I recently finished an extraction in which there were 2 curious anomalies: the yield was my highest yet (5.9g from 367g MHRB = 1.6%), and the spice was BRIGHT YELLOW (pics below).

After the base was added to the A/B extraction and the jars were left to rest, I had a traffic accident of which some of you are aware and was forced to leave the basic MHRB aqueous solution to sit for over three weeks before starting my pulls; a 2nd difference from my usual method was that I decided to evaporate some of the NPS (over 600ml of napatha) before freeze precipping to see if it would increase yields: after only 4 hours, there were yellow spiky crystals gathering in the bottom of the pyrex dish!

After another 18 hours in the freezer, I was wondering if these xanthous jewels would be covered and surrounded by the white crystalline structures I am accustomed to seeing, but submerged under the thin layer of naptha was a veritable field of yellow from pulls 1-3.

Pulls 4 & 5, done days later, seemed less yellow, but it may have been just the lesser density of crystals that created that impression the first set of pulls yielded 4.8g, while the last 2 were (a still impressive) 1g.

So I was wondering if either or both of these things may have contributed to the yellowing of the spice, and whether my high yield is indicative of high impurity – and of course, if so, what constitutes that impurity (plant fats? other alkaloids? Did leaving it in the basic solution for such a lengthy time free up other alks for the NPS to pick up?)

Any ideas? I know yellow spice is not unusual, but this is the first time I have yielded any that colour, and also the first time there have been any serious deviations from my method.

I plan to re-x, but may keep at least half the yellow for changa.

JBArk

No one has any ideas, speculations, info or advice? What about others who pull yellow spice? Do you leave it in the soup longer?

I was thinking maybe we could pool info and figure out if there is any correlation between the 2 deviations in my method and the "sunlight spice".

Any and all thoughts welcome.

Cheers,

JBArk

The long soak time seems to clearly be the culprit. Evapping some naptha before freeze precip doesn't in itself cause the yellows. Partial evap is pretty standard procedure and can result in pure white or even clear crystals.

It is most likely either oils, n-oxides or both. SWIM finds that the n-oxide yellowing is a much paler sort than your pics, though.

Have you bio-assayed the material yet? If so, what can you say qualitatively?

Very recently I had a batch of very yellow spice similar to yours, in my case though [I think] this happened because I added the naphtha to the solution as I added the NaOH. I am guessing it pulled a lot more oils because of the excessive heat.

The long soak is what I believe introduced the colour also. The yellow was doctored in the photos, but only in order for it to represent the yellow I see by eye the most accurately. I am accustomed to occasionally having a little yellowing in the goo under the white crystals in my extractions, but never to this degree...

No I haven't bio-assayed it yet - I wanted to see the responses here first. I am inclined to re-x it, but perhaps I should try some first. Though that high yield spooks me a little bit...


d*l*b wrote:



I know heat will do it, that's why i never heat my naptha - I guess leaving it in the soup for a long time accomplishes the same thing (?)


One experiment to do (I may do it someday myself, but for now I have enough spice for quite some time, even after making changa and gifting more than half of it!) would be to extract under the same conditions in 2 jars, pulling the first immediately and the 2nd after sitting for 3 weeks in the dark at room temperature. Any takers?

What I am most interested in is maybe establishing a reason for the colouring to further our base of extraction knowledge.

JBArk

Ok, so I should have asked this off the bat - what my real question is, is whether or not any feel I should re-x ALL or SOME of this yellowness, given that I plan to use over half of it in my 20X caapi leaf 2:1 (leaf:spice) changa. Maybe too little info to answer, but any perspectives will be appreciated.

To X or not to X, that is the changa.

JBArk

sure you chould just put that dmt right onto your 20x caapi leaves.

looks fine as it is, just looks like yellow plant fats so it won't hurt anything. i say bioassay a small bit. if its alright for you go ahead and make changa with it.

personally id recrystallize it at least once if not twice to get a more refined product and then make changa. this way you can more accurately determine your changa doses, since a lot of weight from your not so pure changa would have been plant fats.

So I went ahead and made the changa - 2.5g of this "xanthous" spice into 5g of 20x leaf. Insofar as accuracy goes, I am not sure the plant oils (if it is indeed that) would have a significant bearing on the final weight, certainly not "a lot of weight".

I have yet to bioassay it, but i will report back. Very excited - 20X caapi 2:1 changa - i just hope it's not TOO heavy on the harmalas!

JBArk

You know I have stated this in my tek and a few time in the post

I STRONGLY believe that the yellow in spice like that (but not the brown in dirty spice, that I'm pretty sure people accept as lye-soup in naptha) is JUNGLE DMT, that red stuff that dissolve really well in d-limonene and xylene but also somewhat in naptha too

So it totally makes sense that having the crystals precipitate with some jungle mixed in or coated or whatever that you would get such a nice yield.

Sure it might be plant fats but I know that in my experience 20mg of white is EQUAL TO OR LESS THAN 20mg of yellow spice which suggests otherwise.

In either case, pretty spice, nice extraction, pleasant journeys.