Isopropyl Alcohol Cactus Extraction

[JacksonApple]

Someone who isn't me is trying an extraction of some unknown cacti powder (we'll just call it P.T.Powder for kicks and giggles) in 91% isopropyl alcohol. Here's what that SWIM has been doing:
-Put 120g of P.T.Powder in mason jar + 1.5 inches of ISO over it.
-Shook really well let sit for 12 hours, shook, let sit another 12
-Siphoned off ISO (now black with cacti extract)
SWIM's repeated this for 5 days so far. He sent me some pictures of how it's going, excuse poor quality, he didn't have a real camera on hand.
Pictures show:
-3 mason jars, one with cactus+ISO, one with pulls 1-3, and one with pulls 4-5.
-Cactus&ISO Jar close-up (the ISO is much lighter at this point)
-Comparison between pull jars. The really dark one contains the first 3 pulls.
More pictures and details to come in the following week... fingers crossed.

[deekan]

looks like a worthwhile method that im gonna use myself once my san pedro arrives. just a tip...you can start reducing pulls 1-5 as the cactus is being extracted in the other jar just put the dark jars in a bowl of hot water and they should evaporate on their own, should save you a bunch of time in the end

[rocketman]

you can try but its hard to get over 3 pulls with cactus

[JacksonApple]

Thank you for the replies and suggestions, my friend has been evaporating ISA off the pull jars (letting the jars simmer in water on his ELECTRIC stove) while he waits for the final evaporation. The first 3 pulls looked the darkest, the rest have been getting lighter and clearer with a tint of green. When condensed in the simmering water, however, the ISA turns a lot darker since whatever anonymous extracts are now concentrated.

How long should 2 pints of ISA take to dry out? I've heard anywhere from a few hours to 2 days.


Thanks again, this forum is awesome!

[deekan]

depending on the method of evaporation it will take only a few hours using a double boiler setup.

[JacksonApple]

My friend just started the final evaporation in a 6 pint glass pan/dish. He's evaporating it on his screened in porch with an overhead fan and desk fan blowing over it. If this seems to be taking too long he'll probably try double-boiling it, just sitting the glass dish over a large pot of boiling water.

Pictures of final evaporation (again, apologies for his poor photo quality):

[i01231]

thanks for sharing the great pics. what are you doing with the tar then ? are you doing an A/B extraction or just leave it as it is ?

i've eaten some dried cacti powder and after burping and releasing that horrible stuff at both of my ends i can't stand that taste anymore .... good luck

[JacksonApple]

Almost completely dry now according to my friend. Will scrape the tar into balls, possibly with a little flower to keep from sticking to everything. Then just wrap in one layer of Fruit Roll-up and swallow.

SWIM's never tried this method before, but he hates the taste of cactus tea so fingers crossed and ever more pics to come...

[deekan]

looking good JA, you're not planning to eat all the tar that you extracted from 120g right? seems like a big dose i would probably split the tar in half. either way let us know how the trip goes, peace.

[JacksonApple]

Today my friend is finishing the evaporation and scraping up the tar, tomorrow will be test day for him. This stuff is looking pretty disgusting, but sooooo much less physical matter than just eating the powder.

My FOAF and his roommate are going to split the 120g of powder extract into 2 portions, so effectively approx. 60g of majic each.

Pictures:
-Pan now moved inside on top of stove with overhead and desk fan.
-Close up of tar

[i01231]

let us know how it worked out ...

[JacksonApple]

The evaporation finished after roughly 18 hours, kind of overkill but with ISA safe than sorry right? SWIM used a pack of razor blades from Home Depot to scrap all the black/green tar together. He used baking flour to keep it from sticking to everything then rolled together, weighed it, cut into 2 doses, and weighed again.

The total yield was 20.6g of tar, so each log of tar is 10.3g.

Pictures are 2 logs formed in a capital M.(ycotopia) and another picture with a bic next to it for size comparison.

Experience report to follow this weekend.

[JacksonApple]

SWIM and his roommate just finished eating their cactus tar, full report to come later. Here's a picture of how they consumed, the tar cut in little pieces wrapped in Fruit Roll-Up. Picture shows 8 pieces left of the original 14.

[JacksonApple]

Oh my goodness, very well worth the extraction. My friend's roommate laid on his bed and died a thousand deaths and experienced a thousand rebirths. This method really really works!

[Lazlo]

Did you guys only eat 6 pieces? Looks easy enough. I too can't stomach cacti at all, so this will be my best bet for being able to enjoy it.

[Sunstar]

Sounds like a simple extraction process Jackson.
Keep us posted on how it goes for ya

[JacksonApple]

It actually ended up being 7 little pieces, but sooooo easy to ingest.

[golly]

Pretty cool..! So did you just swallow those pieces whole..?
Gonna wait till Summers end to harvest mine but this alcohol extract is sounding good...

[i01231]

did u puke ? did ur stomach turn upside down ? how long did the trip last? did u get that love feeling or just tripping balls ?
thanks for sharing ...

[JacksonApple]

Friend "J" puked approx. 55 minutes after ingesting. Friend "A", just felt nauseous for a couple hours, but tolerable levels. Friend "A" felt effects for approx. 10-12 hours, while friend "J" got borderline effects after 3 hours that lasted for a couple more.


Method of ingesting was just wrapping small chunks of tar in fruit roll-up and swallowing whole. DO NOT CHEW TAR, DO WHATEVER YOU CAN TO NOT TASTE IT.

[deekan]

is 14g(dry) a normal amount to yield from three 6" cuttings? i bought ten 6" cuttings b/c i was under the impression that it would be enough for about 4 good trips...

[JacksonApple]

From what I've read the general rule of thumb tends to be a cactus the length of your forearm, or around 12" per person. Looks like you've got one and a half doses.

Final yield all depends on what you put into it, my friend reduced 120g of cactus powder into 20.6g of tar. A significant decrease in amount of matter to consume, not to mention method of ingestion with tar is like taking vitamins (as compared to sipping gut-wrenching tea).

Trying reading notes on extractions starting with whole cacti, my friend skipped those steps buy purchasing powdered cactus flesh. Hope that helped.

[oeisa]

So how would your friend compare the cacti trip from this extraction with a shroom trip? especially in terms of nausea and how exhausting the experience is overall...

[JacksonApple]

Some notes on the differences between Mescaline and Mushrooms.

Disclaimer - (This information is anecdotal only, it in no way implies that the author has any involvement in illegal activities, nor does it relate in any way to the previous entries in this thread.)


While shrooms have a fast come up, usually between 15 and 45 minutes depending on ingestion method, Mescaline can take several hours. Nausea experienced on Mescaline is far milder but longer lasting. The trip itself is very different from that of Mushrooms. Mild visuals and fractals will creep under your eyelids and eventually into your open eye world. The mind scramble of mushrooms won't be there, instead a more overwhelming forced meditation state of mind may be induced. After the come up, hold on to your pants, because you probably have at least 8 more hours to go!

The morning after feeling can be very similar. A roommate of mine remarked after a night of cactus that he'll never feel the same about his life again. Almost a week later he still feels the same way. He's experienced this epiphany after shrooms but never this deep and meaningful.



So be careful, plan out your day, have your shit together, and get ready to do a lot of introspection. Totally different drugs, both totally worthwhile.

[exitium]

Looking good!

One thing to note is that you really should agitate more often than once every 12 hours. Continual agitation would be ideal, but you'd need a machine for that.

Also I HIGHLY recommend powderizing tums and putting it into the tar. It doesn't help with the stickiness (you use flour for that), but it helps nausea tremendously. I always pop a tums before dosing as well and keep some on hand.

I find putting the tar into gel capsules to be the best way to go, personally.

[Paradox]

If time is not a factor is it ok to leave it steeping in the same old IPA for longer ?

[JacksonApple]

Shouldn't be a problem leaving it steep for over 24 hours, it's not going to hurt anything!


About the agitation, my friend has been shaking his jars CONSTANTLY, every time he looks at them, until 30 minutes before he pulls. This seems to be making each pull stronger and darker than the first extraction.

My friend found that Fruit Roll-Ups are a cheap, easy, and tasty way (mmm leftovers) to get the tar down. Just parachute little chunks of tar wrapped in the roll-up and you'll never taste it.

I'll tell him to give Tums a try, he said throwing up cactus tar isn't pleasant whatsoever.

[exitium]

Originally Posted by Paradox

If time is not a factor is it ok to leave it steeping in the same old IPA for longer ?

I'm reasonably sure (but I'm no scientist), that it is safe to steep the cactus for long periods of time. Since I'm overly cautious even when I'm nearly positive there's no danger, however, I personally wouldn't let the mixture sit for more than a week.

This process is basically making an undrinkable tincture (IPA isn't good for drinking) and then evaporating the alcohol away. If you google 'tincture' you'll find gems like this:

You should plan to start your tinctures on the day of the new moon and let them sit at least 2 weeks until the full moon - this adds a natural drawing power.

Which is to say that with tinctures, a prevailing belief (which I think is wrong) is you need to let your herb soak for weeks to get all the goodies out. So in answer to your question, if new age types are getting by with week-long soaks for their tinctures with no ill effects, you're probably OK.

Probably more information than you needed.

I'll tell him to give Tums a try, he said throwing up cactus tar isn't pleasant whatsoever.

Yes, it's pretty terrible.

One thing I've noticed is that alcohol and tar do not mix very well: I had a group of friends who I set up for a tripping experience. They all drank fairly heavily before dosing, whereas one friend and I didn't drink at all. We were fine, but every one of them who drank beforehand vomited within about 45 minutes of dosing. This has been consistently true in my experience, so if I do decide to have a drink or two (I lose the desire to drink with high doses...), I always wait an hour or so after dosing.

[hiimt0ny]

i tried this extract and it didnt work for me.... but i think i had a low potency cactus....

[exitium]

Originally Posted by hiimt0ny

i tried this extract and it didnt work for me.... but i think i had a low potency cactus....

What was your source for the cactus (powder/chips off the 'net -no need to say name the source-, homegrown)? How much did you use in the extraction?

I find this method to be fairly foolproof and it has always worked for me, maybe if you give some details we could figure out what went wrong. Or it could just be like you said and you had low potency cactus.