Amanita Research Forum

So since starting my work with Amanita Muscaria Pantherina and Regalis I have been most focused on tinctures. I have focused heavily on getting them as filtered and particulate free as possible. Is this needed? No I know that so please not a bunch of stuff saying I don't need to just drink it.

So far I typically go through a nut milk bag and squeeze out as much juice as I can without squishing out a bunch of nasty fatty looking substance. Then I will typically do a few gravity filtrations through cotton.

This tends to provide me a pretty damn well filtered tincture, but I always wonder how I could do better so I had a couple thoughts and I wanted some input:

Apart from better filter papper I was thinking I could get and use Celite with my filtration setup at the end which should pick up more particles

I was wondering if activated charcoal would ruin it some how or if that could help even further (I doubt it idk why but I know they use that to get actives out of someone in the hospital so it makes me think this would somehow not work out in my favor, but I'd love to hear from someone smarter than me)

Final idea I had that is the most out there and over the top, but still could be done in a home lab with relatively inexpensive equipment. What if we put the solution in a centrifuge (granted it would take many small batches to do this to a large batch with a small home machine but still). What would happen then? Would we be able to get all the particles out like ALL of them? What would we be left with? Would evap lead to a standard resin extract or perhaps would something else emerge?

Idk this is just where my head is at atm

Filtering will make it prettier, but not more potent.

If you want it clearer, use progressively finer filter paper. You could start with a regular coffee filter.

Never use activated charcoal or Celite or any other adsorbant material. They will pull out some or all of the good stuff.

The standard way of making a highly concentrated powder extract is to first make a liquid extract. Then evaporate that in a dehydrator or oven and mix the resulting residue with a bit of potato or corn starch to add a bit of volume.

I know it won't make it more potent. And I know all filtration methods will cause some loss in actives I am already working with stuff way more precise than a coffee filter. I use lab grade filter papers as will as very fine fritted glass filters, but I'm a perfectionist I always want to do better, get a cleaner prettier final product. I am perfectly aware of various different methods of making powder/resin extracts and when I work on those I plan to use at the very least dehydrator and a vacuum chamber to as close to fully as possible, pull any water/solvent out if the product, but for now I'm working on tinctures mainly and I want them as perfectly crystal clear as I can get em in my limited capacity

tgt1002 wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 06, 2020 10:47 pm

I know it won't make it more potent. And I know all filtration methods will cause some loss in actives I am already working with stuff way more precise than a coffee filter. I use lab grade filter papers as will as very fine fritted glass filters, but I'm a perfectionist I always want to do better, get a cleaner prettier final product. I am perfectly aware of various different methods of making powder/resin extracts and when I work on those I plan to use at the very least dehydrator and a vacuum chamber to as close to fully as possible, pull any water/solvent out if the product, but for now I'm working on tinctures mainly and I want them as perfectly crystal clear as I can get em in my limited capacity

I see. You only mentioned a nut milk bag and cotton, so I assumed you were not using filter papers. How fine filters have you tried?

This is my latest batch and is really clear.

This was boiled in water and a tiny bit of vinegar for a long while. Then filtered through a nut milk bag first to grab big bits. It was also filtered through cotton made filters a few times. First it was done with vacuum and after via gravity. It was then reduced to desired concetration and then cooled down and enough grain alcohol 95% ABV to bring the tincture up to 15% ABV to help shelf life. It was added slowly while stirring. Then vacuum filtration with a grade 4 filter paper was used them again with a grade 6 before bottling. The Muscaria came from Lithuania and about 4 oz was used.

Edit: attachment didn't upload I'll upload elsewhere and add a link

tgt1002 wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 07, 2020 11:48 pm

This is my latest batch and is really clear.

This was boiled in water and a tiny bit of vinegar for a long while. Then filtered through a nut milk bag first to grab big bits. It was also filtered through cotton made filters a few times. First it was done with vacuum and after via gravity. It was then reduced to desired concetration and then cooled down and enough grain alcohol 95% ABV to bring the tincture up to 15% ABV to help shelf life. It was added slowly while stirring. Then vacuum filtration with a grade 4 filter paper was used them again with a grade 6 before bottling. The Muscaria came from Lithuania and about 4 oz was used.

I guess the question is at what point the good stuff would be filtered out. Grade 4 is very fine already, I probably wouldn't go beyond that myself.

Why would you add the alcohol before filtering by the way?

Actives are very water soluble. No filter would be able to remove the actives that are dissolved.