Over the past couple years I have had the privilege of being able to extract from MHRB harvested in Brazil and in Mexico. Both were shredded inner root bark and had similar yields (1-2% on average) of fluffy white elfspice.

Despite being pretty much the same, I noticed one major difference in the extraction process (STB in both cases with pulls done in a heat bath). When doing pulls on the Brazilian bark, it took an average of 3-6 minutes for the layers to separate after agitation. When I extract from the Mexican Bark, It takes 30 to 60 minutes for the layers to separate after agitation. I also noticed that the Mexican Bark, no matter how much lye or heat I added to solution when pulling, would always form a nasty emulsion when mixed with naphtha that could take up to an hour to separate-oftentimes i had to poke and jingle the vessel in order to burst some bubbles and keep the breakage going. Conducting 7 pulls on Brazilian MHRB can be completed in a span of 4-6 hours whereas the same number of pulls (assuming I do 4-5 agitation-separations on the bark each pull) can take up to 3 days (14-18 hours of pulling) to complete.

I was wondering if any other Nexians who have experimented with Brazilian and Mexican MHRB have noticed a similar difference in separation time and a tendency for the Mexican stuff to form emulsions with each agitation. Why is it that Mexican bark takes so much longer to separate than Brazilian bark (i.e. could there be a difference in chemical composition and Mexican bark contains emulsifiers whereas Brazilian doesn't)? If so, what techniques (other than taking your sweet time) could you suggest to help alleviate this problem? I am curious to know why Mexican bark is so much moar of a pain to separate than brazilian bark and if there is anything I can do to make it separate faster.

Thanks,
-Godsmacker

I can confirm that MHRB harvested on Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas, Mexico, will not cause emulsions if extracted properly, i´ve used cybs tek to extract white cristals with naphta, thene made another extraction for yellow crystals with naphta, then made another extraction with xylene for jungle spice, everything came out with outstanding quality and no emulsions were caused during the process. i can post pics of all the outcome.

I'm not doubting the clarity of the spice-it's pretty as a pearl each and every time

Pix would always be appreciated! 44g NaOH and 700ml H2O used in the process. How long did it take layers to separate for you on average?

Your issue with emulsions may come from very fine bits of bark powder. I've heard of others having emulsions but in my experience it's nothing filtering can't fix.

An acid/base extraction with heated naptha and base soup will not form emulsions with MHRB from these regions.