I figured this was worth a new topic.

Does xylene pull so much that it turns brown?

I've had this lye/bark mixture sit and mix a LOT for a few weeks, so it's probably really really well dissolved or whatever, but I'm a little surprised that it's just plain brown. I didn't even think it had separated until I got a little more light on the flask. I guess I'll see what falls out when I do the vinegar wash.

First time my friend swim extracted with STB using powdered root bark he got brown. IT took a good 2 days for all the settlements from the powder to really fall back out of the non-polar solvent.
It didn't look like their was any little particles- but the color changed waiting for a day so something fell back out.
Swim thinks this is due to using powder instead of shredded MHRB.
My fiend now waits at least 24-36 hours after mixing/gentle rolling before pulling off the non polar solvent and look for yellow. If it hits orange or darker than wait for more to settle out. Gravity is your friend. IMO anyway.

Thanks for the update, very helpful, and I am using powdered bark. I waited a little while and now there does seem to be a distinct, relatively clear layer on top. Really though, there are three layers atm. There's a clear layer on top that's almost definitely smaller than the original xylene added, there's then a brown layer beneath that which actually stuck to the glass and hid the clear layer at first (also the brown layer is probably 3-4 times larger than the clear) and then there's the bulk of the mixture that's still black.

I'm assuming that mixing it really vigorously just caused a ton of material to get pulled into the xylene that will take a while to fall out. The clear layer does have a yellow tint to it now so I'm guessing it worked fine.

I'll definitely be letting this sit for a while as it REALLY pulls more than naptha.