warning warning warning warning warning warning warning warning !!!
about the ethyl alcohol needed for the extraction :
Much better use drinkable alcohol (over 50% alcohol , at least, such as white rhum...)
In andorra, I also found some drinkable 90% alcohol for peparing fruits distillations.
But I also did use non drinkable alcohol, and this is where it can be tricky :
- Medicinal 70% or 90% alcohol (the NON COLOURED alcohol you use when you have a cut) used to be perfect for extraction purpose:
it is very toxic if you drink it because they add toxic methanol to it so people cannot drink it, but it's good for LSA extraction as the final step of the reciepe is to evaporate the alcohol to get "LSA gum" (methanol will also easly evaporate and you will end up with no methanol left in the finished product)
- BUT, here at least (in france), they don't sell anymore the non-couloured medicinal alcohol they used to sell: now they sell a couloured one (yellowish) wich contain toxic substances (including camphor) that won't ever evaporate !
You cannot use this alcohol for extraction purposes.
- You cannot use the "cleaning alcohol" or "burning alcohol" you buy from supermarkets (I mean the ones for building fires or cleaning things).
These are couloured (slightly yellowish) and when evaporated they leave you with a great quantity of toxic (and possibly carcinogen) residue that will never evaporate. Never use this one !!!
SO HERE IS THE RULE:
as long as you use drinkable alcohol (rhum, vodka...) you're safe BUT
as soon as you use non drinkable alcohol for an extraction, you must respect two rules:
1) make sure it's non-coloured alcohol (not even slightly couloured !)
2) make sure it leaves no residue when evaporated : to test for this, just pour 500mL in a large transparent (non couloured) glass plate, let it evaporate at room temperature (don't heat) and see if there is no residue left in the plate
To do this: place the plate over a white surface to see if there is no black residue, place it over a black surface to see if there is no white residue, and then look through the plate (handling it in the air) to see if there is no oily residue.
One last thing: in an extraction process using solvants, after evaporation has ended, the finished product must not smell anything like a solvant odour (this would mean it's not completely evaporated yet, and you have to wait some more time until there is no odour left)