Hi All,

I'm very new to this, as will become obvious. I've been interesting in trying a mescaline extraction (San Pedro or Bridgesii). Generally speaking I'm keen to stick to a food safe tek if possible. This is just so I can become comfortable with the process before moving on to more tricky extractions. One that I have found which interests me is linked here:

https://steemit.com/chemistry/@psylanthropist/san-pedro-mescaline-extraction-c11h17no3-cactus-h2o-vinegar-lime-xylene-hlc

Firstly, what are your general opinions of this tek?

Other than that I've got two questions about it. Firstly would it still work if the solvent (Xylene) was replaced with D-Limonene?

Secondly (please forgive my terrible chem-illiteracy) the final stage which involves the acid solution separation from the solvent: When the aqueous solution is evaporated revealing the mescaline crystals, should there still be Hydrochloric Acid in the crystals? I.e. am I taking crystals with acid still in them, or does that evaporate off.

Thanks everyone, sorry if this is poorly formatted or posted incorrectly. Love you all.

I'd stick with Bridgesii for first efforts because the potency of Pachanoi (San Pedro) varies so greatly you'll be wondering if it was weak cactus if you don't get much yield. I've never had Bridgesii which wasn't potent enough.

I've had good luck with STB- Lye/Limo/Vinegar to mescaline acetate. I reduce tea, base the crap out of it with lye, pull with food grade d-limo and salt with vinegar. The results aren't pretty but it's easy and you keep the full spectrum of alkaloids.

The tek you linked will work, but it strongly suggests you get a separatory funnel and you also get to play with Xylene, which I've avoided so far. Both of those things are doable but d-limo is easy and pleasant to work with.

Yeah, if it's food-safe you're looking for then xylene is pretty much out of bounds (although pharmaceutical grade xylene is a thing).