Three columns about 4" diameter x 6' long, were harvested in winter and aged in the dark for 3 months. They were then cubed and extracted using white vinegar. 3xfour hour vinegar boils and 1xtwo hour water followed by filtering then a lot of reducing. The final product was 2 quart jars, mostly filled with dark, sticky cacti syrup. On a side note, after 2 days of breathing boiling vinegar, I'll use citric acid next time.
The HCl extraction was done following Greenskeeper's TEK....to a point. Unfortunately, i neglected to take pictures.
https://mycotopia.ne...s/#entry1481541
The question I had was whether you could run an emulsion through the entire extraction or if it HAD to be broken before proceeding. First, I forgot to add the pectic enzyme which is supposed to help fight emulsions. Secondly when the d-limonene was added for the pull, I shook the seperatory funnel like a paint can. I had a nice frothy emulsion that immediately started separating. After sitting for 15min you could see distinct layers form including the emulsion.
I ran off the based cacti solution. As the emulsion condensed in the lower part of the funnel, some of the emulsion broke on its own or with the help of gentle swirling. I drained the remaining solution and emulsion leaving behind the solvent which was collected separately. The pull procedure was repeated 5 times. All the collected solvent was filtered through cotton balls stuffed in a glass turkey baster. The separatory funnel was cleaned and the onto salting as usual. The final product was a little dirty and needed an acetone wash and maybe ISO? I would guess maaaaaybe 50-100mg finished if I'm lucky. So at least carrying an emulsion through the entire run is possible. If I'd been a little more precise in my overall procedures, it would have been a cleaner final product.
My other questions involve Loveall's ++ CIELO extraction which is a STB.
https://wiki.dmt-nexus.me/CIELO
My first question was could you use CIELO as part of an A/B? The 2nd quart of dark sticky cacti syrup was used for this. I ran a small test run using CIELO's %. It calls for 300g water, 100g cacti powder and 25g pickling lime. I weighed my cacti liquid as though it was water and cacti powder combined but only used 100g of solution and 6g of lime for the test. The test seemed mostly succesful so i moved forward with the rest of the cacti solution.
Roughly 800g cacti solution and 50g lime were mixed in 1/2 gallon Mason jar. After mixing everything, it looked like a pH of 12. The dark cacti liquid stained everything so bad it was hard to get a proper reading. After mixing the lime and a rest, there was a fluffy emulsion on top.
The addition of EA knocked the foam down. The liquids were decanted off the sediment, poured into a sep funnel and allowed to separate as best as possible.
There was a bit of an emulsion between the two phases so, it was run off with the cacti solution. Because the cacti solution stuck to and stained everything so bad, the pulls were all done in a dirty sep funnel.
Well, the 6th and final pull was done in the freezer, it freed most the remaining EA from the emulsion. The combined EA was decanted off any cacti solution that may have snuck in, then filtered through cotton balls in a glass turkey baster.
The collected liquid was salted with 10g citric acid and left to crystallize. After 72 hours, the EA was filtered through cotton balls in a glass turkey baster. The baster and salting jar were allowed to dry completely then hot water was poured through and collected on an evap plate. Unfortunately, the salting jar had noticeable amounts of undissolved citric acid in it.
After evap, the residue left was clear-ish and very sticky.
This brings me to my next question about reXing the goo. I added about 2oz hot water to the sticky goo covered plate and used a gloved hand to help remove all the residue. The liquid was dumped in a small jar and pickling lime was added. Unfortunately I got the bright idea to add more lime trying to form a traditional CIELO paste. A bad idea that made for more filtering later and probably loss of yield. When the EA was added, there was barely an emulsion layer. I filtered the thick liquid a few times until it was much thinner. I probably should have diluted with water instead. The pulls were done in a sep funnel, were very clean looking and had a pretty solid division between the two phases. The EA layer was still run through cotton balls in a glass baster to be sure though. After salting and sitting for 72hrs the EA was drained through cotton balls in a glass baster. The cotton balls and salting jar were allowed to evaporate before hot water was poured through and collected on evap plate. The final product was perfectly clear and not sticky to the touch, though it still scraped up as a goo.
The next step would be to tighten up the procedure and run it with active colums. Ideally, cut them up and mix them for some uniformity of starting material. Dry half and extract the other half in liquid with citric acid. Run HCl with wet and dry and citric with wet and dry then compare the results.
If anyone is trimming their columns and would like to donate to science, let me know!!! :)
If not, maybe in a couple years I'll be able to revisit these experiments with my own cacti.
