Hey guys,
I've made the stupid mistake not doing enough research on my solvent before using it. I read about ethanol as being a good solvent for making changa and so I bought denatured alcohol 96%. I already dissolved the freebase harmala and dmt in it and it is now evaporating onto my leaf material. After a few hours i saw it was leaving this red traces. At first I thought it might be the harmala alkaloids which had reacted with the alcohol, but just to make sure I put a bit of denatured alcohol in a clean glass to see if it evapped cleanly and this is what it looks like:



So in the right glass I evapped some of the denat alcohol and you can see a brownish line of where it started evapping. What do you guys think, safe or not? I already read some about it in some other thread and I guess I will just have to test some when it's fully evaporated.
I'm just a bit scared i wasted my spice

dont be scared about wasting DMT, be scared about inhaling some wierd residue.

id throw it away and start again, bark is fairly cheap, lungs are a little more expensive.

Thanks for the quick response 3rdI.

I was really looking forward to trying Changa, but I know you're right..
Guess I will start over again. Patience is a virtue

The glass for an evap test must be ultra clean or you'll be dissolving and concentrating the dirt film that was already on the glass. Casual dish washing does tend to leave some residues on glasses. Clean you washed up glass thoroughly with a clean paper tissue and alcohol at least twice. Then you can try an evap test.

A petri dish or a "watch glass" is best for doing evap tests. Those have large smooth surfaces that help to better see any residue left back.

If you can distill you solvent prior to use, that is always best. A proper distillation will remove all nonvolatiles.

Ok thanks pitubo, I'm gonna try that. I think it's going to leave traces anyway though, because at the top of the glass (where the solvent didn't touch the glass) are evaporation residues as well.

I find it strange that the ethanol from Etos would leave a brown residue, because the label suggests use as a stain remover and usually these products are quite high grade. AFAIK the ethanol from Kruidvat does not leave a brown residue but I can't guarantee that it leaves not other, less obvious, residue at all. I have not tested it myself, I always distill solvents prior to use.

Ok once i get home I will try cleaning the glass properly first and try another evap test. I will let you know the results

You could recover the alkaloids through an A/B process if your solvent is sketchy.

Ah, that's a good one.
Would I just use the same tek as when I was using MHRB, only instead using the changa leaves?
Or would it be better using different ratio's of water/lye etc?
I used cyb's tek

Ratios should be the same, I would think.

Only the DMT can be mostly recovered by A/B extraction. The freebase harmalas are hardly soluble in naphta. Maybe it is possible to retrieve the harmalas if a Manske-style salting is done before attempting to extract the DMT. All this is this not a guarantee that any additives would not be co-extracted by either operation.

I did another evaporation test and this time I cleaned the glass properly in advance.
It didn't leave any traces and smells clean
So I figure they only used something like methanol to make it undrinkable.
Will test a small amount when its dry. If it tastes funny I will retrieve the dmt.
Thanks for the help guys

Methanol is not likely, I expect that it contains ketones like acetone and MEK. It may also contain denatonium benzoate. If it contains the latter, you should be able to taste its extreme bitterness on the glass you used for the evap test. Only very small quantities are typically used, so its presence is not always apparent in an evap test.

Would it be safe to taste the evap glass?

Yes. There are usually no unduly hazardous chemicals put into these consumer products, that also is why there is not likely to be any methanol in it. Denatonium benzoate, if at all present, is not dangerous in the minute quantities needed to effect its bitterness.

After tasting, you can wash your mouth with clean water to minimize the ingestion of any inconsumables.

Well, expecting extreme bitterness, after tasting I thought I didn't taste anything at all. Though after tasting it a bit better I could taste just a small amount of bitterness.. Which I think is insignificant.