So I wanted to try and do a simple ethanol extraction on some syrain rue seeds.


I bought the cheapest strongest vodka I could find. I baked my epsom for 2 hours at 300 degrees until it had all hardened and then broke it up into chunks and added to my vodka, hoping to attain an ethanol closer to 99%. Can't buy everclear where I live.

Taking my ethanol and filtering it into the seeds....at the very end just a bit of epsom salts escaped through the cotton ball that I had stuffed into the funnel. I'm rather low on seeds, and hate to waste them (I know they are cheap, but they serve me well and I respect them too much to not try and recover them). So now I have 6 grams of syrian rue seeds sitting in ethanol which is slightly contaminated with epsom salts.

Amy advice on how to salvage the product?

well... to begin I have never done this myself (drying with epsom salts or contaminating my rue extract either ) ...

However, I would guess (Note im not positive) its safe to leave the bit of epsom salts in there for the duration of the extraction...

Then just filter the lot of it, seeds and your bit of espoms salt, when your done soaking and ready to proceed...


Not sure if this is right or wrong.. hopefully someone else comes along to clarify

Thanks for the response. Magnesium sukfate is semi-soluble in alchohol, according to wikipedia. So filtering will get out some of the epsom, but maybe not all.



Now apparently you can make insoluble salts by adding sodium carbonate and magnesium sulfate to water and filtering off the now insoluble salts. That's water, not ethanol, but I figured it may point me in a direction.


Perhaps a time in the freezer will cause the magnesium to fall out of solution, I don't know.

I'll report back if I figure it out.

good luck, keep us posted!

sorry i couldnt be of more help