Are these crystals of spice?


The A/B extraction was done yesterday and has been resting for 24 hours since I haven't had time to start the defatting. Is it possible for sodium hydroxide to form back to a crystal in petroleum ether or any other liquid?
There's a little bit of gunk in the bottom of the flask that the crystals have stuck to.
Would the best way to separate them from the goo be to heat up the PE or add some water then some more PE?

That looks like DMT. Probably your solvent was very saturated and when temperature went down or when a bit evapped, some crystallized.

You could separate the solvent leaving the precipitated crystals/goo behind, and freeze the solvent. With the reprecipitated stuff you can try to recrystallize by adding warm naphtha (which should dissolve dmt and not impurities), wash the naphtha and freeze, or use some vinegar to redissolve it all, filter, re-base, re-extract.

Good luck!