MimiEMU
420 Member
Greetings Everyone,
Over the course of the past 6 months, I've been studing solvents for use in making cannabis oil in the home. Given the limited chemistry skills at home, the solvents reviewed are restricted to those found in the home - Ethanol, Isopropyl, Acetone and Ethyl Acetate. Ethyl Acetate is an oddball but a process was introduced in 2018 very similar to Ethanol extraction. Ethyl Acetate is found in wine and is used for making decaf coffee. It's an ester of Ethanol and Acetic Acid - vinegar. A crucial point is that these four solvents are FDA Class 3 solvents known for their low toxicity. Methanol is an FDA Class 2 solvent that will make you go blind. Benzene is an FDA Class 1 solvent that is know to be cancerous. It is imperative to only use class 3 solvents at home. There are other Class 3 solvents, but these four are the easiest for home users to purge from their final oil.
So looking at those 4 solvents, this study looks at how the body metabolizes these solvents. It's amazing to me the social discourse has never included this in the discussion. Spoiler Alert! Turns out Ethanol is the most damaging at the molecular level compared to Isopropyl & Acetone. Just saying this causes the pitchforks to be raised and the torches lit, but it is a well known fact that Ethanol leads to long term adverse health effects like Cirrohsis of the liver, cancer, birth defects, and more. It's well worth learning how your body process these chemicals down at the cellular level. Consumers only understand what happens when you drink these solvents. But lets get real. There is never a time you will encounter drinking quantities of solvents by ingesting upwards of a gram of cannabis oil.
This study then looks at the government regulations on residual solvents. This is where the consumer world gets lost AF. In the US, the Food and Drug Administration published a value called 'Permitted Daily Exposure' (PDE) for every solvent. Permitted Daily Exposure values are calculated on various factors as a guideline. Think of its as a line drawn in the sand dividing harmless quantities below the line, and having the potential for adverse effects over the line. Here in the US, all cannabis regulations at the state level have adopted the FDA's PDE numbers as the maximum allowable residual solvents in the final product. So understanding what this means is crucial to understanding if the solvents can harm you.
So forget everything you know about solvents based on Google searches. Yes, we know you cannot drink these solvents, but that has never happened to date by ingesting a gram of cannabis oil. The FDA's PDE caps the potential of harm by keeping these solvent levels far below harmful levels. Slide #8 will open your eyes.
Get ready to challenge all your assumptions.
Over the course of the past 6 months, I've been studing solvents for use in making cannabis oil in the home. Given the limited chemistry skills at home, the solvents reviewed are restricted to those found in the home - Ethanol, Isopropyl, Acetone and Ethyl Acetate. Ethyl Acetate is an oddball but a process was introduced in 2018 very similar to Ethanol extraction. Ethyl Acetate is found in wine and is used for making decaf coffee. It's an ester of Ethanol and Acetic Acid - vinegar. A crucial point is that these four solvents are FDA Class 3 solvents known for their low toxicity. Methanol is an FDA Class 2 solvent that will make you go blind. Benzene is an FDA Class 1 solvent that is know to be cancerous. It is imperative to only use class 3 solvents at home. There are other Class 3 solvents, but these four are the easiest for home users to purge from their final oil.
So looking at those 4 solvents, this study looks at how the body metabolizes these solvents. It's amazing to me the social discourse has never included this in the discussion. Spoiler Alert! Turns out Ethanol is the most damaging at the molecular level compared to Isopropyl & Acetone. Just saying this causes the pitchforks to be raised and the torches lit, but it is a well known fact that Ethanol leads to long term adverse health effects like Cirrohsis of the liver, cancer, birth defects, and more. It's well worth learning how your body process these chemicals down at the cellular level. Consumers only understand what happens when you drink these solvents. But lets get real. There is never a time you will encounter drinking quantities of solvents by ingesting upwards of a gram of cannabis oil.
This study then looks at the government regulations on residual solvents. This is where the consumer world gets lost AF. In the US, the Food and Drug Administration published a value called 'Permitted Daily Exposure' (PDE) for every solvent. Permitted Daily Exposure values are calculated on various factors as a guideline. Think of its as a line drawn in the sand dividing harmless quantities below the line, and having the potential for adverse effects over the line. Here in the US, all cannabis regulations at the state level have adopted the FDA's PDE numbers as the maximum allowable residual solvents in the final product. So understanding what this means is crucial to understanding if the solvents can harm you.
So forget everything you know about solvents based on Google searches. Yes, we know you cannot drink these solvents, but that has never happened to date by ingesting a gram of cannabis oil. The FDA's PDE caps the potential of harm by keeping these solvent levels far below harmful levels. Slide #8 will open your eyes.
Get ready to challenge all your assumptions.
4.7.2 The Solvent Wars, by Doug Cody, Cannabis Home Sciences - GrayWolf's Lair
Here is an interesting article by Doug Cody at Cannabis Home Sciences on his extraction solvent research. In it he goes into depth showing why […]
graywolfslair.com
