The 'failed' extraction was 300g of dried and powdered material that was added to highly basified water, extracted x3 with hot naphtha, solvent combined and extracted x3 with phos. acid solution at ph 3, acidic solution basified and extracted again. Solvent evapped to leave little more than the aforementioned 'spicey smell'. Upped ph and tried again, nothing; evapped primary solvent leaving nothing more than a yellow oil. NEVER THROW ANYTHING AWAY; project was abandoned for a year. Last week I aquired some DCM, basic plant sludge was filtered- with difficulty- and extracted. On evap. I was left with a small puddle of yellow oil which smells very nice and is defineately active. Pretty sure my plants contain 5 meo as predominant alkaloid, this stuff is active at just a smidgeon dose and closely relates to microdoses of synthed material. Whether the alkaloid exists naturally in the plant as the N-oxide or my processing formed this I have yet to determine.
To confirm, I put 700g of very wet material through a wheatgrass juicer, defatted x7, basified and extracted with DCM. Left me with a very small quantity of yellow spicey oil that was again active at very small amounts. Dry pulp has been placed in phos. acid solution for when I get the time to extract that; I don't know whether the actives are 'mobile' within the plant juice or fixed within the tissue. Dries awfully light though, so 700g dry equivelency is prob. closer to 20g dry or less. My interest is perked- a little- on this plant. Wrong forum maybe but I didn't think these trivial observations deserved a new thread