Just curious, but why did you need to place it in an oven for 20h? Ideally the acid base extraction should leave your acid relatively pure, did you then further purify by recrystallization of column chromatography? If so, I think it would be possible to remove residual solvent under reduce pressure for a few hours (a rotovap or high vacuum pump). Perhaps prolonged heating led to decomposition of the compound?
From the orgo lab I TA'd a few times, if I recall correctly most of the common organic acids (based off benzoic acid) had melting points around or above 100 C, so I don't imagine sublimation would be a problem. Each acid is going to be different, though.