San Pedro extraction questions

I've done it before and I've looked up a bunch of teks and they all do it the way I did it before but my biggest question is would it be a good thing or a bad thing to do an HCL acid soak on the cactus before basification like you do with MHRB. I have never done it that way before but wouldn't it make sense?

The reason I ask is becuase my cacti froze and got blwn over last night and a bunch broke off. I have brought them inside now but I have a bunch of stuff that iv'e cut into disks and put in my vegy dryer. I have enough to extract at least 2 grams of chloride salt but I was wonder if I could increase that yeild by hitting it with HCL acid first.

So not one of you catus extractors out there knows the answer?

Someone will be along any time now. A little patience.

Defating is absolutely nessacary with cactus unlike MHRB. If you don't you often get nasty emulsions that are bitches to separate.

The tek I used before does incude defatting but after a Soak in NaOH. I was thinking more of an acid to base extractionthinking maybe the acid will help break down the plant material thereby increasing the yield from fewer pulls? When I make DMT I do acid to base but no straight acid pulls. Then I add enough lye to completely liquify the bark. I was thinking that would be a good way to go with the cactus as well.

It's not a defating step if you've already soaked it in lye. The point is to soak you material in acid and extract with nonpolar to get the fats out. Then you raise the pH to convert the mescaline from the water soluble protonated form to the nonpolar soluble freebase form, and extract that.

Depends, are you using dried skins or freshly harvested material (I prefer the last of coarse).
I never bother with defatting, I find it more important to use lowish temperatures and constant gentle stirring to beat the bubbles out of the snot. If you do it right there is maybe a tablespoon or two of snot. Something else that helps for smooth extractions is leaving the cuttings for a few months before processing, I've had one lie for a year in the shade before using it, it was still alive and well but the green layer was like 3 times the normal thicknes (good).
Then for the HCl salting at the end, use less rather than more. The mesc is easily burned in the reaction. Stick to 3 or 4 drops HCl, this will ensure nice very light coloured end product.

canndo said:

Someone will be along any time now. A little patience.

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bet you weren't expecting me!!!!!

No but it's good to see you back. And good to hear your heart is ok

ANC said:

bet you weren't expecting me!!!!!

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What duck said.

I am drying now because thats just the way teks I read say to do it but I was wondering about using fresh material. The first time we bought a 20lb bag of dried pieces. This is from cacti I grew. I got a 6 inch piece at The Coalescence Festival in 2009 and now its expanded out to several large plants in several pots. I wasn't gonna harvest any for a couple more years but the wind broke and some parts froze so I pruned. Cool thanx all for the advice. I'm gonna finnish drying what I've cut and put it aside and cut some more next year and that should be enough for a big extraction.

Oh another tip, cut off a thick slice of your cactus pieces, about 3 spines high, and put it somewhere it an root again. This way, if you find a good one, you have more of it in the future again.