I wanted to start with MHRB but I only have chacruna (500g). Anyone know of any teks on it? Also, from the threads I've read, everyone says chacruna leaves contain lots of plant fats so they need to be defatted before the alkaloids can be extracted. What does defatted mean? Does it just mean dissolve the fats in a NP solvent then discard the NP solvent? If so, then you have to first add water and acidify in order to convert the alkaloids into salts so they don't get discarded with the NP solvent, correct?

hey

it would be preferable to boil the leaves in some slightly acidic water.. dash of vinegar will do. looking for a ph of 4-5. then after doing a few boils combine liquids, reduce to say 500ml and then defatt. make the solution basic by adding sodium hydroxide, calcium hydroxide or sodium carbonate.. if using sodium carbonate don't use naptha though

anyways.. thats just a very basic outline

Why no naptha if using sodium carb?

I can't actually answer that question to be honest.. i've been told by several members here that its a no no though. Sorry I probably should have provided a bit of info with that lonely statement .. maybe ask endlessness or benzyme or someone a bit more knowledgeable. here's a thread thats discusses it.. https://www.dmt-nexus.me....aspx?g=posts&t=5248

Cool thanks. I'm a chemistry student but I have very little experience with extractions. I would have assumed that boiling in acid water, then filtering out the plant matter would remove the fats. Fats generally aren't very soluble in water, and even less soluble in acid water (because acids make the water even more polar).

What do you mean by boiling multiple times then combining the liquids? So lets say I add the 500g of leaf to 1000mL of water, then add acid until its around pH 4-5, I boil the liquid for an hour, then what?

Also, about the sodium carbonate, I'm not sure why naphtha would be an issue. Sodium carbonate won't dissolve in naphtha at all if I'm not mistaken. Naphtha is a petroleum distillate so its about as non polar as it gets.

EDIT: I remember seeing a tutorial on making a ghetto HCl bubbler somewhere years ago. I'll try find it. I'm guessing you can use it to bubble all kinds of gases. To make ammonia, you can use hardware store ammonium sulphate (they sell it as a fertilizer). Just add aqueous sodium hydroxide and ammonia gas is formed. Its real easy. Be sure to do it outdoors though. IME ammonia burns your throat when you inhale a bit so you'll have more than adequate warning before you inhale dangerous amounts of it. Same with HCl.