So I am doing Gibran's Tek with Rue. I used 50g of rue and did 3 boils on it. I then based the tea and the alkaloids fell out perfectly. Then I let it settle overnight and I had a huge pile of alks at the bottom of the dish. I then siphoned off the liquid on top and discarded it. Then I added in the vinegar and stirred it up. Now at the point the alks should be come water soluble salts and the plant matter should settle. So look at this pic and tell me what you think. To me it looks like the alks are still based and sitting on the bottom of the glass. I added in about 100ml of vinegar, I think that should be plenty.

Input please.

Thanks.

Did you add some water back once you siphoned it off ? Try add a bit off water. If the alks don't dissolve that it is probably the plant material left not alks. Also do not discard the pant material once separated just in case.

After you added more base you will see if the alks precipitate or not. If not that you know something went wrong. Maybe the vinegar is not good ?

Yes, I added water after I siphoned it off.

And the vinegar was from a fresh bottle that I just opened.

So basically at this point I should siphon off that top layer and save it.

Then I should base that bottom layer and see what happens.

Depending on how much base you used, it could take a bit more vinegar than you'd think sometimes. Also, have you tried to heat the vinegar and the alks up? I find that getting everything nice and warm helps the alks merge into the solution sometimes.

Ok, I will give that a shot. I might have used to much lye. Put a big spoonful of it into about 50ml of water.

So I stirred it back up and put my PH meter in there and it was like 9.1

So I am hitting up about 100ml of vinegar and I am gonna put that in there and see if that fixes it.

So I added the vinegar and tested it again and the PH was 4.2, so I think I should be good now, right?

I am gonna let it settle and see how it looks.

Ok, so I am a little confused. I have let it settle and I think it is ok, but I am not sure. The PH is 4, so all the alks should be suspended in the top layer. But look how much "plant matter" is on the bottom? I know in Gibrans tek he is using caapi and I am using rue, so maybe that makes in difference in the top layer not being a clear yellow color and their being so much plant matter on the bottom.

I mean that bottom layer cannot be the alks, right? I used 50 grams of rue. That would be a insane yield.

Filter the acidified water, save whatever precip is left, and continue the tek and see what happens.

As long as you don't throw anything away you won't loose any alks.

Yes I think there will be more plant material then with caapi but I only did caapi tek so can not be 100% sure



Its not alks its the plant material but still I would not discard it yet just in case.

Ok, thanks guys. I appreciate the help.

If you acidified most likely that is plant material. save it just in case and continue

I pulled off the top layer and based it and all the alks fell out to the bottom.


Thanks again.

Well done

Now make sure you do enough washes to get rid off all the lye.

did you just siphon the liquid or did you filter it? if you didnt filter there will be alot of goodies left in the mix. If you filtered it then ignore me.

Yeah man, definitely. Thanks.

Wellllllll, I just siphoned it and threw away the debris at the bottom. ;(


Are you suggesting to filter it thru coffee filters?

I am going to do this tek many, many times in the future, so I am glad you mentioned this to me.

yeah i would have filtered it, but through cotton buds in a funnel not a coffee filter as i find coffee filters a nightmare when there is alot of material to filter out.

All the plant mattter will have been suspended in harmala rich acidified water so you probably through away some of your yield.

fortunately rue is cheap. you live and learn

yes..yes..yes.....thanks for telling me that.....definitely doing this next time...!

You can't filter the stuff enough starting with cotton and proceeding through paper filters. Pressurized filtration of the acidified solution through media like cotton helps a lot.