Swim has some old bark that I believe has oxidized over time as yields with naphtha pulls have been much lower than in the past.

Tonight he is doing a new test batch and doing his first d-limonene pulls. He is also using Q21's suggested wash/salt method for each pull (mixing a shot of vinegar...mix for 2 minutes...extract vinegar, than add 2 shots of hot tap water to the limo, mixing for 1 minutes, then extracting the water and mixing with the vinegar).

The water/vinegar mixture has a thin layer near the top with a bunch of stuff in it but we're not sure if it's fats/oils/n-oxides, etc. So what happens to this 'stuff' when it's reduced down to a small tincture? Will it simply get mixed in with the n,n or will it remain separate and need to have others steps performed on it, such as going with a FASI procedure?

Thanks so much!

Hey!

I have noticed there is something similar to emulsion when salting from limonene, seems you might have the same thing. I really do not think its any active product because DMT and DMT N-Oxide should be definitely very soluble in the acidic layer, there is no reason why they should be in that layer. It might be some reaction of other plant impurities with the limonene, or of the acid with limonene impurities, im not sure.

If I were you, I would separate better and keep only the bottom layer, none of that stuff (and also I can see you still have some limo thin layer there?). Then I would throw the non-vinegar stuff back in the basified extraction layer, and if its any alkaloids you will be able to pull it again if you want, though as I said, I doubt it.

Good luck!

Thanks endlessness. As as update, I did two batches, one where I left the impurities and one where I did not.

When I left the impurities in, I reduced it down to 30ml, then put 1ml on a test glass and evaporated down to a goo. When I scraped it up, it was a medium-dark orange earwax substance. It does not burn well even under a hot torch. It wasn't really smoke-able and even left a hard residue.

I haven't finished reducing the other batch yet so I cannot do a comparison just yet.

So for the rest of the 'bad' batch, what would you suggest to recover the jimjam goodies? I have vinegar, lime, bestine, naphtha, d-limo, sodium carbonate, fumaric acid, and dry IPA on hand :-)

Working with this old bark has been rather frustrating but it's forcing me to learn some new methods ;-)

Thanks!!!

Maybe add some more warm vinegar, then make paste with lime, and pull again (either with limonene and go through the extra steps of salting it out again, or pull with naphtha or bestine straight away if you want to make it faster and dont mind using petrochems)

Nice to know youre gaining experience, even though its a lot of work, its great to learn and experiment, isnt it?

Thanks again, endlessness. Will probably do as you suggest and go the limo/salt route again tomorrow. As a side question, do you know if the n-oxides will be in the final goo if this method is done properly?

Yeah n-oxides should migrate to the vinegar layer and be there in the final goo.. Im not sure if anybody actually made some real scientific testing on solubility of n-oxide in limonene, but considering polarity and so on, it is an educated guess that it should be soluble in limonene. So yeah you should be able to retrieve it this way, if there was some in the first place.

So I haven't tried to salvage the current batch yet but I pulled out an old mixture. Naphtha had been used but I wanted to try the d-limo to see if I would get a useable product or the same unusable orange wax. I made sure to keep the limo and gunk out this time but still wound up with an orange wax that wouldn't vape and barely burns. Used Q21's salt/wash method again.

I can try one of the BLAB methods and a fumarate but I'm kind of wondering if this brand of Limo is even usable...I posted a new thread to see if anyone has used the 'Soil Mender' brand before. Will give it a try next and see what happens...

I think q21's salt method results in very impure product, I think it might not be related to your limonene. Definitely try BLAB's fumarate salting method. Good luck!