In the process of extracting the cactus I had to rebase my sludge to match PH 12.
I let the mix sit for over 24 hours and added yellow but clear d-limonene.

Now after it separated the d-limonene is not clear anymore but looks like diluted orange juice (there is no water in it).

I suspect that it is contaminated with CaOH as according to an article linked in this topic CaOH is soluble in an organic solvent at 25% of the solvent volume when stirred in a centrifuge (i stirred for about 15 minutes with an electrical mixer). This means 300ml could absorb a couple of grams and could explain the unclearness of the solvent and the basified smell it has.

For those who are interested the article is at this location:

http://osdir.com/patents...eparation-07202197.html

Thanks for these observations and the link, yet Ca(OH)2 is still not soluble in limonene. Fine particles can stay unsettled in suspension as you showed via centrifugation (SWIM has seen similar cloudiness which can be removed via filtration and of course centrifugation) but this is different from "soluble".

Thanks for your reply. I'll let it sit in the sep. funnel for a couple of days to see wether it settles. But could this potentially being a problem in extractions as it will probably change the PH of the d-limonene when the particles are flowing around?

Limonene is an aprotic solvent

Ok, thanks for your reply. I learnt a new word as well. This means it shouldn't affect d'limonene's PH as the protons aren't exchanged.

It could however be a problem for people with cloudy limonene. When they add salted water and mix this, the particles will settle in the salted water (lowest layer) and thus there is a high possibility that you pull the excessive CaOH with the alkaloids.

I tried filtering through multiple coffee filters several times without result. Now standing on my washing machine the particles slowly settle (probably this will take a couple of hours)

This could explain why sometimes people have inactive residues. I saw some pictures of people having that clouded limonene as where it supposed to be clear (with yellow golden tint after soaking).

Assumed that it is possible, could ingesting like 400mg of CaOH be hazardous?

D-limonene's pH cannot be changed because d-limonene does not have a pH. pH is a characteristic of water only (and may or may not be modified by a number of ways, most commonly by the nature of solutes in it).


You won't pull Ca(OH)2 from the cloudy limonene as is; if you pull with vinegar, you'll convert calcium hydroxide to its salt, calcium acetate. And if you pull with, say hydrochloric acid, you'll get calcium chloride. Calcium hydroxide is, like alkaloids, a base and reacts with acids to form salts.

Both calcium chloride and calcium acetete are fairly safe to ingest, even in hundreds of mgs doses.

Thanks for your very clear explanation.