

AFOAF sent me these pics and instructions. Please follow precisely for success:



Take 1 qt. Ball jar, add 600cc's cool, DISTILLED water.



SLOWLY add 100 grams 100% NaOH while gently stirring in WELL VENTILATED area. Wear old clothes, eye protection, and maybe even gloves. Water will get quite warm to touch...go slow...stir often...stay upwind...and ALWAYS add powder to water , never, ever add water to powder.





When basified solution is made and clears, measure out 100 G highly pulverized MHRB and add to jar of basified water. Note: Although the scale shows 50.24 grams of NaOH, the FOAF measured this out twice for a total of 100 grams, per accompanying text. PLEASE NOTE: Many folks have attempted to perform this extraction using POWDERED BARK instead of SHREDDED BARK, and have encountered problems. Some have reported success with powdered bark by employing additional WATER. If you are just starting out acquiring materials, GET SHREDDED BARK. If you only have powdered bark, increase the volume of water by ~20%.



Place lid on jar and swirl to wet and "sink" all the powdered bark. Solution will turn a dark purple-black.

Congratulations, you just finished the hardest part, which should have taken all of 1/2 hour if you previously macerated your MHRB.



Notice how we still have plenty of room to add VM & P naphtha...LATER. For now, set aside the jar in a secret, undisturbed place at room temperature for minimum of 24 hours to allow the basified water to break down the cell walls and release spice into solution. Tick, tock, tick, tock...DING!



Ok...so, it has been 24 hrs since MHRB has been soaking in the basified water. Time to add exactly 150cc's VM & P naptha to the jar. Cap snugly and put aside in a WARM place, like a furnace room or atop some warm electronics. Get jar to about 80 - 85 degrees. Feel free to invert, roll, swirl and otherwise mix the layers together several times per day for one day...with this concentration NaOH no emulsion will form...unless you shake vigorously, which may result in an emulsion. Swirling alone works quite well.



After 24 hours, your naphtha will have a yellow cast. This is GOOD! Note: Perhaps I should have said "mandatory." A pale urine-yellow cast is indicative of migration of spice into the naphtha. You probably should NOT proceed to the freeze-precipitation step if your naphtha remains clear. It should look VERY MUCH like the two pictures below, before proceeding.



Use your turkey baster, and remove ~HALF the naphtha, or 75cc's and place it in your 1/2 pint jar. This will insure that you leave a nice layer of naphtha without soaking up ANY NaOH water. Don't worry one bit about the naphtha left behind...you'll see why in a moment.



Note how CLEAN the naphtha is. No amount of basified water contaminant should be tolerated. At this juncture you may optionally perform a sodium carbonate wash. The step by step pictorial for this can be found here: http://www.shroomery.org/forums/ showflat.php/Number/13962685#1396 2685





Cap the 1/2 pint jar and put it in the friggin coldest freezer you have. I use an old meat freezer we keep in the garage. Freezer should be cold enough to freeze ice cream solid. 24 hours later, you'll have crystals, like this on the bottom and sides of the jar.



Slowly, carefully pour the naphtha back into the basified water, leaving the crystals, which will stick to the glass, behind. Allow every pourable drop of naphtha to exit the jar and you won't have problems with crystals re-dissolving back into any minor residual naphtha as it warms. Don't worry about the "floatie" protocrystals in the cold naphtha solution you poured back...we'll get 'em all eventually.



Put the 1/2 pint jar aside to allow the crystals to COMPLETELY dry. A nice dark, warm dry place where air is free to circulate is just fine. It'll look like this:





When completely dry, use a razor on a handle to gather your powder, and transfer to a sealable baggie or whatever.



The residue in the 1/2 pint jar will be re-dissolved in another 24 hours when you again remove 75 cc's of "recycled and recharged" naphtha from the basified water. So...basically you will repeat and repeat and repeat the removal of naphtha with the baster, freezing, etc. several times, until the yield really drops. Please note that subsequent extractions will yield increasingly yellow product, in ever decreasing amounts. This is normal. I've taken to combining all powder. You, of course, may do as you see fit.



As a final step, you can remove as much of the naphtha as possible w/o getting NaOH, evap down and get the last drop of spice.



For those wishing to (or needing to) further purify their product, you may (again optionally) perform a recrystallization using heptane (Bestine). A step by step pictorial for this simple procedure is HERE: http://www.shroomery.org/forums/ showflat.php/Number/11726174#1172 6174



One you have the powder, I take it as a given that you know what to do with it!!!!



Edited by Nature Boy (04/20/12 03:24 AM)



Post Extras: