Hi all,
I have followed the extraction tek: Harmalas extraction
using 500g Peganum Harmala seeds.
After boiling in acidified water/filter/reduce/basify with lye/keep solids/dissolve in vinegar/filter
I have salted with kitchen salt.
Now I have about 500ml dense soup and nothing precipitates, because of the density.

Do I have a too concentrated solution (500g rue extract in 450ml acidified water and 50g salt)?

The thing looks wonderfully green/yellowish in UV light!

leodp

yeah, 500g rue in 450ml acidified water is too concentrated I think, better have like twice that amount of liquid next time. But the density IS the harmalas precipitating, I would guess... Did you try filtering? Now what you have to do is to separate as much of the liquid as possible (filtering, vacuum filtering, coffee french press with a paper filter adapted, etc anything you can think of and try there.) Then redissolve in hot water and proceed

Hi endlessness,
I have diluted by adding 500ml hot water and 50g salt.
It's working now, the solution is more liquid and suspension is settling down.
Some extraction-porno follows (if I learn how to post images)

Leodp


Edit: I have uploaded the images, hope they are not too big.
2808.JPG Rue boiling
2817.JPG "Soup" under UV light (black tube). Harmine/Harmaline fluorescence.
2827.JPG The too-dense extract does not precipitate. Creamy at the top (after 1 day)
2828.JPG After doubling the water content, separation (30min)
2831.JPG Zoom on the suspended particles
2837.JPG Zoom at the interface

Hi,
salted two times, not freebased: now the crystals appear!
I post some more images, taken on a microscope with a Canon 1000D camera.

a.jpg 5x objective (some blue stray light has leaked)
b.jpg 20x objective
c.jpg 50x objective

I have stacked different photos with CombineZP to overcome the reduced depth of focus, maybe picture b.jpg looks somewhat "unnatural".

Thanks again to the forum community for the help and the teks.

Leodp