Hi


i was looking around to get some ideas on how to convert my san pedro powder into a full spectrum extract via a resin sub-form



i find alot of teks/guidelines which use an acid-boil of chunks of cactus for starters
and am a bit lost in all the info i get starting with that step

as acid-boiling powdered cactus isn't that convenient and practical (as in messy and uncertain succesfull outcome)
and i'm not too sure whether the citric acid is still needed to break down cells when it's already in a powdered state as well

i was wondering if anyone here can help me out with some links/refs or tips on this subject ?



thanks in advance,

it.

I understand where your coming from regarding the amount of extraction methods being semi-overwhelming. As well as your (rightly so) concern about boiling powder, and how much of a pita it can be.

The most positively reported way to get a full spectrum resin from cactus powder i've heard of are-

1)- Use a pressure cooker with either distilled water, or a small amount of vinegar. Forget the citric acid, it won't boil off like vinegar will. It might be tempting to use hcl for the same reason, but i'd advise against it for first acid cooks using water/cactus powder.

From what i've heard from first hand reports, the snotty gooey mess is greatly reduced with a pressure cooker, as well as the cooking time required.

2)- Do a bunch of soak/pulls with a semi dry alcohol, like 70% plus either ethanol, isopropyl, or methanol if you know the saftey requirements involved with using methanol. Then you just pour off the top layer of solvent and leave the powder behind, and add more alcohol.

Wait another few days, shake the mixture often, let it settle and pour off the solvent. Repeat at least 3 times, use 2x the volume by sight of alcohol (IE, fill the glass container with your powder, with enough alcohol to match the powder, like if visually you have 1c of powder, use 2c of alcohol per pull).

Combine all those, filter the alcohol and evaporate it. Redissolve in slightly acidic water (1 drop of hcl per 8oz of distilled water, or a half teaspoon of vinegar per quart of distilled water).

Filter again, (lots of insoluble goo/in-actives should come out) then evap that water.

That will give you fairly nice full spectrum resin without the hassle of cooking, or you could use a PC (pressure cooker) if you don't want to wait weeks or use alcohols.

Use the search function to look into those two specific ways of resin extraction, imho, after trying lots of different ways to get cactus resin, those two worked best for me, or those who reported about the topic.

And whenever possible, go for chips vs. powder. Powder is such a pain in the ass to filter, when using alcohol its super easy to pour off most of the solvent (or alot more than with powder) without getting a bunch of powder sediment as well. And most of the time your going to want to use either vinegar or hcl, as excess of those two will evaporate off (unlike citric, fumaric, ascorbic, maleic, tartaric, etc acids).

People might just tell you to utfse, but i know the topic your talking about isn't easy to find a consensus about. Still, its good to read through all the threads about the subject. You'll learn why some methods are better than others in the opinion of the posters.

But the above info should point you in the right direction to do the research personally as is the philosophy around here. But once again, i know how hard it is to find a consensus on the best/easiest way to get FS resin, so I'll try and point you in the right direction without the unpleasantness of just telling you to do the research by yourself.

Good luck, and feel free to let me know if I'm confusing you with my blocks of text, its a bad habit of mine. More than Happy to help you understand the process

~peace~

awesome!

thanks for replying, much appreciated


so, you're saying semi-dry alcohol as in hardware-store grade alcohol + 1/4oid of demi water ?


will this added water make the powder go viscous in the mix, viscous as in pressured cloth-filtering and such ?

and what is dissolving in what ? or alternatively formulated.. why the polar/nonpolar mix ?

Semi dry is anything from 70% or higher isopropyl (what i used), or clean evaporating, checked msds denatured alcohol from the hardware store with ~25% distilled water added. Things you don't want in your denatured alcohol would be highly polar hydrocarbon solvents, tolulene, naptha, heptane, etc. Other alcohols are fine, like say 5% methanol, or ethyl acetate. But be aware of the toxicity of the denaturing agents, and use the proper safety precautions. Always make sure it cleanly evaps.

I think iso is your best bet, or if you can get a hold of everclear alcohol, that is one of the best solvents for cactus resin. Due to its low toxicity, and higher polarity than isopropyl. But iso works fine as well.

This will cause no swelling, or cactus snot. The alcohol breaks down the cell walls, and the water pulls the natural alkaloid salts. The mixture will not become thick, slimy, or snotty in any way, since there's not enough water, and the presence of the alcohol prevents the cell swelling that causes that mess.

And i'd look into making a herbal percolator vs. squeezing through a cloth, it will filter it much better with alot less loss of solvent and if you do it right, no sediment post filtering. Most of the time though, if you leave the vessel undisturbed for a day, all the powder will decant to the bottom, and you can carefully pour off most of the alcohol without any powder.

Alcohols are actually somewhere between polar/non-polar solvents, btw. They tend to be more polar than np, and can pull alkaloid salts without any water in some cases, but adding a bit of water ensures there's plenty of room for alkaloid salts to dissolve in the solution of alcohol/water.

So the mescaline/alkaloid natural salts are dissolving in both the water/alcohol, more so the water. But since too much water causes swelling and cactus snot, you use a binary solvent of ~70% alcohol, and 30% water. This allows the alcohol to prevent swelling, and breaks down the cell walls, and the water shoots the solubility of the natural alkaloid salts through the roof, vs dry (or pure, 100%, 200 proof) alcohol alone.

But, you will get a bit of fats/oils from the alcohol/water mix, due to how alcohols dissolve fats/oils (why they break down the cell walls) but are still a bit polar. So that's where the redissolving of your resin in slightly acidic water comes in, it leaves all that crap behind since pure slightly acidified distilled water is far to polar to dissolve the oils, IE they're insoluble, but the alkaloid salts are very soluble in water.

Like doing a distilled water wash on some hash oil made from ethanol, but for the opposite effect. To leave the fats/oils behind, and grab the highly water soluble alkaloid salts. The small amount of vinegar or hcl ensures no goodies get left behind.

please be careful to always pre-boil until the snot stops foaming before putting the lid on the PC!
it can be dangerous if not

i have some methanol, IPA, and 96% foodgrade Ethanol overhere
i can use either one of them in the end
but IPA should get best results ?

also, what's everclear ?