Allo

Got a question that might be silly, not sure
When/after you add your base to the bark, is the bark itself supposed to change color like the water? I took this picture after letting the bark settle over night, does that look right?
The last few extractions have yielded very little amounts of goo (around 0.5%), very nice goo though.
I've generally been doing a/b teks (cybs, EWs, Max Ion) with same results. Also tried a stb, different vinegar brands and excess sodium hydroxide, not much difference.
This is consistent with a few different batches from the same aussy vendor, all the reviews are saying it is great quality which is why im confused...
I was thinking maybe my sodium hudroxide might be bunk and the ph wasnt high enough.. I dont think this is the issue as i've tried two different brands of 98% and no difference...
My very first extractions went very well (around 0.7g of white xtals and some goo feom 50g bark) and this was from the same vender and same caustic soda brand..
My initial sovent is acs grade P.E 40-60 (pentane, hexane mix) and then i switch two d-limonene which pulls a fair amout of red goo. Need about 100mg to dip in to hyperspace.
Tried a 500g run because of the low yields and got about 1g of xtals with P.E and 2.5g of red goo with the d-limonene.
I feel like its the bark but with all the good reviews and having the same low yields from different batch i don't think it is..
Which brings me back to my original question. What do you think?

Lots of love

yes. same issues here. and i imagine the same supplier. even with a defat at the acid stage and a back salt. i cannot believe the amounts of oils in this product. i have just tried doing the freeze precipitation then when crystal has formed i allow the tray with the shellite to warm and let xtal redesolve then pour it into a clean dish and refreeze. so much oil left behind on the first tray, i will donate it to a friend. i only ended up with 400mg of xtal from 100g of acrb! shameful. so much easier to work with MHRB. sorry im not much help im pretty new to this. best of luck

No need to apologize, it is quite helpful feedback. We now know we're not alone in this issue. So its less likely to be our techique or chemicals at fault (assuming it is the same easy to find vender).
I can understand the oily stuff being less than desirable, its fiddly and messy to work with, but it is still quite potent. Have you tried making changa or enhanced leaf with it? It takes away the troublesome factors.
Honestly i prefer the fullspectrum acacia goo over xtals, i find it to have a more relatable personality/character, especially when i add harmalas

Another thing is that this acrb is from Hawaii and when i had good results it was the middle of the dry season in Hawaii and when i had bad results it was durring the rainy season. Plants produce more alkaloids when there is a lack of water and i am hoping that might be a major factor at play here, seeing how my vendor sources acrb sustainably and regularly in small amounts, the quality is sure to fluctuate a lot more compaired to a vendor that sources a lot of the plant at once durring optimal harvest conditions.

Peace

I'm with you-preferring full spectrum goo over pretty xtals. One can get around the difficulty of working with it by making it into a batch of powerful enhanced leaf, which IMO is far easier than xtal to manipulate. If it's made well and properly dosed, consistent breakthroughs are easy to accomplish with simple smoking apparati, or it can be used well for lower dose longer explorations with or without the benefit of added harmalas.

I don't have a lot of experience with mhrb but have seen evidence of a.c. seeming to have pretty drastically variable seasonal alkaloid levels and always sh##tons of oily fat, just going by samples through different seasons from allegedly the same age plants in the same geographic area. I've only successfully gotten stable xtals that were seperable from the goo matrix a couplefew times, all from exceptionally high-yielding (over 2% total alks) acrb. Then. Though again i don't aim for them either and don't typically do pre or post defats or backsalts.

As for your color ?, that looks consistent with any base stage I've seen with ACRB. You just have ACRB with a crap yield. Not unusual.

Vive le Goo!

Oops double posted

Yep confirmed, it was the bark.
Switched to Acacia Acuminata narrow leaf root bark (sustainable farmed source) harvested at the end of summer and ohhh myyy goood! Around 750mg of white crystals and 550mg of orangey goo. Pulled with P.E. (hexane & pentane mix), currently doing some d-limonene pulls.

With the ACRB I've been getting a small batch each month and yields have been getting slightly better further into the Hawaiian summer. Going to get some at the end of May and June to see if my good yields from the same time last year was coincidence or not.

The little full spectrum goo Ive been getting out of the ACRB I have (0.5-1%) is still amazing but what the dmt/nmt/fats/other stuff ratio was is unclear, I'm guessing a very high nmt content based on the fact I would loose like 70% of the yeild to achieve solid crystals and the leftover re-x go would still be quite active but different (heavy body load).
Even after getting the cleanest crystals I've ever had I couldn't help but mix a small bit of the orange goo with it to make some slightly full spectrum wax

First pictures are of the first pull (around 450mg)

Second is of the rexed full yield (750mg)

Love & Peace

Acuminata huh? That is an option I've been looking at because of-ummm, treading carefully here- new regulations and an increased visibility of that plant. Those results look pretty nice. What was your initial amount of plant material? Was your yield greater than 1%?

Cheers
Oops forgot that bit. 50g of mostly powdered and some very finely shredded.
So 1.5% not including goo.

Edit: Figured I'd remove that last bit, treading lightly..