Alcohol Extraction

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jump

jump

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Everything I'm seeing says chlorophyll is definitely water soluble.
Water is how the plant transports it, and clearly soaking plant material in water in a water cure, turns the water green and bleaches out the plant, so something is happening.

Do you have another explaination brother Jump?
Cannabis has the same chlorophyll, as well as in other green plants.
It is studied in detail and its chemical and physical properties presented for information anyone interested.
Popular articles on the physiology of plants can provide much more fully acquainted with the properties of chlorophyll than in a book on cannabis alchemy.

You can also find out that chlorophyll is not transported by water in the body of the plant, although its breakdown products are transported in solution.
The water is quite capable of transporting objects and materials completely insoluble in it, such as algae, plankton, fish, wooden and metal boats, etc.
Water flow can transport sand, stones, houses and trees, cars, not to mention the bodies of animals and humans.
The ability to be transported by water is not the solubility.

In my experience on the water curing, plant material does not discolor, and the color of drained solution was more yellowish, but not green. Measurement of ppm showed the presence of water-soluble components, decreasing with each change of water.

In experiments on freezing of alcohol solutions, green solution remained green after a long stay in the freezer. Chlorophyll did not coagulate, winterization does not remove it from the solution.

It can be removed using activated carbon, but then a good portion of the resin is lost.

It is better initially to prevent contamination of chlorophyll than to spend forces to remove it.
 
Dirty White Boy

Dirty White Boy

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Ive been looking everywhere locally for 99% iso, and found it finally at an electronics store, that supply's electromechanical supplys. Apparently its used often to clean connections and circuit borads.

Question though they had 99.95% pure anhydrous alcohol as well.....is there a difference. Cause it was cheaper?
 
Graywolf

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You can also find out that chlorophyll is not transported by water in the body of the plant, although its breakdown products are transported in solution.

The water is quite capable of transporting objects and materials completely insoluble in it, such as algae, plankton, fish, wooden and metal boats, etc.
Water flow can transport sand, stones, houses and trees, cars, not to mention the bodies of animals and humans.

The ability to be transported by water is not the solubility.

In my experience on the water curing, plant material does not discolor, and the color of drained solution was more yellowish, but not green. Measurement of ppm showed the presence of water-soluble components, decreasing with each change of water.


It is better initially to prevent contamination of chlorophyll than to spend forces to remove it.

Water in contact with cannabis bud and leaves in this neck of the woods turns green, but then everything in this part of Oregon is green, some of us are even coated with moss, mold, and algae.

When I have evaporated away that green water, it also left behind a green ring in the bottom of the bucket.

Even if it is a colloidal suspension, the particles weren't just hanging there loose, so the water had to dissolve some binder to free them for water transport.

As I am fortunately a better engineer than a chemist, I am going to hand this conundrum to our bright young biochemistry student, who is due in town for lunch today, and see if he can come up with the key. More after lunch today!

PS, I heartily agree that it is better to not pick up the chlorophyll, than try to remove it later.
 
Graywolf

Graywolf

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Ive been looking everywhere locally for 99% iso, and found it finally at an electronics store, that supply's electromechanical supplys. Apparently its used often to clean connections and circuit borads.

Question though they had 99.95% pure anhydrous alcohol as well.....is there a difference. Cause it was cheaper?

Depends on what is in it. I infer they are talking about anhydrous Isopropyl, which would work, but I would suggest pulling a MSDS sheet for any product that you use in your process.
 
Dirty White Boy

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I says its just 2-propanol at 99,97% purity is that good to use then?
 
sox

sox

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My first batch of ISO, i read this thread this morning and went out and got some 91% (all i could find)...its black but its FIRE! SOOOOO tasty! somebody teach me how to make that amber shit!
First iso
 
yellowhead

yellowhead

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Man, that looks good. Might not be amber, but you can tell it would still knock your socks off! :p
 
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Turtle Man

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Here is the complete re-wording of the original "hyph tek" for amber/golden oil as posted by Defiance on another semi-private board, based on originally.

Mostly just sounds like the optional charcoal step at the very end should be skipped from what I've learned from this thread. Also hexane is intriguing but probably not something I'm going to mess with for small scale personal uses.

What still slightly confuses me is, before the charcoal step, it's amber oil (still basing this on second hand info only) - the charcoal then can optionally change it from red/amber oil to clear honey oil at the expense of good things probably not worth removing. So it sounds like at that point, the green has been removed from either the water baths, boiling, or acetone/freezing. Since we know now none of that can really remove chlorophyll very well (maybe the acetone, but it's left mixed in with the goo and evaporated so its only the waxes that freeze that get extracted which should not be containing chlorophyll)... I can only assume the green color can be removed while colorless chlorophyll remains without the charcoal? [warning: purely a guess]

So I plan to stick to a ~20 second first wash with frozen material and iso despite all of these purification steps, maybe another 20-30 second second wash, and I'll probably decarb and try a really long "green as hell" wash after that just to see how nasty it gets for personal comparison and just eat/drink it if necessary.

I can't in good conscience post anything but an iso/acetone method.

Impurities in cannabis extracts can be broadly separated into 3 groups. Very good hash oil has been processed to remove all 3 types.

Polar impurities are water soluble and color your extraction dark green/black, primarily because of chlorophyll.
Nonpolar impurities aren't water soluble and color your extraction brown-red.
Volatile impurities are nonpolar too but we remove them differently. They color your extraction light red. Volatile impurities are the type most often left behind by preference, as a lot of people like their flavor and odor.

Very good hash oil is amber, sometimes with a bit of red. Follow this guide carefully and that's what you will end up with.

Initial extraction

You should look for 99% iso. It can be hard to find but with a few additional steps it's possible to safely remove the water from 70%+ iso. Those steps will be covered at the end.

The initial extraction is easy. Place your plant material in a jar along with an excess of iso. Shake. Let it sit for awhile. Shake again. Repeat until you get bored, strain, and then do it all over again with fresh iso. Repeat this two or three times and combine the iso. Throw away the plant matter.

At this point you have a fair amount of all three kinds of impurities in your product. It is easiest to evap the solvent and work with the gummy iso hash than it is to try and manipulate the extract while it's dissolved in iso. Evaporation can be sped along with a hot water bath. Iso fumes are relatively safe and not as flammable as a lot of people think (What the fuck was I thinking when I wrote that) Still, if you're using heat, do not evap in the same room as an open flame. Heat your water for the bath in another room and then place the evaporation dish in the hot water bath. Use proper ventillation. Use a pyrex container as an evaporation dish.

Wash out polar impurities

After evaporating scrape all of the goo into a ball and put it into a clean jar. Fill the jar most of the way with very hot water and put the lid on. The goo will melt. Shake the jar and watch as the water changes color. As the water colors you are removing polar impurities from your extract. Allow the water to cool to room temp and then place it in the refrigerator for a few hours so the extract can solidify. It will float on the surface of the water and most of it can be easily removed. Filter the water to get the rest. This step should be repeated at least three times to remove all of the polar impurities.

Boil off volatile impurities

The last time you wash your goo instead of allowing it to cool, remove the lid and place the jar into a pot of boiling water on the stove. Before you heat the water you should place a hand towel in the bottom of the pot to protect the bottom of the jar from heat. The water should come up 3/4 of the way of the jar, check that it does before you heat the water. A simmer is what you're looking for, not a rolling boil. Because there is no solvent left in the goo this is safe. By heating your extraction to boiling you are driving off volatile impurities. This does not degrade the extract since the boiling point of cannabinoids is much higher than the boiling point of water.

After 20 minutes of simmering turn off the heat and let the jar come back to room temp in the pot. Remove the jar and put it in the fridge to solidify the goo and remove it like you did earlier.

At this stage you still have goo, not oil. This is because of the nonpolar impurities like wax that are still present in your extraction. We remove these last in order to make handling easier.

Precipitate nonpolar impurities

To remove waxes you will need a small amount of acetone. Dissolve the goo in a few hundred ml of acetone in a jar. Prepare a saline bath by saturating water with salt and adding ice. Place the jar of acetone with your extract dissolved in it in the bath, and put the whole works in the freezer over night. The cold temperature will precipitate waxes and solidified plant fats as white flakes. The next morning filter your extract through a coffee filter discarding the contents of the filter. Evap the acetone. You will end up with a thick amber-red oil.

If nothing precipitates you used too much acetone. Evap some and start again. Exact amounts depend entirely on the weight and wax content of the starting cannabis, sorry.

This step can be repeated if you reduce the volume of acetone first through evaporation and then return it to the freezer.

Optional decoloration

Some impurities just don't fall into a neat category, or they aren't as easily removed.

To remove the last of the reddish coloration thin the oil with a bit of iso or acetone and add activated charcoal. Let stand over night. If necessary thin it out even more so that you can filter the activated charcoal out. It's hard to get it all. At this stage I thin the oil quite a bit and run it through a buchner with 5um filter paper using a vacuum pump. You may have to filter repeatedly to get the last of the activated charcoal out with a coffee filter.

Discard everything on the filter paper and evap for the last time.

After evaporating the solvent you are left with a very potent amber oil that is ready for use. It can be dissolved in propylene glycol or whatever for use in an e-cig or just smoked.

If you're going to atomize the extract, before you start this guide decarboxylate the weed in a low oven for an hour or so.

Salting out iso

70% or 91% iso can be made to work better with table salt.

Water can be removed from isopropanol with the addition of table salt or pickling salt (which dissolves more readily and doesn't contain iodine). Place the iso in a jar and warm the iso in a hot water bath. It doesn't need to be boiling hot, just warm. Add salt until it stops dissolving and the barest amount can be seen on the bottom of the jar. Put a lid on the jar and shake gently. Remove the lid in order to vent the iso fumes and prevent excess pressure from building up. Repeat until you can see the liquids start to shimmer and separate. If they don't separate add more salt and repeat.

You have to look closely to see the interface between the two layers as both liquids will be pretty clear. Nearly pure iso can be poured carefully or siphoned off of the top since it is less dense than the saturated saline solution.

Other shit

For chrissakes vent whatever room you evap in or do it outside. Consider distilling if you've never managed to light iso fumes on fire up to this point and are willing to buy glass. Read this guide twice. Please don't fucking die or horribly burn yourself. Don't do this shit stoned. Don't heat a goddam bit of flammable solvent in the oven or on the stove top, even over a double boiler you animals. I shouldn't even have to ask. Please?
 
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sox

sox

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is this dumb? i took a cookie sheet filled it with water and put it over the front and back burner on my stove, then i took a pyrex dish, filled it with water and set it on the cookie sheet. I then set the pyrex with the iso in that. so it was like a triple burner kinda...am i going to blow myself up?
 
sox

sox

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Graywolf, will you explain the water wash to me a little more? i read the post, but am having a rough time understanding.
Thanks!
-Sox
 
sox

sox

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alright, so i read and re read and read again, i think i got it down..now where to get hexane??
 
sox

sox

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filtering through pharmaceutical grade charcoal unbleached filters, normally using a long neck wine bottle, but as i said earlier I was lazy, I get different colours from different strains, and also depending on many variables including tightness of filter, amount of charcoal etc. What is this Fritted-glass filter flask you speak of?

where did you pick up the filters?
 
SodaLicious

SodaLicious

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alright, so i read and re read and read again, i think i got it down..now where to get hexane??

I'm very interested in using hexane, but have not found a source anywhere in canada. Maybe I am looking in the wrong places.
 
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