I created something for us to use on the alks that can take the heat.

It combines the extraction, filtering and reduction step down to one pot for better potential yields of goodies.

Copied from my pdf of the steamer.... The_Herbal_Steamer.pdf which should be attached to this post soon and in the wiki before too long.

....

==========


The Herbal Steamer............another Nexian brainchild

This simple steamer extracts and filters at the same time!

See First attached photo...
See Second attached photo...

These are the results of a 2 hour roiling (RO water) steam extraction and
reduction on 35g of San Pedro VERY FINE POWDER

Pure thick syrup with ALMOST ZERO particulates !!!


==========


Material Sheet

1 - Stainless Steel Pot
1 - Stainless Steel Grease Splatter Guard for cooking
2 - Coffee Filters
1 - Lid from a different pot/pan that is just a bit
smaller than the Stainless Steel pot that you
have chosen sothat the steam has about
a ¼ to ½ inch of space to escape from around
the outer edge of the lid.


Example:

See Third attached photo


=========


Precautions!!!

Steam is wicked to work with and can scold your skin so it peels off!!!

STUDY HOW TO DEAL WITH STEAM BEFORE USING
THE HERBAL STEAMER ! ! !

Learn about the chemical that you are extracting as
some are destroyed by excessive heat.

That being said... Enjoy and run with it!

See Fourth attached photo

.......... a quick shot under the lid ..........
always leave space between the material for the steam to come through


=========


Suggestions

Get some of those extra large coffee filters
so that the whole screen is covered and there will be
absolutely no way material can accidentally
fall through the screen on the edges.

Gently move the material... damaged filters = pollution.

I tried to use fish bowls and other various glass jars
over the material to create a steam chamber and the
simple lid on top seems to work the best as it allows
the steam to collect and fall to the outer edges as it
condenses. That outer edge of the lid has more
surface area to work on your material so setting up the
material in a doughnut configuration and pushed to the
touch the edges of the lid works great.

Leave the lid on as much as possible so the steam
can do its job. If you are constantly lifting the lid looking
then you are reducing the power of the technique.

I fill my pot half way and then ROIL the water
to get the steam going, not a hard bubbling boil.


==========


Possible Modification

Use a large stainless steel pasta strainer that would rest
safely on the edge of the pot instead of the splatter
guard so that you could make a weeks worth of
medicine instead of a single serving.


===================================================


You have my permission to share this document
with anyone that you think would find it useful.

The_Herbal_Steamer.PDF is attached to this 2nd post

How does your yield compare to regular extraction techniques?

Noon

All I can say at this point is Enoon is that the glass 35g cactus juice set me back a step and my cannabis resins are stripped clean under a microscope which is usually a very daunting task.

I highly recommend anyone to try this with just 1 bag of tea of your choice and then have a control in a glass sitting next to it.

If you want to see the power of not having to filter anymore when doing hot boils on products then break open the bag of tea and sprinkle it all over the coffee filters that are laying on the screen.

I almost did a back flip when I had that cup of tar from the cactus with almost zero sediment.

My intentions by making this post without conclusive evidence of yeilds was to give my fellow Nexians a powerful tool a concept to work with.

I have seen no posts offering Steam Extraction as a viable method...

Now we all have one to work with.

My goals in creating this were as follows:
1) less transfers the better
2) less filtering and working with spent material to reduce loss of material

I see the power of the many now and a concept is a seed to work with.

It is still hard to wrap my mind around not having to filter anymore.

I am wondering if anyone has any Virola bark laying around to really put the steamer to the test.

Here is a way to use steam within your pressure cookers if you want to pressure and filter at the same time too.

See attached photo/sketch.

Here are some ready made pressure cooker baskets etc. to give you ideas.

See attached photo...

Enoon, I used the Steamer in conjunction with the Easy Cappi tek on 100g p.harmala (whole seeds) and my yield was 3.78g.when I cleaned them down to a pH of 8.

3.78% is my first answer for you and this was my first attempt on my harmala work which means that I have a bit of room for improvement on my teknique.

I steamed for 2 hours and went through 1 gallon of distilled water from the store w/o acid added. Every 15-20 min water was added slowly right into the seeds in the strainer and allowed to drip down to flush the juices off the seeds into the water below.

Lessons learned:

Always heat the water before adding it to the pot.
Always pour the the new hot water over the seeds instead of just adding it to the pot so that you are rinsing the newly released juices down into the pot every 15-20 mins.

Confirmed 3.90g of harmala (p.harmala) alks with the manske tek from 100g of p.harmala whole seeds.

I have not washed them so this is the first pull. I did not get long spiney crystals, just tons of chunks and precip.

Interestingly enough... the larger chunks are lighter than the small darker ones/powery precips.

I am enjoying the no filter route that the steamer offers.

More test results to come...

Here is a picture of a "deep dish" version of the steamer.

It is an 8in all stainless steel kitchen strainer.

It is working great for 50g of cactus @ 2hours. 100g takes a bit longer @ 3hours.

Keep flushing the material every 15mins with hot microwaved distilled water to flush goodies into the pot as they are steam extracted.