SWIM is doing a DMT extraction using 28g Mimosa Hostillis. So far, SWIM has it in a HCl solution with a pH of about 1.5. SWIM is about to filter it and defat. The problem is basifying it- SWIM doesn't have lye and apparently the local hardware store is a Nazi when it comes to selling NaOH or KOH, or any strong base. Besides that, everything seems straightforward. Is there anything SWIM can use to replace the lye?

yes go to Lowe's and buy crystal drain opener its 100% NaOH

you need lye anything weaker wont get all the alkaloid the strong base breaks up the plant cells.

Soap Manufacturers sell LYE but they have been told (in most cases) to not sell single items of LYE and to watch for combinations that could indicate MA production - I think it is just a code of conduct at present...

Gigster - What about washing soda?

*any* alkaline matter. Personally, I like baking soda because it's so damned gentle, but the release of carbon dioxide probably wouldn't work well with, well, strong HCl... other people like ammonia (err, skip the perfumes), because the excess just evaporates so well. Of course, you wouldn't get evaporation from strong HCl, you'd get ammonium chloride... but you should also get precipitate, and have no need to blaspheme lab procedure by, say, evaporating or any such...

...carbamine, lithium hydroxide, calcium carbonate - damn near any strong alkalai will work.

washing soda or calcium carbonate is 11.5ph

trisodium phosphate is 11.9ph and lye is 14ph

all will work but for plants the higher ph is better.Lye is easy to make with a electric cell.Made from a clay flower pot,lead 12v battery charger.

I found some draino laying around the house that has NaOH, NaClO, and Na2SiO3. I assume that this will release Cl2, though, which isn't something that I especially want. I'm correct in that, right?

So using sodium bicarbonate is a possibility? Granted, I'd have to use a lot in comparison to everything else, but it doesn't have to ionize entirely in water, right?

You could possibly use KOH, but I'm not an expert on the matter.

I truly doubt that Sodium Bicarbonate would be strong enough for an A/B extraction.

[This message has been edited by RedWasp (edited 03-28-2007).]

Yeah, it's worked pretty well for me in the past. The buffer doesn't really matter all that much, sodium will *still* outcompete as a base. If you were using a slightly stronger acid that was still weaker than HCl, the sodium would get the chlorine and the alkalai would get the weaker acid - used alot to liberate acids, in fact, though the other way 'round - and as far as I know, carbonate salts aren't particularly soluable unless they're with a reactive metal. Hell, by all the bubbling from an allegedly-neutral alkaloidal solution, I don't think the base even bothers to form the carbonate.

...type "make crack" into google to read about other people's experiences.

I'd be far more worried about the oxygen.

The underlined compound, NaOCl, is known as sodium hypochlorite. It's the active ingredient in most bleaches. It degrades readily to give NaCl - table salt - and O-.

Reactive oxygen species tend to rape the shit out of organic compounds, which is why it works so well as bleach. And, apparently, at annihlating organic masses which clog one's drains.

I'd reccomend keeping brutally reactive oxygen species out of the mix unless/until you have a specific use for 'em, m'self.

shit before you use sodium bicarb at least heat it up and make sodium carbonate. google the temp and time swim used a visionware pot elec stove on high the s. bicarb would act like water when it stopped acting like water its done.