Extraction of Peyote
Peyote is a small brown cactus, which in natural growth barely protrudes above
the ground. On the top of this cactus are small spineless buttons, which
resemble mushrooms. It is within these parts that the mescal is found, and
the buttons are usually the only parts eaten, although people do eat the root
and all. When eaten whole, Peyote will taste like vomit and will make you go
into spasms that will feel like you are barfing up everything inside you. The
following 2 methods will extract the smell and the bad taste.
Method 1
--------
1) Obtain 50 g. of dried ground peyote and put in a 500 ml. Erlenmeyer
flask.
2) Add 250 cc. of wood alcohol, cover the flask tightly, and let cactus
powder soak it up for one day, with occasional stirring.
3) Pour off the wood-alcohol solution into a 500 ml. beaker, filter
properly, and place in a well-ventilated place to evaporate. { Wood-
alcohol is very flammable so keep away from fire }
4) Again soak the plant powder in the flask for 2 hours, but in 100 cc. of
1-normal hydrochloric acid.
5) Filter, discard the mush, and combine the filtered HCL solution with the
residue from the evaporated wood alcohol solution. Filter again.
6) To the solution add enough 2-Normal potassium hydroxide until the
solution is neutral { Turns "PH" paper beige }.
7) Add 100 cc. of chloroform, stir, and let the mixture stand until it
separates into 2 layers.
8) Separate the 2 layers, using a separatory funnel and discard the water
{ top } layer.
10) Add 40 cc. of water to the chloroform, shake, and separate the layers
again. Discard top layer.
11) Filter the chloroform, evaporate, and dissolve the gummy residue in 20
cc. of water. Refilter it. Makes about 1 dose.
Method 2
--------
1) Take fresh peyote buttons, wash, remove skins, and remove all tufts and
foreign particles.
2) Take the peyote meat and grind it in a meat grinder or coffee grinder.
3) Allow ground peyote meat to dry, then grind again as before.
4) Boil peyote meat for 5 hours, keeping plenty of water in the pot to
prevent burning.
5) Take skin and bark of peyote and break it down by beating on a cutting
board. When it is broken down, boil for 5 hours in a separate pot.
6) Strain liquids from both pots and combine. Throw away the peyote mush.
7) Boil this solution until it becomes dark. Do not allow it to become too
thick. Label it solution "A".
8) Now cool solution "A".
10) Take the cool solution "A" and fill half a separatory funnel.
11) Add about an equal volume of ethyl ether, and shake for 2 minutes.
12) Now allow the liquids to settle and form layers. Draw off the water
solution { bottom layer } by turning the stop cork. Do not draw off the
ether solution.
13) Now process all of solution "A" in this manner. Label all drawn-off
solution "B". Put the leftover ether solution into a container and throw
away.
14) Boil down solution "B" to cut down volume, but do not allow it to become
too thick.
15) Add a Phenophtalein indicator to solution "B," until the solution turns
red..
16) Mix in small amounts of a diluted sulfuric acid solution, until the red
color disappeard. Do not add any more acid than required.
17) Add one teaspoon of baking powder { to neutralize the acid } for each
gallon of solution. Boil again to reduce volume.
18) Place solution "B" in the refrigerator for several hours, but do not
freeze it.
20) While it is still cold, pour off as much of the liquid as possible,
leaving the crystal in the container. Rinse the crystals with near-
freezing water.
21) Add rinse water with water poured off crystals. Boil this solution to
reduce volume and then coo9 in refrigerator. Repeat procedure for
formation of the crystals. These crystals are nearly pure mescaline
sulphate. Allow crystals to dry and then capsule.
22) This usually makes between 30-80mg per button.