a couple days ago, I added 10ml of basic water (78g/l sodium bicarbonate solution pH 12.3) to 25grams of finely ground tobacco and left it in an enclosed container.
Today, on opening the container the entire mass was barely moist with a strong earthy smell of ammonia, and the tobacco has gone from a golden brown to a very dark colour, almost like soil.
I'm confident that there was more than enough -OH to fully protonate all the alkaloids in the tobacco, while maintaining an absolute minimum water volume.
Next step, is to see just how much I can extract from this.
Today, on opening the container the entire mass was barely moist with a strong earthy smell of ammonia, and the tobacco has gone from a golden brown to a very dark colour, almost like soil.
I'm confident that there was more than enough -OH to fully protonate all the alkaloids in the tobacco, while maintaining an absolute minimum water volume.
Next step, is to see just how much I can extract from this.
