This thread is meant to keep my notes on my first Vovin tek and to help me if I have problems later on.

STEP 1: Breaking down the root

I have received the 1 KG whole bark MHRB from Don Jose, Mexico and started cutting the bark into small pieces of about 0,5 x 0,5 cm. After cutting 150 gram, I put them in 3 plastic bags and stuffed them in the fridge for 2-3 hours (-26 C). Then, I put 50 gram of cutted and frozen bark into a glass blender and started blending for a minute, turning the machine off, shaking the material en blending some more, until there was fine powder and fibers. I repeated for all 3 batches.


STEP 2: Extraction

Those 3 batches from step 1 went all together in a 500 ML Erlenmeyer (A). I put 1 Liter of destilled water in a pan, added about 4 drops of 10% HCL, which made the PH 3,5, and started to heat this on an induction heat plate. Right before the cook, I added some of this through a plastic funnel, onto the bark, in A. This solution was about 550 ML (allmost to the top). I shaked this, turned it end over end, and put Erlenmeyer A in a heat bath, which was right off the cook. Every couple of minutes I reheated the heat bath (without A while reheating), so that the temperature was between 50 C and 70 C. I did 5 acid cooks:

1) PH 3,5 - 1,5 hour - temp 50/70 C - erlenmeyer in heat bath (as described above)
2) PH 3,5 - 2 hours - temp 50/70 C - erlenmeyer in heat bath
3) PH 3,81 - 1 hour in a pan with temp 90-100 degrees (soft boiling) and let it soak overnight. After this, another short boil of 0,5 hour
4) PH 3,06 - 2 hours - temp 90/100 C - in pan right on the heat plate
5) PH 3,89 - 3 hours - temp 90/100 C - in pan right on the heat plate

After every boil, I put it in a buchner funnel (500 ML) and used a waterpump to create vacuum. And I repeated this.

STEP 3: Reducing and Decanting

The 5 batches, I put in the refridgerator seperately. 1 and 2 went in the refridge overnight, 3-5 went into the fridge first for 1-2 hours and then in the refridge. 1, 2 and 3 gave a clear red transparant solution after filtering in the buchner filter, but 4 and 5 stayed very cloudy. I put every batch into a 2 Liter seperatory funnel and I had about 1 Liter of bark solution. I decided that this was a good and workable amount, so I didn't need to reduce this.


STEP 4: Defatting

I did 3 defats with about 275 of warm naphtha (Terpentine, which evaporated perfectly off a cd). After the 3 defats, the cloudiness caused by the 4th and 5th batch, disappeared and the solution became red transparant again. I put the warm naphtha into the funnel, turning it end over end, letting it sit on the side (about 40 cm long, so lots of naphtha in contact with the solution) and turning end over end again. For every defat I did this a couple of times and occasionally reheat (every 5-10 minutes) to about 55 C. The seperation of the 2 fluids was, obviously, very easy with this seperatory funnel.

STEP 5: Basifying

I put 600 ML of destilled water into Erlenmeyer B, together with 40 grams of NaOH. This gave a PH of 13,07. After the cooldown, I grabbed the seperatory funnel with the bark solution, added a plastic funnel on top, started twirling and gradually started adding the lye. The bark solution became gray, then black, then I added a little more, about 300 ML in total of the dH2O with NaOH. I measured the PH after turning the seperatory funnel and it said 12,7 and I decided it was plenty.


Step 6: Extracting the DMT

I put 400 ML of naphtha (Terpentine) into Erlenmeyer C and stuffed in in a heat bath, so that it reached a temperature of 60 C and 75 ML of this was added to the bark solution. I heated the funnel by placing it in the sink and running hot water over it. After the heating, turning end over end, letting it sit on the long end, turning end over end again, reheating etc etc. After this proces, I let the solutions seperate and after the seperation I ran the dark fluid into a pan, cutting it off right after the naphtha came by. The Naphtha with the DMT (hopefully) went in a pan, which is on an induction heat plate, reaching temperatures of 55-60 C (unfortunately, this is the lowest setting, 1 out of 9, so I hope some of the solution wont get passed 65 C). I did 5 pulls in total and all 5 pulls went into the pan, which is on the heat plate right as we speak. I hope the naphtha (300-350 ML in total) will reduce enough before bedtime (few hours) so I can put it in plastic petri dishes in the fridge.


The first thing I notice, is that the naphtha I seperated is nowhere near yellow, seems completely clear to me... Could this be right?

STEP 7: Washing

After evaporating a little bit of the naphtha, I did the wash. A pinch of sodium carbonate was added to a shotglass of destilled water and dissolved in it. This, together with the naphtha from the pan, went into the funnel, shook the piss out of it and discarded the water, which was on the bottom. After the seperation, this gave a very very cloudy solution. After the 2 destilled water washes (also 1 shotglass each), this didn't changed. The cloudy solution went into the pan again and heated till about 55-60 C for evaporation.

Sidenote: after the reheating, the fluid went clear again. Maybe this cloudiness was caused by lots of DMT clumping together already?

What kind of plastic are we talking about? Because naphtha can dissolve certain types of plastic. I strongly recommend using glass.

http://www.labstuff.nl/contents/nl/d16.html#p305

I'm not sure what kind of plastic, but I bought it off a science lab. Do you think this is any good?

I'm concerned about the petri dishes, not the funnel. I scored myself a plastic measurement beaker from the Blokker and left naphtha into overnight. The next morning there was a semi liquid lump in the bottom of it which indicates that some of the plastic dissolved / became semi liquid by the naphtha. You need to know 100% sure that the naphtha won't dissolve your plastic or it might end up in your end product. And you don't want to smoke / evap that.

The petri dishes came from this science lab too Anyway, I will use glass for now and test the petri dishes for later.

After 4 hours of sitting in the pan on 55-60 C, the naphtha only reduced from +- 350 ml to about 325 ml, pretty strange. The room is also vented well.

STEP 8B: Freeze seperation

This reduced naphtha I poured into weckpots and stuffed them in the fridge, which I have set to -34c (it is -26 right now), hoping I reduced it enough for a good precipitation.

I just checked, and the solution is very cloudy and white snowglobes are forming

never ever let any solution either acidic or basic set in plastic. Even if there is no visible residue unknown chemical reactions or chemicals leeched from plastics can b dangerous. Remember everything put in get concentrated down in the end so your drastically increasing the chemicals strength. And if you do this often using the same process. Welcome to lung cancer population allot+you. Best case take it from someone who went down that road. You'll spend the rest of your life with breathing issues. I warn because I made that mistake.

this doesnt apply to HDPE2 plastic, right?

no clue honestly wouldt take a chance pickle jar well cleaned works perfect.

Does that mean that This is unsafe??

Someone should do an experiment by filling a plastic jug with lye-water and let sit for a few days, then observe if there any damage to the jug.

I would but my materials are currently in transit.

Lye comes in plastic containers doesn't it?

HDPE plastic is resistant to lye and many other acids. HDPE is used to store Hydrofluoric Acid, a very strong corrosive that'll eat it's way throw glass, rubber, concrete, metals and whatnot. Using HDPE containers for extractions that involve strong acids or bases is fine. However, I am unsure whether or not HDPE is resistant to naphtha.

I know that my naphtha comes in plastic bottles. I'll check what the bottle is made of when I get home but I'm guessing that's it's HDPE plastic.

EDIT: There is also this thread on the Nexus, claiming it is safe. However there is no backing on the statement so it'll be difficult to verify the validity of the statement. I'll do some more research.

Thanks for the warning for plastic! I think we have to take a closer look at this HDPE plastic though..

Anyway, after about 1,5 days, someone left the fridge open and the temperature dropped to -10 C. I quickly closed the door and put it on superfreeze, so that after an hour or so the temp was already -28 C. This all happened about 6 hours ago. I just took the weckpot out of the fridge (together with the buchner funnel + filterpaper which I have drained with naphtha, which were in the fridge for half a day), ran the fluid through the buchner filter, scraped down the crystals from the filter paper into a small shotglass, closed the weckpot again (with the filter paper in between) and put it back in the fridge, so the naphtha will drop down on the filter paper.

The crystals in the shotglass are left to dry and in a few hours, I will take the weckpot out of the fridge and scrape those crystals into this same shotglass. I have to say, I'm quite pleasantly surprised about the amount of crystals I already retrieved, but then again, this is my first tek and I really don't have a clue about the yield yet.

Now that I think about it, it is probably wise to get all those crystals now, dont let them dry, but continue with step 9: solvent wash? So that I just add a little warm naphtha (< 65 C) and just let it dry after this?

Not saying using a certain plastic wont be fine but often you leave things sitting for days so I am of the sort why take the chance when you can literally buy large glass lemonade jugs at target for 10.00 and clean them use em forever and never have a worry. Why add another variable into a already complex situation. Yeah solvent wash just get some warm naptha just a lil first put material in bottom slowly pour naptha on. I like to swirl around the glass so it super absorbs. Bad material want dissolve and will clump. Just keep washing pouring off each time since it warm naptha and a small amount takes really a little time to get it dry again. This will get id the bulk of the junk.

I did the wash as you said, and the shotglass with naphtha/crystals are evaporating since 12 hours. I must say, I havent seen any naphtha evaporate, the glass is just as filled with naphtha as before I went to bed. I put it in a heat bath (<65 C) and hope it will evaporate faster, but it seems like it will take weeks

I redissolved the whole thing and put it in a glass casserole dish, leaving a very thin layer of naphtha, so that it will evap a lot faster