Is the vinegar that is used white vinegar or regular vinegar? I'm not sure which to pick up for what he used.

Also in Kash's lsa extraction if I don't have ph papers what does a "pinch" of citric acid equal out to? I'm not even sure what citric acid it, lemon juice? Also, would 80 proof vodka work in the final storage step?

Anyone try this with old seeds? Mine are black and wrinkley, I hear mg's are supposed to be brown and smooth. I'm guessing my seeds are bunk, but I'll find out.

Please link to the method to which you are referring, this will help us to comment on it.


With any extraction, purer will be better so white vinegar is likely to be better than vinegar with any colour in it. Some white vinegar nonetheless contains sodium sulfite as a preservative, which strikes me as rather odd


Citric acid is typically encountered as clear, colourless crystals, freely soluble in water and with a typical sour taste - much like lemon juice, where this acid is also found.

If I say stuff like, "it's a tribasic organic hydroxyacid," that's probably not going to help much, I suspect! (And you're au fait with DCM or toluene, I hope?)

A pinch is literally that, like a pinch of salt in cooking - that which will fit comfortably between your thumb and forefinger. Alternatively you could use the tip of a laboratory spatula or a clean teaspoon to emulate this without sticking your fingers in your reagents.


It might work but Kash says 75% (which = 150 proof) likely for a reason. It is relatively easy to turn your 40% abv vodka into 75% abv spirit by distillation but with a bit of searching you should be able to find it, or something nearly as strong for sale somewhere - I was really delighted to find my local supermarket sells 69.5% abv spirit with no colourings whatsoever.

And regarding the seeds, fresher is always better. You might want to try the route of patience and grow some fresh ones. In the right climate you'll end up with much more material to play with. Meanwhile you can read up on the chemistry a bit more

Here's the extraction tek.

The bottle of white vinegar I picked up doesn't mention your preservative but it does say, "Diluted with water to 5% acidity" so I hope that doesn't switch anything up.

I'm not au fait with DCM or tolulene, never been around it in my life. I imagine standard rules apply, don't breath it, touch it, smoke around it, drink it, use it as eye wash etc. Other than that, no I have no idea what it really is.

Where would I pick up citric acid? Since I only need a pinch it would just be wonderous if they sell that in the baking section at the local grocery store and wasn't an online thing,

And good catch on the %/proof switch up. We aren't responsible enough to have everclear around here and all the country boys only ever gave me moonshine, they didn't let me see their stills so this experiment may have to take place a day or so before the testing.

I'm more focused on the caapi anyways since I think my seeds are ancient. All my grow space is filled with cacti I don't have much room for anything else but I'll see if a few seeds still have a little life in them and will color up the place since my cacti don't want to ever flower for me.

Thought it might be that tek, I quickly looked on the wiki

5% acidity is normal and will be fine.

I got my citric acid from an Arabic supermarket on occasion but also a brewing supplies shop or the brew section of a store in the UK called Wilkinson which tries to sell just about everything, and as cheaply as possible. Surely you have some kind of local equivalent? Also I have found anhydrous citric acid sold as a general purpose domestic descaler in a variety of places.

There are some good videos on youtube about extracting citric acid from lemons, but as wikipedia says, all you need is lemon juice plus chalk followed by sulfuric acid and you're there (sort of). (Yes, sulfuric acid is dangerous, especially the concentrated stuff. Be careful, people out there, if you ever try to do anything with it. Blabla.)

Distillation is easy. The main things to remember are that alcohol(s) are flammable and methanol is (more) toxic. Seriously, if I know how to build my own still from scratch, you can do it too. (Distillation is potentially dangerous too, of course. Do not attempt it unless you are genuinely confident of what you're doing.!)

If you know the old moonshiners can't you ask them nicely and explain somehow that you need a clean 75% spirit for... something?

I'll just find citric acid. I don't want to add sulfuric acid to all the random cans of stuff I have laying around. Maybe I'll save that for later.

All the "good ol' boys" with the shine I lost touch with since I moved + I quit drinking because I'm a drink 'till you drop kind of guy. It's probably better I just time the experiment so that immediate consumption correlates with the extraction being completed. I don't want to taste alcohol no matter how small the amount since for me it's not the last drink that kills you but the first. (Personal problems)

Micro brewing is very popular here and certain parts of town have a high concentration of eastern indians so finding citric acid shouldn't be a problem. Also, there's always the internet.

Would trying to source fresh mg seeds be against the rules since I'm not fully intending on growing them but using them for other purposes? The ones I got were supposedly picked 2 weeks prior to my ordering them, in hawaii but I believe the guy was blowing smoke and I fell for it. I'm not sure if it's true what they say about fresh ones being brown/smooth while old ones are black and wrinkled but if that is the case, these look older than two weeks old.

What are your thoughts on this tek? If you feel it is valid, would the peppermint oil still be an essential step? Forgot to add tek link, it's a CWE tek. Very simple steps.

They'll probably be OK, by "wrinkly" I thought you meant really shrivelled!

I would definitely add the peppermint, it'll settle the stomach if nothing else (although I think there's more to it as well).

Soaking crushed seeds in cold water hardly qualifies as a 'tek' but in this case it works if the seeds are OK.

Well I got to the point where the boils ha e been reduced, cooled, and you add your 50ml water/5 grams lye and.......nothing. Not a thing is collecting on the bottom. I don't see how I could have screwed this up, so it looks like my caapi is empty.

No wonder all my previous attempts have failed. There's nothing in there. Nice.

Sometimes caapi alkaloids may take a looong time to settle.

Did you look at the (unbased) tea with a blacklight (long wave uv lamp)? If there are any actives, even a minute amount, it should glow blue. If you don't even get that, it's not caapi for sure.

I don't hava a black light. I'll just keep an eye on it and see what happens. When you say a "long time" how much time are you saying?

Can be more than a day. Sometimes more than three before everything has dropped.

The potency of those seeds should be quite noticeable, if indeed they are freshly harvested from 2 weeks ago. Brown and white morning glory seeds are not that uncommon upon harvesting but black seeds almost always dominate the pods. White morning glory seeds are quite fragile and don't carry the same husk/integrity as smooth black/brown seeds. Peppermint and morning glory do express a comfortable synergy but it's usually only mildly-heightening, or so ime. The soothing effects of mint adds a nice touch to the experience and helps remove any unwanted negative effects, smells or tastes.

It looks like stiff is settling but it's not the same color as in the tek pic. It's dark and filmy. There is a small circle of whitish (powder?) In the center about the size of the top of a pencil eraser. I think I just have to accept I once again got burned.

Anyways, this is what I'm looking at. I think I did it wrong.

....yeah I don't know what's up either.

A UV lamp is massively useful when dealing with harmalas. Getting one is strongly advised.

I think the rue is the way to go. Caapi seems sketchy at best.