MrEDuck
Well-Known Member
Because of the nasty allegations the poster above made about potential cancer from extracted mescaline because the solvent that won't be present in the final product I'll go the extra mile and use only food safe chemicals. You still should only use stainless steel or pyrex containers. Chemistry is not inherently bad nor is all natural inherently good. All water used in this should be distilled water.
If you're using dried cactus pulverize it, if it's fresh puree it in a blender.
Now we put our cactus into our container and use enough water to cover it so there is ~1/4" of water above the cactus.
Acidify this aqueous suspension. If you want food safe then citric acid (sour salt) is what you want to use. Aim for a pH of ~3. Mix this thoroughly.
Now it is time to defat so we don't end up with a crap product or worse an emulsion that refuses to separate. Add a layer of d-limonene (or other nonpolar solvent if you aren't terrified of OMG CANCER from toluene or xylene), use about 1/5 of the volume of water.
Thoroughly mix these (shaking in a capped container that is not plastic is the best way to do this). Now separate these layers and discard the nonpolar layer. It has the various fats and other nonpolar material in the cactus that would make it extremely difficult to get a decent end product. If you have a still you can distill the NP layer to recycle your solvent.
Now we use some lye (totally food safe, it's used to cure olives) to raise the pH of the aqueous layer to 11.5-12.0, you should see some white solids form in suspension. Nonsudsing ammonia (shake the bottle up, if soapy bubbles form it's no good) also works very well.
Now we again add a layer of the nonpolar solvent shake and separate. Save both layers. Raise the pH of the aqueous layer back to 11.5-12.0, and let it sit for 24 hours shaking it thoroughly for a few minutes every few hours. Then repeat the extraction with fresh nonpolar solvent. Do a total of 3-4 times total and pool the nonpolar layers.
Now make a slightly basic (ph > 7) concentrated brine solution (fully saturated with NaCl, table salt). Wash the nonpolar layer with 25mL of this 3 times.
Now reduce the volume of NP solvent by evaporation.
Now we salt out the mescaline. I like to bubble HCl gas through it but 1) it's not food safe and 2) and requires more skill than anyone who needs to read an A/B tek has. So we'll use vinegar to make mescaline acetate. Wash the nonpolar layer with ~25-30mL of vinegar and separate. Evaporate the solution (use mild heat to help speed the process, and oven at a max off 200F is really helpful for this) and keep repeating this until you stop getting a crystaline product. I'd start with like 5 of these done immeadiately and then continue doing acid washes from there if you keep getting decent crops of crystals. A much better alternative is to use glacial acetic acid which is just pure acetic acid. Add it slowly (dropwise into the nonpolar layer) until crystals stop forming.
Filter the crystals off and rinse them with a little dry isopropanol (use epsom salts that have been baked to dry them) or acetone.
If you're using dried cactus pulverize it, if it's fresh puree it in a blender.
Now we put our cactus into our container and use enough water to cover it so there is ~1/4" of water above the cactus.
Acidify this aqueous suspension. If you want food safe then citric acid (sour salt) is what you want to use. Aim for a pH of ~3. Mix this thoroughly.
Now it is time to defat so we don't end up with a crap product or worse an emulsion that refuses to separate. Add a layer of d-limonene (or other nonpolar solvent if you aren't terrified of OMG CANCER from toluene or xylene), use about 1/5 of the volume of water.
Thoroughly mix these (shaking in a capped container that is not plastic is the best way to do this). Now separate these layers and discard the nonpolar layer. It has the various fats and other nonpolar material in the cactus that would make it extremely difficult to get a decent end product. If you have a still you can distill the NP layer to recycle your solvent.
Now we use some lye (totally food safe, it's used to cure olives) to raise the pH of the aqueous layer to 11.5-12.0, you should see some white solids form in suspension. Nonsudsing ammonia (shake the bottle up, if soapy bubbles form it's no good) also works very well.
Now we again add a layer of the nonpolar solvent shake and separate. Save both layers. Raise the pH of the aqueous layer back to 11.5-12.0, and let it sit for 24 hours shaking it thoroughly for a few minutes every few hours. Then repeat the extraction with fresh nonpolar solvent. Do a total of 3-4 times total and pool the nonpolar layers.
Now make a slightly basic (ph > 7) concentrated brine solution (fully saturated with NaCl, table salt). Wash the nonpolar layer with 25mL of this 3 times.
Now reduce the volume of NP solvent by evaporation.
Now we salt out the mescaline. I like to bubble HCl gas through it but 1) it's not food safe and 2) and requires more skill than anyone who needs to read an A/B tek has. So we'll use vinegar to make mescaline acetate. Wash the nonpolar layer with ~25-30mL of vinegar and separate. Evaporate the solution (use mild heat to help speed the process, and oven at a max off 200F is really helpful for this) and keep repeating this until you stop getting a crystaline product. I'd start with like 5 of these done immeadiately and then continue doing acid washes from there if you keep getting decent crops of crystals. A much better alternative is to use glacial acetic acid which is just pure acetic acid. Add it slowly (dropwise into the nonpolar layer) until crystals stop forming.
Filter the crystals off and rinse them with a little dry isopropanol (use epsom salts that have been baked to dry them) or acetone.
