Arguably, the biggest component of teks is breaking down the plant matter to get the DMT accessible to the NPS. STB relies on alkaline hydrolysis to break down the cellulose. A/Bs use heat and acid. Many teks call for multiple freeze-thaw cycles to rupture the cell walls, and some people have had great success using sonication or pressure cooking.

Since this is a major driver of yields, I think it's worthwhile to see which one is most effective, all other things being equal. So, let's find out!

I received my liquid-liquid extractor today, which theoretically should be able to extract every last trace of NPS-soluble alkaloids from a given aqueous solution. As I meditated on what I can do with it, it occurred to me that my equipment will be well suited for this kind of test.

So far, ideas I have are:

• Freeze/thaw cycling versus starting with dry powder
  
• STB versus A/B
  
• Acetic versus citric versus ascorbic acid
  
• High heat versus lower temperature

I don't have enough MHRB on hand to compare all of these factors separately, only enough for about six runs. Does anyone have suggestions for how I might condense the most interesting ones into a useful experimental protocol?

I think they all break down the plant material pretty well.

I usually freeze/thaw 3x and do long hot water bath as described in the max ion Tek. After the extraction, I pulled again after a week of the rootbark sitting in aqueous NaOH and nothing significant came through. I interpreted this as bark being broken down well to begin with.