M.E.TEK revised w/pics

Let us first begin by identifying the varieties (var) that we are going to be discussing. There are 3 var in particular of the San Pedro Cactus that we will be discussing. Trichocereus Pacahanoi, Peruvian, Bridgesii. So far these are the ones reported to have entheogenic psychoactivity and the ones in which we will be discussing. The techniques described apply to all 3 var. T. Macrogronus has yet to become a common ally among the 3 var. as of now. Further reseach, study, cultivation and extraction will yield the needed data for the future. San Pedro is interpreted into St. Peter who is keeper of the gates of heaven. So the cacti is the key to enter into through the gates or veil to the eternal awareness of the never ending moment.

Step 1. Growing a Cutting.

This is by far the easiest step. The thing about the cutting is that it can remain alive for a long time as a cutting out of soil. I have not tested a cutting to suffer a long death for the data, but I do know it will start growing pups even out of soil.

The best place to start is an online vendor otherwise you will have to harvest a cutting from a neighboring yard. The average price for a cutting is about $25 per foot. I know the pachanoi var grows in many neighborhoods of the southern california region. I seldomnly come across pervian or bridgesii, but I have. And when the day comes that I can grow the sacred cacti in my own yard I will. For now I wait and allow them to grow free. On a journey through phoenix Az. I did happen to spot more peruvian var then the other two.

A 1ft cutting is standard to start growing and using sacred cacti. Simply plant the cutting directly into common potting soil or cactus potting soil and start watering. You should start with a 3-5g plastic pot. Plastic pots work the best due to the fact that they retain moisture longer then clay. I've noticed that the San Pedro var. cacti grow best in indirect sun with plenty of watering, but they can handle full sun as long as they get plenty of water. Lack of water seems to make them prune up and in full sun they become yellow. The most potent samples you are going to want to use for brewing/extracting are going to be the darkest green and very juicy.

Every cutting that was less then a foot that I had planted always grew pups on the top and the cutting only remained a base. Once any cutting has established roots it will begin to grow pups out the base. For cuttings that are not tops there is a way of cloning from these that I have observed. What you want to do is cut the cutting into 2-3in long chunks and plant them half deep on their sides in 1g plastic pots. The pups always grow out the side that would have been the top end of the cutting. For example if you layed a 5ft cutting on the ground and let it sprout a pup. It would grow out the part of the cutting that was its most top part and the remaining 5ft of cacti will not sprout any pups. Whereas if you cut 5ft into 30x2in chunks you could sprout 30 pups. The rule is confirmed that the cacti grow about 1ft+ a year once the roots are established and have plenty of room and watering.

To grow from seeds you are going to need to practice patience. If you want to breed the cacti to produce viable seeds you are going to need to grow cacti from seed and grow them only to produce seeds. For single seed growth I recommend those cactus growing kits from your local home improvement center. If you want to grow alot at once take a 1ftx1ft garden flat fill it with cactus soil mix or potting soil, pre water, sprinkle your seeds throughout and keep in a warm and well lit space out of direct sunlight.. Make sure they get a good dose of partial sun. Full sun will be way to intense. I would also wait till spring before planting so there is no chance of cold killing em off during the sprouting cycle.

Allow the cacti to grow to a decent size before transplanting them to larger pots. If you are growing to produce seed stock for the future you are going to want to use organic gardening techniques to optimize growth to produce healthy, potent viable seeds. Once your seed sprout cacti transplants have grown to 3in-6in, Its time to plant them into mother earth. Your are going to want to dig a 4ft-5ftx4ft-5ft hole in the ground and fill the hole with your soil mixture. 1part manure/compost 1part soil of the earth which you removed from the hole. This ensures that the roots will have plenty of room to grow without any fighting to establish. And the soil will be sure to have plenty of nutrients and nitrogen to produce very dark green, healthy stocks. Use a drip system to water them every evening and a little each morning. Make sure they don't get too much water and not enough of it. You need to find a perfect balance.

Make a cover with screening used to reduce UV to provide optimum partial shade in full sun. They way alot of nurseries do it. Once the cacti reach 3ft-4ft they will begin to flower. The flower begins as a grey fuzzy pod. As long as the cacti recieve ample amount of H2o, the cacti will flower. If you are farming anything for seeds you will need to do some research into raising your own bees in a designated spot near your farm. As long as there are plenty of bees to pollinate you will produce seeds. You can do it by hand with a q-tip but that is for small amounts of flowering cacti and no ample bee supply.

The flowers only last 3 days. If they do not get pollinated the whole flower will fall off. If there was pollination then the flower will fall leaving a seed pod to be left on the cacti until the pod begins to break open. At this point remove the pod and open it to remove the seeds. The seeds are very small and black similar to poppy seeds and they are kept in a white slimy bed within the pod. Just use the tip of a knife to remove them from the bed.

When harvesting your cacti you will always want to cut as close to the base as possible to ensure strong new growth from the roots. The top 1ft of the harvested column should always be planted out of respect for the cacti to ensure its survival and to sow for a future harvest. But do what thou wilt.

The nest step is to despine the harvested cactus. This is done by cutting two tiny 45 degree cuts on underneath the spine so that the cuts meet underneath the spine to remove it. The harvested and despined columns are then washed in cold water.

When using pachanoi var. there is no need to bother removing the spines since they are relatively so small. Also tin snips or sharp shears should be able to cut the larger spines on peruvian/bridgesii var. If the dried skins are used for extraction purposes having spines with the skins is fine except that it may throw off the weight of valuable product by a minute fraction and the pricks can hurt.

What you are going to need to do is cut off all the spines first. Wash the cactus and begin to cut up the cactus into 3in sections. Then begin to cut off the outer dark green layers of the sections.

Lay out a large cardboard or plywood and place all the skins skin side down with the dark green flesh up in full sun for 5-7days. You can use a conventional oven on the lowest setting using baking sheets skinside down. This takes a long while and makes your place reek of cacti!

Shred the dried skins in a blender, then powder them in a coffee grinder. You get like 50g powder to the 1foot of SP var. so 40ftx50gs = 2000g or 4.5lbs. Thats about 20g-40gs alkaloids. pachanoi-peruvian/bridgesii.

For a large cook I would advise cooking out the alkaloids using 1tbsp vitamin c powder or citric acid per 1liter of water. Use the blender shredded skins for this cook. It is alot easier to strain out the pulp in the shredded form. In a large stainless steel cooking pot add your SP powder and vitamin c water until it becomes very soupy.

Simmer the soupy mixture for 20min with frequent stirring. Use the lid to help pour off the cooked water without getting any cactus matter into the solution. Pour into a seperate container and refresh the pot with fresh vitamin c water. Cook powder 3x to extract all water soluble alkaloids.

Filter extract solution and use 1 gallon ziplock baggies to seperate sediment out of solution. Hang baggie up by one corner and allow sediment to sttle overnite. Next day snip a small hole in the bottom corner and gently massage sediment through the hole with your fingers.

Reduce your solution on a low simmer then evaporate the reduced solution on a large glass baking dish in oven at lowest setting to a wet solid. Allow wet solid to dry at room temp. Scrape and consume as is or make into a purified salt form using the a/b tek below.

1/2lb (224gs) of San Pedro var. Cactus powder is added to a clean 2 quart plastic HDPE2 ammonia bottle.

1500ml of tap water is added to the bottle and shaken.

6tbsps of NaOH(lye) is added using a funnel 1tbsp at a time. Cap and shake bottle after each tbsp to distribute NaOH(lye) evenly and to avoid melting the bottle.

500ml d-limonene or xylene solvant is added to bottle using a funnel which will fill the bottle to maximum capacity. Make sure to leave a little air bubble at the top to help with the mixing process. Cap and shake bottle as much as you can the first day and let sit over night.

The strong alkaline cactus solution will shrink a bit over night so you will need to add a little more solvant the next day, shake again and let seperate.

Drill a hole in a spare cap and feed a 3ft long piece of 3/8in clear vinyl tubbing at 8 and 1/4cm long from the bottom of the cap to siphon off the solvant.

Cap and siphon solvant into a pint glass Ball mason jar. Make sure to only get solvant and no cacti solution. Some solvant will be left behind in the solution bottle. 300ml to 400ml of solvant is perfect for salting.

Add 1tbsp NaOH(lye) to the cactus solution using a funnel, cap and shake.

Add 2oz of distilled water to the jar of siphoned solvant and 2 drops of hardware store brand 31.45% muratic acid(HCl) using a tincture dropper and shake for 5min. Seperate layers in a quart ziplock freezer baggie or freeze hcl extract layer solid by putting jar in the freezer.

Hang baggie up by one corner and carefully snip a small hole in the bottom corner to slowly drain the bottom clear to foamy layer into a clean ball mason jar.

Drain the solvant layer back into the solution bottle, cap and shake for 5min then let seperate. At this point the solution will seperate in a few minutes.

Shake and let seperate a few times to maximize extraction yields.

Extract the cactus solution 4x. One right after the other. Do not wait another day. All extractions after the first day of seperation need to be perfomed back to back to ensure the highest purity from cactus fats and oils. After a few days of sitting and seperating, the solvant layer absorbs fatty oils that make the 2oz hcl water layers foamy instead of clear.

All 4 hcl water extraction layers are collected together in a jar of 200ml fresh solvant and shaken repeatedly to wash the hcl extract solution. This will help remove any solvant soluble materials that may have polluted the hcl extract solution layer. The mixture is seperated with freezing.

Make sure to remove the frozen hcl layer to evaporation(evap) dish before it melts or you will be scraping excess crystals off the inner jar.

The hcl extract solution is evaporated on a large glass baking dish, using a fan or 150F oven. Fan evaporation will ensure that you do not damage the product. The oven is great for testing to see if alkaloids will crystal from the material being used or if the extractors are in a hurry.

Pack into '0' gelatin capsules.

Refer to ekstanza's tek for more regarding this method.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lnJ0uvbSK8" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lnJ0uvbSK8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lnJ0uvbSK8" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lnJ0uvbSK8

Gather a handful of MGS which is about 24gs, 600 seeds, or 6mg alkaloids. This is enough for a full spectrum dose. Grind seeds into a powder with a coffee grinder. Add a double volume of distilled water to the volume of seeds, shake and let sit in the fridge for 1hr with shaking every 15min. Strain carefully through fine mesh and toss the seed pulp. Clean the fine mesh and restrain the solution until no sediment remains. Consume Holy Water on an empty stomach eating oranges to neutralize the taste of the potion.

Clean 100HBWRS using your fingernails to remove the fuzzy coating. Grind the cleaned seeds in a coffee grinder and soak powder in double the volume of powder with vodka. Soak in the freezer for 30min with shaking after 15min. Carefully pour off vodka solution through fine mesh leaving the sediments. Refill with double the volume and repeat with freezing for 30min, shaking after 15min and carefully pour off solution through fine mesh leaving the sediment settled in the bottom of the jar.

Filter the 2 solutions together though fine mesh until no sediment remains. Put solution in a ziplock baggie and hang. Allow the sediment to settle and seperate them out by cutting a small hole in the bottom corner. Collect the solution layer only. Evaporate the solution with fan on a large glass baking dish in a cool dark place.

Simply scrape dried residue and reconstitute in 25ml fresh vodka for a 1oz tincture of 1ml per 1mg alkaloids. That is 25 doses. Use 3-6ml droppers for full effects.

http://www.maps.org/psychedelicreview/

Acid-Base Extraction of Mescaline from San Pedro

by Prdy2GO and starlight, HTML by metanoid [ Back to the Chemistry Archive ]

Prdy2GO:

Step 1: Aqueous Extraction

First, you need to prepare a "tea" from your cacti. If using dried cactus, powder it. If using fresh cactus, chop it to small pieces and then puree it in a blender. At this point, it is a good idea to weigh your cactus and record the weight. This will be helpful further on in the process. Put the cactus in your stainless steel pot and cover with just enough water to make a soup. Add some acid to make the pH of the soup fairly acidic. If using citric acid, you want to add about 3 grams per liter of water. Boil the cactus about 20 minutes. If you use sufficiently acidic water, there is no need to boil longer than this. After boiling, strain out the cactus chunks (the marc) and save the liquid. You want to do three acidic water extractions on the cactus. Combine the 3 liquids and toss the marc on your compost pile or dispose of it in some other non-wasteful manner. If the volume of liquid you have is large, you may want to boil it down to a more managable quantity.

Step 2: De-Fatting

Once cooled, the next step is to de-fat the solution. This step will remove the fats and many other non-alkaloidal plant matter. Make sure the solution is acidic (pH 4 is good) before doing this. If the solution is acidic, the alkaloids will be in a salt form which is soluble in water but not in xylene. Pour the solution into a glass jar (or separatory funnel, if available). Add 25-50% of the solution volume in xylene. For example, if you have 200ml of solution, add 50-100ml of xylene. Put the lid on the jar and gently turn the jar over 50 to 100 times. Do not shake the mixture vigorously as this could result in emulsions that will be difficult to separate. (If you do end up with an emulsion layer, which looks like a thin layer of poorly separated bubbles, bathing the jar in hot water can help separate the emulsion. If the emulsion layer is thin enough, you may wish to just discard it rather than taking the time to let it separate.) Once mixed, let the jar sit and separate out into the different layers. When this is done, you will have a top layer of solvent, a middle fatty layer, and a bottom layer containing the acidic aqueous solution (and the alkaloids).

If you are using a separatory funnel, drain out the bottom aqueous layer and throw away the top two layers. Alternatively, use a turkey baster to siphon off the top two layers and discard them. (Make sure you dispose of all solvents safely! Do not flush it down the toilet if you have a septic tank. If pouring it down a sewer-connecting drain, make sure to wash it down with large amounts of water.) You will likely find that the turkey baster only gets off most of the solvent and fat layers. To get the thin layer that the turkey baster can't get, try this trick. Siphon off all of the remaining solvent and fat layers, as well as some of the top of the aqueous layer. Put this liquid into a tall thin glass container (a graduated cylinder or test tube, for example), and let it separate back into layers. Then, use an eye dropper to get off the solvent and fat layers, then add the remaining aqueous solution back to the main jar.

There is one other possibile approach to separating the layers. Because xylene freezes at -47.7 degrees Celsius, a separation can be done in the freezer. Put the container in the freezer and let it sit for a few hours until the water has frozen solid. The xylene can then be poured off and discarded. I do not know if this will work for defatting, as I do not know the freezing point of cactus fats. If the fats freeze at freezer temperatures, it may not be possible to pour them off with the xylene. This freezing technique can certainly be used later on in steps 4 and 5 to separate the xylene and water layers, however.

Repeat the de-fatting process two more times, or until you no longer get a fatty layer after separation. Make sure that you have good ventilation through the whole de-fatting process (or any time you are working with xylene). If you begin to feel light-headed or nauseous, or get a headache, go outside immediately and breathe fresh air until you feel better. Also, make sure there are no open flames or sparks as xylene is quite flammable.

Step 3: Basification

After de-fatting, slowly add sodium hydroxide to the aqueous solution until the pH is up around 10. Rather than adding dry sodium hydroxide, it may be wise to prepare a solution of sodium hydroxide in water, and add this. Be careful when mixing the sodium hydroxide and water, as the mixture will cause an exothermic (heat producing) reaction. Do not prepare the mixture in heat-sensitive containers. When working with sodium hydroxide, remember that it is a highly caustic material and can burn you badly. Avoid contact, especially with the yes, and if any gets on you wash the spot immediately with plenty of water. It is highly recommended that you wear protective gloves and goggles when working with sodium hydroxide or other hazardous chemicals.

Be aware that once you do this step, you need to continue the extraction at least up through the xylene extraction because leaving the alkaloids in a strongly basic solution will cause them to start breaking down after several hours. Making the solution basic turns the alkaloids into their free base forms, which are soluble in xylene.

Step 4: Extraction of Free Bases

Once the solution is basic, xylene using the same ratio as used during the de-fatting process. Again, mix the solution thoroughly but gently to avoid emulsions. Let the solution sit, and it will separate out into two layers. On the bottom will be a basic aqueous solution, and on the top will be a xylene layer which now contains the alkaloids. Using either a separatory funnel or a siphoning process, collect the xylene layer and set it aside. Since there will still be significant alkaloids in the aqueous layer, repeat this process two more times. Combine all the xylene and discard the remaining aqueous solution.

If you are using a separatory funnel, gas may be formed when adding xylene to the basic solution. To prevent pressure from building up and potentially leading to an explosion, vent the separatory funnel occasionally. If you are using a jar, you should remove the lid.

Step 5: Salt Formation and Extraction

The next step is to add acidic water to the xylene. This will cause the alkaloids to convert to their salt forms, which are soluble in water but not xylene. If using hydrochloric acid from the hardware store, it will already be diluted and may be usable as is. Read the label to find the concentration. One source says, "HCl from the hardware store is generally between 24%-36% HCl. This is far from dilute. Indeed, upon opening the container, a visible plume of white vapor can be seen creeping out of the bottle. First the lungs start to burn, then any skin which is exposed to the air starts to sting... This should be diluted, especially if it is going to be worked with without a fume hood. 20 drops acid per 500ml of water may even be sufficient."

If using vinegar (acetic acid), it comes quite diluted (around 5%) and should be used as is. It would probably be best to use plain white vinegar. I do not know what else is in vinegar other than water and acetic acid, but it is likely other chemicals remain from the original wine, and this may affect your final product. There should not be any harmful products from using vinegar, since it is a food-safe product, but you may not get nice crystals after evaporation.

If using citric acid (which is the recommended choice), prepare a solution of citric acid powder with a small amount of water. I recommend using citric acid because unlike hydrochloric acid, it is food-safe and safe to handle, and unlike either hydrochloric acid or vinegar, it is available in pure form. I have been told that using hydrochloric or acetic acid has the advantage that both are volatile and that excess will evaporate off, unlike citric acid. However, since neither are easily available in pure form, it is still probably better to use citric acid. Beware that if you do use hydrochloric acid and let it evaporate, the fumes can be hazardous and the evaporation should not be done where you might breathe in the vapors.

For this step, it is useful to have some idea how much alkaloid should be in your cactus extract. If you weighed your cactus before extraction.

Trichocereus pachanoi has been analyzed with mescaline contents of 0.025-0.12% fresh weight (0.331-2.0% dry weight). Mescaline is usually around 50% or more of total alkaloid content. You will want to add an equimolar quantity of acid to the solution.

If you can't or don't want to estimate the alkaloid content, Trout gives the following work-around: add very small quantities of acidic water to the xylene, let separate, and then collect the water layer. Check the pH of the water, and it should be neutral. Repeat this with small batches of acidic solution until the water layers come out acidic. Trout points out that "Something to keep in mind is that neutralization won't always be immediate. pH should be checked after a few minutes to see how it is, adjusted if needed and rechecked a few minutes later."

If you are using citric acid and you are not worried about having citric acid powder in the final product, you can just add enough acidic water to make the solution slightly acidic, and repeat this once or twice, then combine the extracted water layers. As citric acid is both food-safe and a solid powder, this is a sloppy but safe approach. Shulgin suggests that this may be a better approach than stopping when the water layers stop coming out neutral: "My gut feeling is that there may be quite a bit of alkaloid still in the xylene, and maybe a couple of extracts with more aqueous acid would be useful. True, it may load the product down with excess citric acid, but the increased yield might be worth it."

However you approach it, after the acidification and water extraction step, discard the xylene. Again, make sure to dispose of it in a safe manner.

Theoretically, this step could be skipped entirely, and you could just let the xylene evaporate. This would leave behind mescaline (and the other alkaloids) in free bas form, which is an oil. This is not recommended however, as mescaline oil is highly caustic and it would burn your skin to touch it. Since its an oil, it would also not be possible to put into capsules. Perhaps you could put the oil into some acidic fruit juice and safely drink it, but it is still preferable to go through this step to produce a salt form. Perhaps it may even be smokable, though I know of no reports of anyone trying to smoke (or vaporize, rather) free base cactus alkaloids. The boiling point for mescaline free base is around 180 degrees Celsius. One final concern is that free base mescaline oil may not have the shelf life of a salt.

Step 6: Evaporation

Finally, pour the water into a large pyrex baking pan. Set it in a protected location to evaporate. Let it evaporate slowly at room temperature rather than using heat, as this will give you a better chance of producing nice crystals. After the water has fully evaporated, scrape up the crystals (or whatever solid mass you end up with) and put them in capsules or a vial for storage.

Keep in mind that when measuring doses, there are a few things to consider. First, your extract will contain all the alkaloids from the cactus, not just the mescaline. Second, depending on what acid you used in step 5, you will have different salts of the alkaloids. For example, if you used citric acid, you will have mescaline citrate (as well as citrate salts of the other alkaloids). If you used vinegar, you will have mescaline acetate. If you used muriatic acid you will have mescaline hydrochloride. The doses of each will be slightly different, due to the different molecular weights of the different acids. Because of these factors, you will need to figure out the potency of your material before you can weigh doses accurately.

Conclusion

Do make sure that you follow all safety instructions religiously. Failure to excersize caution can easily lead to harm and even death. To stress this point even further, I will close with some comments from Trout:

"It seems like it does not matter how many times you tell some people things, lots of them decide what THEY think is really important and items like solvent exposure and not using plastics or solvents stored in plastics (or even the use of slow and careful heating) get forgotten whenever it is not convenient to follow the instructions.

Its very distressing how careless some people are. Worse, people like this often expose not just themselves but family, children and pets with no thought or concern.

You would not believe some of the letters I have gotten. Some of them I almost can't shred fast enough.

I'm sadly coming to believe that a simple citrate tea (lime not lemon) or else dried outer flesh consumed as powder are the only safe approaches the general public is capable of handling responsibly."

References


[1]Fletch. Private e-mail. December 7, 2001.
[2]Shulgin, Alexander. Private e-mail. November 24, 2001.
[3]Trout, K. "Sacred Cacti." Second edition, 1999: Chapters 4, 6 and 10.
[4]Trout, K. Private e-mail. December 1, 2001.

Starlight:

crystallization using sulfuric acid

Just replace steps 5 and 6 above with the step below:
This method relies on the low solubility of mescaline sulfate in very cold water.

(this is not tested from personal experience, but sourced from Trout: Sacred Cacti and Selected Succulents, 1997)

Step 5: Salt Formation and Crystallization

Once you have separated the organic solvent, dark (or in the case of recrystallization at least yellow) with alkaloid and impurities from the basic solution, extract it with dilute sulfuric acid. Use only as much as is required to neutralize the alkaloid bases. A little excess at this point is not desirable, but not of concern. Separate the small volume of aqueous solution now containing the mescaline sulfate and other alkaloid sulfates.

It will need gentle heat to reduce it somewhat, but do not let it become thick, or overheat. Take this solution while warm and insulate it well (a small styrofoam shipping box will work as will being carefully wrapped in towels). Stick the whole thing in your refrigerator until quite cold (near 0C) but do not freeze.

The object is to retard the rate of cooling to as slow as possible. This will cause the formation of large, beautiful crystals. If you chill rapidly a crystalline mush of many tiny crystals will form, trapping impurities.

Take the mother liquor containing the crystals and pour through a buchner funnel. Allow the air to keep sucking through the crystals. Briefly squirt a bit of ice cold water through the crystals to rinse them of any remaining solution. Turn off the air flow briefly and immediately dump out the mother liquor and ice water rinsing and save.

Rapidly resume air flowing through the Buchner. Then quickly rinse the crystals with a little acetone to remove the remaining water. Let the air keep flowing to pull off as much liquid as possible. (If one has access to a cold room all of this will be more efficient).

Take the filter and immediately dry in a warm oven (120-120F) with the door open. Package as soon as dry and keep away from light, heat, moisture, air.
Second and third crops of crystals may be obtained by reducing the mother liquor further (do not allow to become thick) and again chilled. By the third or fourth time other alkaloids will begin to crystallize. These may be grey in colour and have a plate-like structure. They should be easily distinguishable from the beautiful yellow or white needles and prisms of mescaline sulfate.

The sulfate salt can be converted to the hydrochloride salt by acid base and evaporation if so required.

Extracting Pure Mescaline From Peyote or San Pedro Cactus From the Book: PEYOTE & Other Psychoactive Cacti by Adam Gottlieb 1977 Kistone Press Typed and Uploaded by Elric of Imrryr For more interesting and educational files call: Lunatic Labs UnLimited BBS 213-655-0691 1200/2400 ----------------------------------------------------------------

The isolation of mescaline from cacti containing this alkaloid is not difficult to perform and is perhaps one of the most rewarding alchemical processes that one can attempt. The chemicals required for this process are readily avilable and their purchase arouses no suspicion or interest on the part of government agencies [This may no longer be true, use reasonable caution when purcahsing any chemicals - EoI]. The equipment employed is not expensive or particularly complicated or can be constructed very easily from ordinary household items. The entire process can be carried out in any kitchen in a matter of hours by following the instruction below and in the final stages one can verify the success of the procedure by actually watching the crystals of mescaline precipitate in the solution.
One kilo (2.2 lbs.) of dried peyote buttons may yield between 10 and 60 grams of pure white needle crystals of mescaline depending upon the potency of the plants used. On the average the yield is about 20 grams. The usual underground price for a kilo of dried peyote ranges between $125 and $250 (25› to 50› per button). From Indians in the southwestern USA the price is closer to $50 (10› per button). The street price for a gram of pure mescaline is $20 to $30 - if one is lucky enought to find it. One can obtain from a kilo of peyote $200 to $1200 worth of mescaline. If San Pedro is employed one may anticipate a yield of 3 to 12 grams of mescaline per kilo of dried cactus. One can legally purchase a kilo of dried San Pedro for $5 to $10 and from it extract $60 to $250 worth of mescaline. [Note from Elric: The above prices are in 1977 dollars. Neither peyote or mescaline are commonly available these days, but San Pedro cactus is still legally avialble in most cactus stores.]

PROCESS [NOTE!! In NO CASE should any aluminium cookware, containers, or utensiles be used at any point in the process. Stainless Steel is the best bet.] Grind a kilo of the cactus, place this in a large pressure cooker, cover with distilled water and boil for 30 minutes. Strain the liquids and save them. Return the pulp to the pot add more water and boil again for 30 minutes. Strain the liquids and combine with the first strainings. Repeat this process about five times or until the pulp no longer has a bitter taste. Discard the pulp and reduce the volume of the combined strainings by boiling in an open pot. Do not use aluminum ware.
When the liquids have been concentrated to the thickness of cream (about 1 quart) stop the boiling and stir in 400 g of sodium hydroxide [Carefully and slowly, it will react with the liquid]. This makes the mescaline more soluble in benezene and less soluble in water. If a large separatory funnel is avilable pour the liquids into it and add to this 1600 ml of benezene [Carefully again]. Shake the funnel well for 5 minutes and let stand for 2 hours. If a separatory funnel is not available the process can be carried out in a one gallon jug with a siphon attached. After standing for 2 hours the water layer will settle to the bottom and the benzene layer will float to the top. Between the two layers will be a thin emulsion layer of mixed water and benzene. Drain off the water and emulsion layers if you are using a separatory funnel or siphon off the benzene layer if you are using the makeshift jug-siphon aooaratus. Be certain that neither the water or emulsion layers get into the benezene layer when separating. If any of these layers do get into the benzene during the separation, pour everything back into the separator, let stand and repeat the separation more carefully. It is better to leave some benzene layer in the water and emulsion than to get the water or emulsion in the benzene. Nothing will be wasted. All of the benzene which contains the mescaline will eventually be salavaged.
Sometimes the layers will fail to separate properly. If this is the case immerse the funnel or jug in a deep pot of hot water for two hours. This will break up the emulsion and bring about the separation. Prepare a solution of 2 parts sulfuric acid and 1 part water. (Never add water to the acid or it will splatter; add the acid a little at a time to the water by pouring it down the inside of the graduate or measuring cup containing the water.) Add 25 drops of the acid solution one drop at a time to the benzene extracts. Stopper the jug and shake well for 1 minute. Thenlet it stand for 5minutes. White streaks of mescaline sulfates should begin to appear in the benzene. If these do not appear, shake the jug more vigorously for two or three minutes and let it settle for another 5 minutes. I have found that when extracting mescaline from San Pedro it is sometimes necessary to shake the mixture more thoroughly and for a longer time to get the mescaline streaks to form. This is probably because of the lower mescaline content in the plant. This would also apply to any peyote that does not have a high mescaline content. After the streaks appear add 25 more drops of the acid solution in the same manner, shake as before and let settle for 10 minutes. More streaks will appear. Add 15 drops of acid, shake and wait about 15 minutes for more streaks to form. Add 10 drops, shake and wait about 30 minutes. Test the solution with wide range pH paper. It should show that the solution is between pH 7.5 and 8. Allow the mescaline sulfate crystals to completely precipitate.
Siphon off as much of the benzene as possible without disturbing the crystals on the bottom of the jug. The next steps are to salvage any mescaline still in the water and emulsion layer. Combine the benxene siphonings with the water/emulsion layer, shake these well together for 5 minutes and let settle for 2 hours as before. Carefully remove the benzene layer, treat it again with acid, precipitate the crystals and siphoned benzene with the watery layer and repeat this again and again until no more crystals precipitate. Siphon off as much benzene as possible without drawing crystals through the siphon.
The next step involves removing the remaining benzene from the crystals. There are two methods to choose from. The first is the quickest, but requires ether, which is dangerious and often difficult to procure. Shake up the crystals with the remianing benzene and pour it into a funnel with filter paper. After the benzene has passed through the filter rinse the jug with 100 ml of ether to salvage any crystals in the jug and pour the ether over the crystals in the fitler. After the ether has passed through the filter repeat the rinsing with another 100 ml ether. Then let the crystals dry. If ether is not available or if you do not wish to use such a highly combustible substance, the precipate and residual benzene can be poured into a beaker. The jug should be rinsed several times with a little benzene and added to the beaker so that no crystals are left behind. The beaker is then placed in a heat bath until all of the benzene has been evaporated.
The next step is to purify the mescaline sulfate crystals. After either of these methods has been carried out dissolve the dry crystals in 200 ml of near-boiling distilled water. Add a pinch of activated charcoal (Norite) and filter while still hot through #2 filter paper. The hot water which contains the mescaline will pass through the filter. The Norite absorbs impurities from the mescaline. After the liquids have passed through the filter pour a little more hot water over the filter to rinse through any remaining mescaline which may have impregnated the filter paper.
Add 10% ammonia solution a few drops at a time to the hot filtrates until the solution registers between pH 6.5 and 7. Place a boiling stone in the solution and reduce its volume to 75 ml by boiling. Remove the boiling stone and allow the solution to cool to room temperature. Place the solution in a freezer or in a refrigerator turned up to the coldest possible temperature and the solution to cool almost to freezing. Tiny white needle like crystals will form around the bottom and sides of the beaker. Break up the crystals with a glass stiring rod while the solution is still ice cold and pour through a filter. Mescaline sulfate is insoluble in near freezing water and will not pass through the filter. Rinse the beaker with fresh ice water and pour this over the filter. The crystals will now be pure white and can be dried under a heat lamp or in an oven at 250� F. More mescaline can be salvaged from the water that has passed through the filter by boiling these liquids down to about 20 ml. adding Norite while hot, filtering through #2 paper as before, chilling the filtrate to near freezing once more, filtering while cold, rinsing with ice water and drying the crystals. This repetition should obtain at leat 2 more grams of mescaline sulfate. If large volume mescaline extraction is being conducted it would be worthwhile to repeat this salvaging procedure several more times.