SWIM tried to filter the liquid with lab filters, but was not possible; the brown shit simply would not go away. Even a small drop and the pH papers were fucked.
Been there, done that. Once some of the brown gunk has boiled over into the receiving vessel, there is no way to seperate it from the ephedrine/water solution. Only way is to start over and allow for larger safety margins this time.
Edit: Just to clarify- I was talking about stuff which has accidentially boiled over (Ephedra plant matter/ NaOH solution).
The brownish stuff which comes over even with a correctly done steam distill can be removed with a simple actone wash of the ephedrine salts recovered after acidifying and evapping off the destillate. A dual solvent recrystallisation from water/acetone is even better, it will yield sparkling white crystals.
Would it be possible to make a dH2O solution with NaOH ph 14 first, and then afterwards put the ephedra powder in? Or will the burn up all the ephedrine?
Yeah it will prob run the risk of frying it.
Really dude this is quite easy. Just powder plant, mix with water. THEN add NaOH (either powder or conc. solution) slowly (so it doesn't fry) until it smells really bad and is a black motor-oil like consistency. Then put it in an efficient controlable steam distillation setup. Done.
Well, putting the ephedra powder into NaOH solution doesn't hurt it. SWIM does it all the time. On the other hand, he always avoided adding powdered NaOH to the water/Ephedra sludge, felt like _that_ would burn the ephedrine.
But since Biotechdude has tried that, both ways seem to be fine.
Post 488247 (https://www.thevespiary.org/talk/index.php?topic=7834.msg48824700#msg48824700)
(dwarfer: "The DwarJet: a superheated steam extractor", Stimulants)