Chilled Acetone with IPA and Naphtha

Blind placeholder for CIELO (Chrystals In Ethyl-acetate Leisurely OTC). Information has not been verified.

Introduction

Aqueous cactus matter is broken down by microwave radiation, saturated with NaCl, made alkaline, and extracted with ethyl acetate. The extract is chemichally dried and salted with citric acid to obtain mescaline citrate crystals.

CIELO stands for Crystals In Ethyl-acetate Leisurely OTC (Over The Counter).

Materials

• Quart jars with lids*
• Food scale
• 300g water
• 100g powdered dry cacti
• Microwave
• 100g plain table salt (NaCl)
• ~ 25g lime (Ca(OH)2)
• ~ 900g Ethyl acetate (sometimes labeled "MEK substitute")
• Anhydrous MgSO4 or Na₂SO4
• Filters (optional)
• pH paper (optional)
• Shallow baking glass dish with lid*
• Citric acid

*If lids are plastic, use ethyl acetate resistant LDPE or PP.

Safety

Review ethyl acetate's safety information and check the manufacture's MSDS to verify you have ethyl acetate without additives.

These are only good-faith suggestions. They do not guarantee safety. Each adult individual needs to make their personal decision using over the counter chemicals.

Process

1 Paste

Slowly add cactus powder to water while stirring to form a homogeneous paste. Microwave in short bursts monitoring closely (paste will swell quickly). Stir between irradiations until (1) color changes from green to tan and (2) at least 75ml of water evaporate. After both of these conditions are met, mix in NaCl and Ca(OH)2.

The ideal final paste is stiff but not hard to stir. If needed, adjust consistency by adding a little water (runnier) or lime (stiffer).

2 Pull

Add ~ 300g of ethyl acetate to the paste making the jar ~3/4 full. Extract for a few hours shaking vigorously every once in a while**.

Decant solvent into second jar. About ~ 50g of solvent will remain in the paste.

Pull two more times with ~250g of ethyl acetate, making the jar ~3/4 full again. Unlike the first pull, all the added solvent can be recovered.

Combined pulls will give about ~750g (~0.9 quarts) of clear yellow extract. Optionally, more pulls can be done for a modest yield improvement.

**If solvent separation is poor the starting paste was too wet. Fix by adding lime to release solvent. Released solvent will be cloudy due to suspended lime but will clear up over time. The ideally treated plant material breaks up into spongy granules.

3 Dry

Dry extract with anhydrous Na₂SO4 or MgSO4. As a rule of thumb, about ~2g of drying agent are needed per 100ml of extract.

Remove the drying agent to get a clear solution. When working with ethyl acetate, it is easier to get a clear solution using Na₂SO4; MgSO4 is messier and usually requires much longer settling times and/or careful filtering.

4 Salt

Gently drop ~250mg (~1/16 tsp) of citric acid into the extract without stirring***. Clouds form as the citric acid diffuses into solution and reacts with free base mescaline. After a few hours the clouds settle as beautiful mescaline citrate xtals.

Every 10mg of citric acid (CitH₃) reacts with enough free base mescaline (Mes) to precipitate up to 43mg of mescaline citrate:

3Mes_(↑) + CitH_3(↑) ⇒ 3(MesH)Cit_(↓)

Salting is complete if no clouds form after adding more citric acid (e.g. ~ 50mg), or optionally if pH paper is neutral/acidic. A few hundred mg of citric acid should be more than enough for the typical cactus (0.5% to 0.8% yield). The legendary Ogun would need 1000mg of citric acid for 4.3% yield.

Over acidifying is not a big concern. There is room for a lot of excess citric acid in solution since several grams can dissolve in a quart of ethyl acetate.

***Stirring won't cause any major issues but xtals will be smaller.

5 Finish

Pour off ethyl acetate into a storage container**** using a coffee filter to help pick up any loose xtals. Optionally, rinse xtals with anhydrous ethyl acetate until yellow color is removed to personal cosmetic satisfaction. Leave xtals uncovered to evaporate all residual solvent, this is the final product.

Mass spec results are current pending. Hopefully they will show the product is mescaline citrate within measurement sensitivity (already >98% pure) even when not completely white after two rinses. Yields are highly dependent on starting cacti powder and can vary from 0.1% to 5% (0.5% to 1% being common).

****Solvent can be washed with brine and reused.