Indroduction
After SWIM’s first two San Pedro mescaline extractions weren’t successful SWIM decided to document her next one to help her figure out what she was doing wrong. This document is a result of that effort. It is not by any means a tek to show you exactly how to quickly and efficiently extract mescaline from San Pedro, but rather a log showing exactly what SWIM did, including mistakes, how SWIM eventually was able to produce mescaline HCl and a brief report of testing.

If you’re new to extractions and haven’t read any mescaline extraction teks SWIM suggests you read some before looking at this log. Here are a few good ones, oldest to newest:

San Pedro Alkaloid Extraction For Dummies by Murple v 1.3 - Oct 2002

Ekstataza’s Mescaline Extraction Tek posted by waylitjim

69ron’s Non toxic food safe extraction of mescaline using d-limonene (orange oil) (A very long thread but SWIM highly recommends reading all the way through.)

This log will probably be of most benefit to those who have already done some research but either haven’t actually performed their first extraction or who haven’t been successful with an extraction. If you’ve got a lot of experience you might find SWIM’s ineptitude comical

SWIM decided to post this log as a way of saying “Thank you!” to 69ron, the Nexus, and others who have posted and given so generously of their experience and knowledge.

SWIM wanted me to make it clear that although she is very glad she finally had success with an a/b mescaline extraction, she definitely will not do it again and recommends that others try 69ron’s d-limonene extraction instead.

OK, on to the log!


Supplies
100g San Pedro powder
1 gal distilled water
Hydrochloric acid
Glass pipette
Digital scale
pH paper or electronic tester
Stainless steel or glass pot with lid and (preferably) vent hole
Kitchen funnel
1-gallon plastic (HDPE) jug
1L+ xylene
glass stir rod
2 2-qt. glass canning jar
glass baking dish
paper towels
razor blade
acetone


Step 1: Acid Cook
SWIM added eight drops of 36% hydrochloric acid to 800ml distilled water and stirred to completely mix the HCl.



SWIM tested the solution to verify that the pH was close to 4.



SWIM weighted out 100g San Pedro powder on a digital scale.



SWIM poured the cactus powder into a stainless steel pot, added HCl water and mixed thoroughly. SWIM added enough solution so the powder mixed up easily and had the consistency of cream. SWIM brought the mixture to a boil, reduced heat and simmered for over an hour, stirring the mixture and scraping the bottom of the pot occasionally to keep cactus gunk from sticking. Note: current teks recommend not heating at this stage and using calcium hydroxide (hydrated or pickling lime) to break up the cactus mucilage rather than an acid cook.



SWIM simmered the mixture until the consistency changed from viscous (“snot”) to creamy. The idea behind this is to break down the cellular structure of the cactus and allow for more productive extraction of the alkaloids.

Step 2: De-fat
SWIM poured the hot acid solution into SWIM’s plastic jug using a kitchen funnel, and then add 25%-50% of that amount in xylene to the jug. For example, for 800ml acid solution, SWIM would use 200-400ml of xylene. SWIM swirled the xylene around to completely mix it with the acid solution but did not shake the jug or get too rough with her mixing because this would have created an emulsion layer that would have been difficult to clear.

After mixing, SWIM covered the jug top loosely with plastic wrap and placed the jug in a pot of hot water. The xylene separated from the San Pedro acid water in about 30 minutes, depending on how careful SWIM was mixing in the xylene. The idea behind this step is that a lot of the plant fats will be absorbed by the xylene but because of the low pH, none of the mescaline or other alkaloids. After separating SWIM threw out the xylene and repeated twice, for a total of three xylene washes.

When using solvents like xylene SWIM turns on the oven fan, uses a small desktop fan to blow fumes away from her working area and also has the windows open. Even so SWIM recommends occasionally stepping outside to breathe some fresh air. Sometimes xylene can build up in your work area without you even noticing it.

This photo shows you the acid solution in a gallon jug with the green xylene on top, the yellow emulsion layer and the bottom brownish-gray acidic San Pedro sediment.



Step 3: Basify Solution
SWIM added about two teaspoons of lye (NaOH) to 200ml of distilled water and mixed well. She slowly added the lye water to the cactus solution until the pH was up to 10.


Step 4: Extract Free Bases
SWIM added xylene in the same ratio she did for the de-fat, mixed gently and separated as before, but this time SWIM kept the xylene. Raising the pH of xylene enables it to absorb the alkaloids in the solution.

SWIM performed three xylene extractions, collecting the separated xylene in the 1-qt. glass canning jar.

Here’s a close-up of a basic cactus solution after it has separated. Note that the emulsion layer is almost gone but the San Pedro sludge has separated into two distinct layers (the piece of paper is to help out SWIM’s camera auto focus).



Step 5: Freezer Extraction of Xylene
It’s difficult separating all the xylene without a separatory funnel so after the third extraction SWIM allowed the basic solution to cool, and then placed the plastic jug in the freezer overnight. SWIM used a rubber band to secure the plastic wrap to the top of the plastic jug, and then enclosed the jug in a large Ziploc bag to keep the xylene fumes from getting into the food in the freezer.

The aqueous cactus solution will freeze but the xylene will not. SWIM performed two or three freezer extractions and it added quite a bit more xylene to SWIM’s combined extracts.


Step 6: Salt Formation and Extraction
SWIM added nine drops 36% HCl to 300ml distilled water.



SWIM slowly added about 10ml of this acid water to the accumulated xylene extractions, and then tested the pH. SWIM slowly kept adding acid water, mixing and testing, until SWIM’s xylene was neutral (ph 7).

SWIM covered the 1-qt. glass canning jar and shook vigorously to expose as much water as possible to the xylene. Because the pH was back down the alkaloids were again water-soluble. SWIM let the jar rest for a few minutes to allow the water and xylene to separate, then repeated the shaking and allowed the solution to rest again. After the second separation SWIM covered the jar with a ziplock bag and put it in the freezer overnight.

Here’s what the jar looked like the next morning:



SWIM poured off the xylene into the second 1-qt. jar. Here are the two jars; the top has the frozen aqueous solution and the bottom the xylene.



SWIM splashed a little warm water into the frozen aqueous solution in the first jar to remove the remaining xylene, then added the xylene water from the first jar to the xylene in the second jar.

SWIM then added about 200ml distilled water to the xylene solution, mixed, rested, repeated and freeze separated as above at least two more times for a total of at least three aqueous extractions.


Step 7: Hot Water Bath of Aqueous Solution
After SWIM melted the aqueous solution it usually still contained some xylene residue. Also, the last couple of pulls had proportionately fewer alkaloids. SWIM decided to perform a hot water bath to remove the xylene and get rid of some of the excess water.

In this picture you can see a little xylene floating on the top.



SWIM placed an upside down saucer in her pan, covered the saucer with a dishcloth and filled the pan about halfway with hot water. Then SWIM placed the second jar with the aqueous extracts in the pan and gently heated it. When steam started coming off from the water SWIM turned down the heat, and then covered the exposed portion of the section between the jar and the pan with a few pieces of plastic wrap.

SWIM says the plastic traps the moisture and allowed her to do a slow hot water evaporation of the jar without running out of water in the pan. It also kept the humidity in SWIM’s kitchen down, which speeded up evaporation. Last but not least, it reduced the amount of water in the final evap.



SWIM says that this tek this is a modification of MS’s Ghetto Reducing Tek.

During one of the evaps SWIM reduced a little too much and the result was alkaloids stuck to the bottom of SWIM’s jar.



Step 8: Evaporation
SWIM placed her reduced aqueous solution in a glass baking pan, covered the pan with paper towels and secured the towels to the top of the pan with (duct) tape. This kept dust and dirt out of her solution during the drying process.

SWIM reuses her paper towels so they look a little ratty:



SWIM placed the pan in a well-ventilated area and used a desktop fan to speed up drying. SWIM prefers to perform this evap at room temperatures but by the third pull the RH jumped up so she reduced the extracts in a 200F oven for a few hours.

As SWIM got additional pulls from the xylene SWIM added them to the pan.

Here’s what SWIM got after the her first evaporation:



The mescaline is brown because SWIM wasn’t careful about keeping out the lye solution from her xylene. SWIM wasn’t too worried about it because she planned on cleaning her final product.

Adding the second extraction to the first evap:



Step 9: Cleaning with Activated Charcoal and Filtering
After SWIM collected and reduced all the pulls she added about a tsp. of activated charcoal to the solution and filtered using a Büchner funnel with hand pump and filter paper.



The filter paper clogged quickly so she filtered twice more. Here’s what the solution looked like after the third filter:



and after two more:



Step 10: Another Evaporation
SWIM put the cleaned extract back into the oven at 200F and reduced it further. Just before she went to bed she turned the oven off and left the pan in the oven looking like this:



The next morning the solution was completely evaporated.



(In hindsight, SWIM thinks she probably should have stopped here but she was interested in refining her technique and learning, as well as getting a final product.)


Step 11: Cleaning Part II
SWIM used a razor blade to try to scrape the mescaline off the bottom of the pan. It was difficult to remove and SWIM had to use so much pressure that the razor blade hurt her finger. First SWIM stuck some duct tape onto the dull end of the blade to blunt it, and then wound up using pliers to grip the razor blade and allow her to push with a lot of force.



From 69ron’s D-Limonene Mescaline Extraction tek referenced above: “If the extract is brown or amber, or sticky, it's got a high number of non-mescaline alkaloids present. It can be used as is for the full spectrum effects, but if one wants a more pure product, the other alkaloids can be easily removed.”

SWIM planned to use acetone to clean up the product and decided to use heated acetone to try to get the remaining extract off the bottom of the pan, effectively accomplishing two steps in one.



SWIM swirled the extract with the acetone and filtered to separate the acetone from the extract. The extract went from dark brown to light brown/yellow, but the consistency was still very waxy and SWIM had difficulty removing it from the flask, the pan, the filter and her finger! SWIM finally heated up some distilled water and got everything into a flask.

Then SWIM had the brilliant idea of adding acetone and freeze separating the acetone from the water. Unfortunately, acetone is miscible with water i.e. won’t separate. Oops.



Step 12: Final Evaporation
Back into the oven to evap. SWIM used a jar lid to tip the pan slightly to keep the solution to one side but later removed it to speed up evaporation.



This evaporation only took a couple of hours and this time SWIM could see mescaline crystals forming.



Here’s a close-up of the right side of the pan, which had the best-formed crystalline structures:



Also in 69ron’s extraction tek, 69ron states, “75 mg is very nice with coffee. Coffee and low doses of mescaline really go well together. It will put you in a pleasant and euphoric social mood for many hours.”

SWIM’s digital scale only goes to .1g so she zeroed out the scale with a small plastic dish and her (licked) clean razor, then added and subtracted extract until the scale just went from 0.0 to 0.1. SWIM ate that amount of mescaline, plus a dollop about 1/3 the size of SWIM’s pinkie nail, along with a cup of fresh coffee. SWIM guestimates her mescaline is 50-75% pure so she figures she consumed pretty close to the recommended 75mg.




Trip Report with Approximately 75mg mescaline HCl 75% pure and Two Cups Coffee

0:00 It begins!

0:05 Feeling of excitement and energy.

0:15 Perception of meditative absorption; inward focus of concentration

0:20 SWIM notices she’s starting to grind her teeth a little; mild euphoria

0:30 SWIM decide to do laundry, which has built up over the holidays. She wound up doing four loads, called friends and left messages.

0:45 The laundry room at SWIM’s apartment complex is a little grimy, which has bothered SWIM since she moved in. She decides to clean the laundry room (!) and scrubs away while talking on phone.

1:15 SWIM notices that she is walking with a little swagger. SWIM has recently had a somewhat dramatic change/progression in her spiritual practice and has reached what Casteneda called the “second enemy” of a person of knowledge: power. In the last couple of weeks SWIM has noticed an uncharacteristic aggression towards coworkers and finds this latest manifestation of power interesting.

1:30 SWIM regularly practices mindfulness and notices at this time that fast-moving trains of thought are being produced and it takes considerable effort to control this. SWIM reports that energy and feelings of well-being have plateaued.

2:00 SWIM decides to finish and give this log to me to post. Happy new year, everybody!

peace
Phaedris

Great Extraction log. Let me just appologise for the noobs that let this thread go by.
it is pictorials like this that really let newbies learn the techniques.

You're definately a girl yeah? a girl who extracts mescaline?
....w00t, here, have my mobile number.