Chlorophyll Lock

[tonic177]

A term I've been hearing around lately is "chlorophyll lock". Now i could have misinterpreted the stance (lemme know if this is the case) but i gathered some people seem to think that chlorophyll in a bud can get "locked" in if dried to quickly, or for to long, or not cured for long enough.

From my understanding this is'nt possible due to the fact that chlorophyll breaks down with sunlight and also cold temperatures (not to mention high temps & also oxidation)- none of which require the presence of moisture necessarily. Now if buds have been dried & cured correctly then light wont have been present to break chlorophyll down but cold temperatures should have been to do the trick.

I'd like to hear what people have to say about this.

 

[Seamaiden]

Never heard of this, tagging along to see what others have to say.

 

[monkeymun]

I think thats just something some guy said once and it became a fable

 

[Cheiko]

“chlorophyll lock” is a not a real phenomenon, just two words strung together which basically just mislead people who dont know better. Nor does chlorophyll evaporate from cured flowers as I also heard said many time before. So I’ll chime in now to help clear up a misnomer. buds that are very ‘green’ have a high content of ‘intact’ chlorophyll as opposed to buds that have cured for a long time. Many people believe that the green color has a harsh ‘chlorophyll’ taste. In fact the taste difference between buds that are green and buds that are olive/yellow has probably very little to do with chlorophyll or other pigment molecules - its just that other chemical reactions that primarily contribute to the taste difference, such as oxidation of terpenes, just so happen to occur at the same time as chlorophyll break down. so this is a classic case of correlation does not equal causation. when you pick a leaf off a plant it changes from green to brown because the chlorophyll is turned into various breakdown catabolites which accumulate in the vacuole and have no color. The brown color is from the oxidation and presence of other pigments/compounds. Here’s what happens; the chlorophyllase enzyme splits chlorophyll into phytol and chlorophyllide. then a number of different processes can cause the Mg ion to drop out of the porphyrin ring to create pheophorbide a, which has an olive colour. When you overcook your asparagus or broccoli you can see this color change occur. From here pheophorbide a is further modified by an oxygenase enzyme which cleaves the porphyrin ring and further reduction reactions create transient intermediary fluorescent catabolites which then undergo conjugations that comprise the main breakdown products of chlorophyll, which as I already mentioned are colorless but are also water soluble. So the chlorophyll is still their albeit in a modified form and you will smoke it whether buds are a week or and green or a year old and brown.

 

[Seamaiden]

Jesus... squiggly? :)

 

[tonic177]

Err... that's what i said! Thanks Cheiko

 

[tonic177]

“chlorophyll lock” is a not a real phenomenon, just two words strung together which basically just mislead people who dont know better. Nor does chlorophyll evaporate from cured flowers as I also heard said many time before. So I’ll chime in now to help clear up a misnomer. buds that are very ‘green’ have a high content of ‘intact’ chlorophyll as opposed to buds that have cured for a long time. Many people believe that the green color has a harsh ‘chlorophyll’ taste. In fact the taste difference between buds that are green and buds that are olive/yellow has probably very little to do with chlorophyll or other pigment molecules - its just that other chemical reactions that primarily contribute to the taste difference, such as oxidation of terpenes, just so happen to occur at the same time as chlorophyll break down. so this is a classic case of correlation does not equal causation. when you pick a leaf off a plant it changes from green to brown because the chlorophyll is turned into various breakdown catabolites which accumulate in the vacuole and have no color. The brown color is from the oxidation and presence of other pigments/compounds. Here’s what happens; the chlorophyllase enzyme splits chlorophyll into phytol and chlorophyllide. then a number of different processes can cause the Mg ion to drop out of the porphyrin ring to create pheophorbide a, which has an olive colour. When you overcook your asparagus or broccoli you can see this color change occur. From here pheophorbide a is further modified by an oxygenase enzyme which cleaves the porphyrin ring and further reduction reactions create transient intermediary fluorescent catabolites which then undergo conjugations that comprise the main breakdown products of chlorophyll, which as I already mentioned are colorless but are also water soluble. So the chlorophyll is still their albeit in a modified form and you will smoke it whether buds are a week or and green or a year old and brown.

So in laymen terms chlorophyll doesn't have a bearing on taste regardless.