"Ethnogen"ic cactus HELP

[PsychoActiveChuck]

Swim ordered Peruvian Torch and proceeded to extract the mescaline from it today. Swim chopped and boiled it according to the extraction method. Swim boiled it till the foam became part of the solution again and then turned up the heat as told by the tek. This was the last sign of the foam and it turned into greenish water. After 3 and a half hours of boiling it swim strained the dark green liquid out and saved the pulp (which looked suspicously unextracted and green). 2 hours after downing the solution between swim and swim's friend have yet to yield any effects. Swim threw the pulp back in the pot and added some water to try to extract it again (which swim is still in the process of doing). What did swim do wrong and what can swim do to fix it ?????

[Barebonejoe]

I recomend mashing, blending, grating, or dicing the flesh before boiling.

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[PsychoActiveChuck]

swim finished the 2nd extract ... no yield AGAIN ! So swim decided to make lil' pill clumps of the remaining pulp. GULP! The pulp still has the mesc in it if the water didn't extract it right ? ?

[trip.more]

maybe sway's cacti is lacking, also I find that if you acidify the water it takes less time to extract the active alkaloids.

[Barebonejoe]

Also, SWYM could of been using too much heat, which in turn kills your mescaline. Anything much over the a simmer or light boil, will ruin it.

[Bajeda]

Originally Posted by Barebonejoe

Also, SWYM could of been using too much heat, which in turn kills your mescaline. Anything much over the a simmer or light boil, will ruin it.

Thats what I was thinking. Might have taken "boiled" literally to mean on high temperature.

[PsychoActiveChuck]

3 12"es on the way ... to try again !!!

[Marsofold]

Use a bit more water and add a gram of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) to lower the ph. That will help the transfer into the water. Use three "pulls" of the water, filtering and squeezing out the pulp for the next "pull". Then boil it down to the desired volume. Don't worry about temperatures being too high. Mescaline is rather thermally stable...

[PsychoActiveChuck]

well swim did 2 "pulls" with no effect and ate the pulp that was left over afterwards. This didn't do anything either. So it leads ME to believe that the mescul was boiled out or ... something.

[Bajeda]

Originally Posted by Marsofold

Use a bit more water and add a gram of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) to lower the ph. That will help the transfer into the water. Use three "pulls" of the water, filtering and squeezing out the pulp for the next "pull". Then boil it down to the desired volume. Don't worry about temperatures being too high. Mescaline is rather thermally stable...

What would be a good ph at the boiling stage?

[Barebonejoe]

My sources aren't reliable by any means, but I've heard on numerous occasions that mescaline becomes inactive just above boiling point, which is why I try not to let it go much above a simmer.

Altitude plays a factor with your boiling point too though. The further you go up, the lower the boiling point is, right? So if you can't judge by the amount your liquid is boiling, you want to use a thermometer to gage where you're at temperature wise. I recomend not letting it go above 212F, if you want to be on the safe side.

[PsychoActiveChuck]

I've also heard about freezing it and thawing it out to break down the cell walls . How Necessary is this step ? Seems to me like the cell walls will get broken down by the hot water.

oh and thanks for the replies =)

[kld1]

Freezing the plant and crushing it will break the cell walls and allow for a better extraction, however, it is not necessary. After peeling and despining, at least 800g of fresh cactus is needed per person. 1500g is actually recommended, as most of the cacti are around 0.02-0.03%. This is what SWIM did: despine, peel outer layer, remove core, so what is left is the greenish/white slimy layer which contains the alkaloids. 850g was obtained. Then it was frozen overnight. The next day while frozen, the plant material was combined with water and blended until and the chunks were gone, then slowly simmered for about 3.5 hours according to the tek previously mentioned in another post. SWIM estimated the tek yielded approximately 300mg mescaline as he had an ok experience and would use 1500g fresh cactus next time. Enjoy.