IPA - A/B Cactus Extraction Experiment

A friend got tired of dealing with gallon jars of lye/cactus sludge, emulsions, large amounts of toxic solvents to dispose of, etc. He tried a 91% IPA extract first, then an A/B extraction on the IPA solution. It added an extra step (IPA extraction) but it was mostly waiting time and he was in no hurry. His first trial was with only 50 g P. torch powder. He let the IPA extraction evaporate down to a 100 ml, the followed a standard tek using/adding the following:

200 ml 1.25 M KOH
100 ml toluene X 2 (ran 2nd 100 ml while 1st salting froze)
25 ml acid water wash ( 1ml 31.5% HCL/500 ml distilled water)

He was able to do the extraction in a 500 ml glass Wheaton bottle
and everything was a lot easier.

After the acetone wash (just used lab filter, not cotton ball and redisolving in water) he had 348 mg of an almost pure white, very bitter tasting powder. He said the bio-assay went very well and he only had 200 ml of toluene to dispose of by evaporation ( we drink ground water here) and about 300 ml of spent extract to flush down the toilet.

 

so acetone is a good recrystallizing solvent, eh... I figured Et2O would work well too.

 

No I did not recrystallize. I just washed my dried extract with acetone and filtered it using a lab filter. It looked so clean I did not see any reason to recrystallize.

 

i c.

i've tried a few solvents...hexane, acetone, ether... but the one that seems to work nicely to dilute a saturated oily yield is hot everclear; let evaporate under a fan, easy recrystallization.

 

Forgot to add picture. My friend said this was from a scalled up extraction on 120g PT powder.

 

looks like sulfate plates.