Polishing extracts

[Lab Rat]

My dad is a chemist who worked for a long time extracting certain products from tree barks and other plant materials so many of these suggestions have already been tested at an industrial scale.

Reducing Chlorophyll Pickup in Extractions

Regardless of freezing your bud/solvent or just doing very quick washes the intention is the same; to reduce the amount of chlorophyll extracted into your alcohol. I apologize beforehand for geeking out.

The chlorophyll molecule has a magnesium (Mg) at its ringscenter, which makes it ionic and water-loving (hydrophilic) and a ring that is water fearing (hydrophobic) with carbonyl groups near a tail that make it polar (also hydrophilic).

It is held in place in the plant within a water-soluble material known as water-soluble chlorophyll-binding protein (WSCP). WSCP is soluble in water, and mostly insoluble in polar alkane alcohols and non polar alkanes.

Keyword: alkane or the opposite of acid which is base.

Chlorophyll specifically, is only able to form complexes with other molecules to stay in solution at biological pH (7.4). Its natural environment is at a pH of around 4 not 7.4. So by using brine to increase the PH of the alcohol to an unnatural 10 or 11 prior to the extraction you can decrease chlorophyll pickup even by doing a slow, hot extraction. Salt can be used instead of brine but it is much slower to increase PH. The chemical name for brine is hydroxide carbonate.

More to come ...

 

[Lab Rat]

Filtering
Why go through all the trouble of reducing chlorophyll uptake to then use a cheesecloth? Besides not filtering very well it gets wet and you end up losing product. Use coffee filters, solids will get stuck, that's the idea of filtering.

Winterizing
When extracting THC and CBD some lipids and plant waxes will get into your alcohol turning into a shade of green. An easy way to get rid of them is to stick your alcohol in the freezer for about 48 hours at -18C/0F, for the waxes to coagulate. The waxes will precipitate out of solution as the temperature drops and clump together so that they are easily filtered out with a standard coffee filter. THC and CBD will not be affected by temperature so only the unwanteds will be filtered out.

Removing minor green coloration:
After increasing the PH of your ethanol, winterizing and filtering you will still see a green hue to your solvent. These green hues are easily removed by putting your alcohol prior to evaporation but after winterizing and filtering in sunlight or a light from a high UV source, like a grow lamp.
The UV radiation in the sunlight will quickly break down the chlorophyll and cause your oil to look more amber like pancake syrup.

UV radiation also destroys cannabinoids, but fortunately at a much slower rate, so this last step requires careful monitoring and leaving it out the bare minimum of time.

 

[Lab Rat]

There are further methods but they require the use of hexane or other solvents that are toxic to further purify your oil but I refuse to add toxic solvents to my oil.

 

[Gfcollective]

i just read this all on a website yesterday studying up on a essential oil distiller. i had to print it off though, it got very detailed.

im buying a steam distiller to make mine, no risk of overheating, no chemicals, and ive mastered winterizing so on to making solventless now

I&i

 

[Lab Rat]

Yeah I plagiarized some of it; this forum doesn't allow posting links and my source spends several paragraphs talking about the chemical composition of chlorophyll on a molecular level and how the negatively charged electrons and positively charged protons react with those of other components.

I would recommend an induction cooktop, the one from NuWave is $80 on Amazon or there's a 2 for 1 on the Nuwave site. It goes from a steady 100*F to 450-550*F and can be changed in 10 degree increments. Steam has one temperature only.

So you can set it to 150*F for 99 hours and its gonna stay at that temp; +/- 1 degree measured with a mercury thermometer and since there is no spark its very safe.

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Its also great for cooking food.

 

[Gfcollective]

you can get steam at several temperatures depending on how you go about it.

You can have steam that is tolerated by the skin
you can have steam that is irritating to the skin
you can have steam that burns the skin

there are three types of Steam distillation that i read about yesterday

first being water distillation, this method is where the material is placed in boiling water. the steam and oils are captured and then separated out to produce the essential oil. clove essential oil is collected using water distillation.
(im getting this for all of our herbs we grow) around 30 herbs and growing monthly

Straight steam distillation
Distilling essential oils using the straight steam method involves pushing steam through the plant material and then picking up the essential oil. lavender essential oil is distilled in this manner

Water/steam distillation
this method is where steam and water are pushed around and through the plant material. and then the steam and oils are captured and then separated out to produce the essential oils. nutmeg oil is collected using this method.

now you have to watch pressure temperature and times as these will always effect your oil no matter what method you use.

i love making extracts, this is just 100% legal for medical patients. as using any solvents you need to have a blast proof room even with alcohol. Feds are cracking down on all of them, google seattle feds bho. if you dont have the time just read the titles of the links that pop up, youll see what im talking about

i have always been about the medieval days, the second i found out this is how they made the majority of their medicine (including made with alcohol as well) i had to try this steam method out.

I&i

 

[hazebluez]

you can get steam at several temperatures depending on how you go about it.

there are three types of Steam distillation that i read about

now you have to watch pressure temperature and times as these will always effect your oil no matter what method you use.

i love making extracts, this is just 100% legal for medical patients. as using any solvents you need to have a blast proof room even with alcohol. Feds are cracking down on all of them, google seattle feds bho. if you dont have the time just read the titles of the links that pop up, youll see what im talking about

i have always been about the medieval days, the second i found out this is how they made the majority of their medicine (including made with alcohol as well) i had to try this steam method out.

I&i

Highhh GfCollective!

I'm new to steam distillation and am wondering if you'd be able to recommend some tips for making cannabis oil with a steam distiller?
It's an open ended question as I'm not really familiar with it at all, but would love to hear any advice you have!
Many thanks in advance!
Hazel