed.

I try to extract harmala. On a step 10 wiki guide, after 2 hours in the refrigerator there are no precipitate. What wrong? Has poorly fried soda, 2 hours at 220 degrees?

Maybe a silly question, but is there really a difference between Gordo Tek and q21q21's?

Is one supposedly more efficient than the other?

Thanks!

Question...
Can one simply add more lye and water to the mud solution (Mimosa) to raise the liquid level to better fit up to the neck of a bottle for better decanting of the naptha?

OR

Will doing so effect the pulls or unbalance the solution in some way?

Will it impact yield?

Thank you!

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Nope it's fine to add moar water to get it to the desired level, won't mess anything up. You likely won't need moar lye unless you are seriously diluting it, but it never hurts to drop in another spoonful for good measure.

P.S. I'm gonna go ahead and pull the duplicate question thread for this as this is the right place for it.

Thank you for the information.

I apologize for posting twice.

I'll use this area for extraction q's.

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Question about moist crystals. Used q21q21s tek- a/b lime base naphtha pull.

Removed from freezer, drained, left to evaporate for over 1hr. No smell of naphtha, but strong smell like “detergent” - noticed similar smell after adding lime (calcium hydroxide). Scraped up crystals easily but they were a little sticky/moist. When pushing crystals off the blade with some card, the card seems to have absorbed a little moisture off the crystals.

Possible trace naphtha trapped under the crystals?
Dmt isn’t soluble in water right? So it couldn’t be trace h2o?
Possible impurity in the lime? (Food grade E526)

Any help appreciated

There might have been water condensation when the crystals were cold. It is always better to dry it off within about 24h with some gentle fan air flow over the crystals.

Thanks pete666. I’m not rushing anything, so I’m giving it plenty of time to dry out.

I was REALLY surprised just how much it stinks. I’ve had plenty off experience with powdered substances, and I know freebase substances do smell, but Jesus! this stuff stinks! What’s more I’ve been smelling that stuff for a while now - I kept accusing my wife of changing the washing detergent

Edit: Poor advise. Probably wasn't read anyways though. I wasn't aware that acetone becomes immiscible with water in high pH solutions.

Hi there Nexus Peeps and thank you for any answers in advance

As a D chemistry student in high school, I am really enjoying new-found respect for the discipline and fortunately, a few of the old lessons and theories are still bouncing around in the noggin. I am following Vovin's Tek but couldn't help messing with it a bit (is what I do) so I am currently on my 3rd 'tea' extraction cycle. Per cycle

150gms of ground up MHRB
750ml distilled water adjusted to PH4 with vinegar
'souse vide' in a zip lock bag for 4 hours @ 150 f per cycle

I now have 1400ml (first 2) of gorgeous ruby red liquid decanted - with an inch of sludge at the bottom

Q1) Is there a way to test whether the aqueous solution is oversaturated and thus I would be losing product by isolating the solution at this stage

Q2) Should I be concerned about losing product by filtering off this sludge (for any other reason) as recommended by Vovin (sorry for asking Vovin)

Hello,
I'm not the uber chemist here but so far I went with the idea that as long as your pH is low enough, there's room for alks to use the H+ to get into their salt form. 'Saturation' as you put it would mean a pH that start to rise.
The alkaloid salt form is highly soluble in the watery liquid and thus rid of the sludge is no problem. You might squeeze the sludge and/or flush with water and use that water too.
My 2 cents, open for correction.
Happy trials.

I seem to be having a perpetual goo issue of late and it has me stumped. I recently performed two separate extractions, one following along with the BLAB tek more or less (I boiled with citric acid instead of long soaks in vinegar). I was left with some very hard crystalline looking fumarate w/a light orange hue. I left this sit out in a cupboard and the next day it turned into a viscous tar that was closer to red in color. I dissolved the freebased residue of this in IPA and then evaporated over some weed for later with great effects.

The second extraction was boil and base tek. Upon consolidating and freeze precipitating my first three pulls I was left w/some very nice sizeable white crystals stuck to the glass. Within an hour of being under a fan for evap (after dumping naptha and turning jar upside down in freezer), I was left w/ a crystal clear goo that I then scraped up and ran a FASA on. Now once again, I am left w/ an orange fumarate goo.

I don't mind the goo necessarily for freebase, but I need a solid I can reliably handle and weigh. I'm just at a loss for what is going on here. All of my solvents are dried with anhydrous MgSO4. I evaporated the naptha and there was no residue...same w/the acetone. I filter and decant well, using droppers where necessary. These are the first extractions I've done (other than a few other failures on bunk test products) in my current locale (FL). I'm wondering if the altitude, humidity, and temperature are playing a role in this?

Attached is a pic of the once solid fumarate before it turned to a goo.

Thanks in advance!

Mycosis - you'll notice fumarate being deliquescent under such conditions of humidity. It would have to be stored in a sealed container with desiccant if you want it to remain as crystals.

Yea I figured I made a mistake leaving it in open air...especially after I dried in a convection oven at 170F (goo originally). I think I essentially made it anhydrous so it quickly absorbed moisture from the air overnight. I'm also convinced I lost quite a bit of product in the oven so I won't be doing that again.

I ran another two extractions. Turns out I can get freeze-precip crystals to stay...just have to super-super-saturate the naptha (where crystals are already forming on bottom at "room temp", evaporate in freezer overnight after pour off, evaporate more in refrigerator for several hours. Finally I can allow them to air dry for a few days before scraping up. Still left w/a bit of clear goo but I'll accept that. Room temp crystallization would probably be best...maybe I'll give that a go next time too. Oh, and NO MOVING AIR!

The fumarate precipitation is going much smoother this time as well. I also super-saturated the limonene and then added 5mL of FASI every few hours or so. It takes at least 4-6 hours for the solution to clear up enough to make the precipitation detectable on the next addition of FASI. I'm finally getting some nice long crystals in the jar of the first three pulls. The other stuff is orange goo that I'll try to clean up. Much more acceptable.

So I guess down here, one has to take things much slower (especially temperature changes). I think it also helped that this time around I only used 50mL on the first pull and 25mL every pull after that (200g MHRB runs; I made it a point to mix for 15 - 20 min at a time over the course of several hours too). This ensured the solvent was always cloudy even at rest.

I think I'll probably just stick to keeping fumarates on hand in a sealed jar w/desiccant for now on and convert to freebase when/if it's needed for smoking. I'm also wondering if water-based precipitation is the way to go in this climate (will try sodium carb saturated water freebasing next)?

Thanks for the feedback!

Why does q21q21 state in his tek that, when converting the dmt acetate into freebase using BLAB, "step 6c should be able to be done without using sodium carbonate but rather just dissolving the gooey-acetates in acetone according to my tests"? Everywhere I have read people recommend to bombard the acetate with sodium carbonate and then put it into IPA/Acetone

Can you link to this quote? I've looked on the wiki but couldn't find a step 6c anywhere.

But in general, it's possible for errors and misapprehensions to crop up from time to time. The statement seems very unlikely to be correct.

https://wiki.dmt-nexus.me/Q21Q21...k#Alternative_Next-Steps

It is in parenthesis in the last sentence of the section that says Alternative Next-Steps of Tek 1

OK, I see it refers to an elusive step 6c in the BLAB. Which is still not clearly labelled as step 6c.

I would be extremely surprised if the mere act of dissolving DMT acetate goo in acetone somehow transforms it into smokable DMT freebase.

It seems that a note to this effect has been added to the wiki.