| Don't use methanol. The biggest loss of the whole process is evaporation to dryness, which you don't have to do with acetic acid or ethanol. Evaporating to dryness directly exposes the actives to oxidation via O2.
Methanol also takes a lot longer to extract. The 12 hours as mentioned is not enough for maximum efficiency. Alcohol is much quicker. 24-48 hours should be plenty. Methanol needs 48+ hours.
I also highly advise that you use some sort of antioxidant/preservative during the process as it will greatly improve your yields. Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is probably the best to use. Add some to the solvent before you start the extraction. You don't need much. A couple grams per L should be enough.
You also don't need to use everclear. One study found 70% to be optimal. That's 140 proof, so bacardi 151 is about perfect.
Remember that you'll be extracting other junk too, so getting crystals from a crude extract like this is not reasonable.
-FF |