BHO Extraction for oral meds

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Graywolf

Graywolf

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Much of the oil that I produce doesn't get smoked or vaporized, but instead goes into oral or topical meds.

Amongst other differences that makes, is the need to decarboxylate to make the cannabinoids more orally active. That means that it has to cook the equivalent of about 122C/252F for 27 minutes to achieve 70% decarboxylation anyway, so I combine the final purge and decarboxylation by using a 250F hot oil bath.

I have also developed a process that simplifies clean up and subsequent mixing, so as to not lose excessive amounts of oil to the film left behind in containers.

I've run everything from prime bud, to ground and sifted stems, but for processing buds, trim, or fan leaves, I start by placing it on a cookie sheet in a 200F oven and cook it long enough that it is just frangible enough to be scrubbed through a pasta strainer to remove the sticks and stems and make it a uniform size. I test for the exact frangibility point by rolling the material between my finger and thumb.


I do not wish to have it bone dry, nor do I use a food processor or mixer to chop it up, as it may introduce fines in the process that add to filtering requirements.

I bought my pasta strainer at a restaurant supply store, and it has a double layer of mesh; one fine, and another coarser one reinforcing it. I wear a leather glove and just scrub it until it passes through the mesh and discard the remaining stems in a separate bag for different processing.

After passing through the strainer, I gallon Ziploc bag or jar the material up until I use it, to keep the moisture content low.


Since building a butane extraction and recovery system, my process is different than what I will describe here, but this is how I did it before the new system.

I begin stuffing the column by wadding up a coffee filter and ramming it into place first, to cover the injection port. That will diffuse the butane entering the column and prevent plant material from blowing backwards, should I remove the butane can with pressure remaining.

I use the top cut off of a 2 liter plastic seltzer water bottle for a funnel and pack the material firmly and evenly, but not tightly, using a wooden dowel at three to four stages on a 36" tube and two on a 12".

I double a commercial coffee filter and stretch it over the open end and cover that with a patch of 160 thread count bed sheet as a blowout preventer. I hold that in place with a rubber band, or twine, or a screw clamp, or wire tie.

I trim the excess filter material off after clamping, so it doesn't soak up oil, and if I am careful removing the filter assembly after an extraction, I can continue to reuse use it several times, to minimize oil losses to filter media.
 
Graywolf

Graywolf

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I use a wooden clamp to hold what ever length column I require for the volume I am running. I have several different length metal and borosilicate glass columns, but mostly I use a 1" X 36" column, which takes three to four 300 ml cans of butane, depending on the material.

I have incremental glass columns down to 12", and my smallest is a 3/4" stainless column made from a turkey baster. We have the glass tubes made at a local scientific glass shop to our specifications for $10, plus $1 and inch. Tubes I've had made at other shops, were not adequately annealed after forming and broke from the thermal cycling inherent in the extraction process.

For butane, I use Lucienne 4X 300 ml cases of butane for $132/72 cans/300 ml wholesale. I've found it to be the least expensive brand locally, that is clean enough and consistently produces good product. About half of the Lucienne 4X that we receive has metal injection nozzles and comes from South Korea, and the other half has plastic injection nozzles and comes from England.

I haven't been able to tell any difference in quality, and actual tests by others that I read, showed the ppm contamination tested below 15ppm, as did the Near Zero brands certifying that they are below 50ppm.

The n-X refining is to remove oleaginous waxes, aka paraffin, which clog the fine nozzles of expensive butane lighters. Other typical dilutants of butane are the gases closest to it in molecular weight, and are propane, isopropane, and isobutane. Neither the paraffin, nor the other diluting alkanes are of health concern at their concentrations.

Some butane sources also have ethyl mercaptans added for odor detection, with a sensory threshold of less than 2.8 parts per billionth, and both tastes and smells like rotten eggs. The proof is in the pudding, not the number of times it has been refined.

There are a number of tried and proven brands, but if you are in doubt, read the MSDS for the brand, sniff it, spray some on a mirror and look for residue after it fully evaporates, and finally make a small run and taste the results.

I use a DIY scientific grade cat litter bucket stand to support the column while injecting the butane and unlike most instructions on BHO calling for a Pyrex pie plate, I usually discharge the butane into a deep stainless Bain Marie container sitting in hot water.



I fill the stainless Bain Marie vessel holding the stainless discharge vessel with hot water from the tap and replace it as often as necessary to keep it hot throughout the extraction. Usually once per tube.


The heat boils the butane in the extraction vessel and keeps the deep vessel full of fumes, so as to float out the high humidity atmosphere that we suffer from in the winter here locally. That prevents stops ice from forming inside the dish at the evaporation zone and adding water.

I replace the hot water each time I refill the column and continue to inject into the Bain Marie container until the full extraction is done. After the flow of butane runs clear and I stop injecting, I blow out the remaining liquid using a basket ball pump with a butane nozzle adapter trimmed to fit and speared on an inflation needle.

When I am through extracting, I continue to replace the hot water until the butane appears to be mostly gone, and then I wipe off the water from the outside of the container, and set it directly in an electric fondue pot full of 250F Canola oil.

I monitor the temperature with an accurate thermometer. I use an glass mercury lab thermometer or an emersion digital for monitoring the oil temperature, but use an infra red optical thermometer to monitor the product bath temperature, so as to not lose product on an emersion thermocouple.


While I check on the product temperature, I primarily monitor the hot oil bath itself and watch the bubble activity of the bath for the precise times to remove the product from the heat.

For oral meds, I quit cooking when the mixture mostly stops bubbling. I say mostly, because the first thing to boil off will be the remaining butane in reasonably large and randomly sized bubbles. They will be accompanied and followed by small CO2 bubbles produced by the decarboxylation. They will continue to bubble after the butane is gone.

To speed up the process without adding more heat, I stick (3) or more bamboo skewers in the bath, in lieu of boiling chips, to promote rapid boiling. I also use them to stir the corners and bottom of the ban marie container toward the end, so as to break loose bubbles, that they may escape.

The peak of the decarboxylation curve is at about 70%. After that point, THC is converting to CBN at a faster rate than THCA to THC and an extract cooked to full quiescence, it will be higher in CBN and more sedative than if you stop at about ~70%, at which point the flurry of CO2 bubbles dramatically drops off, even with stirring.


If you wish to maximize THC by stopping at 70% decarboxylation, it is more important to keep the bubbles broken loose from the bottom and corners of the bain marie, so that you can tell the exact moment that the rate of bubbles dramatically falls off, but a good idea in both cases. Continuing to cook the mixture after full decarboxylation will continue to turn THC into CBN.

It will take about 30 minutes, but can vary depending on the decarboxylation state of the starting material. That is a function of its state of cure and all other elevated temperatures that it has been subjected to. Since I can really never know those things, that is why I watch the bubbles instead of the clock.

At either stopping point, it has adequately purged the remaining butane, and is decarboxylated enough to be orally active as well.

When my bubble stopping point is reached, I wipe the oil off the outside of the container and set the container on the scale to determine total weight. Since I have already weighed the tare of the container, I subtract the tare from the total weight to determine how much oil has been extracted.

Based on that number, and the intended use, I add the remaining ingredients by weight and set the pot back in the hot oil for everything to melt and stir it until well mixed. That thins out the cannabis oil, so that when I decant, I don't lose any great amount to residual films on the single container that I've used throughout the process.



More details at http://skunkpharmresearch.com/bho-extraction/
 
true grit

true grit

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I've been looking into juicing raw as to not decarboxylate the oil or increase active thc amounts and instead have higher cbd and thc acids...have you tried this at all with oral intake on patients? Or are most looking to get "high" as medication? I low temp purge (100f or less) with vacuum, just enough to reach viscosity but haven't tried eating- only topical application in which it is very effective even without heat activation.
 
Graywolf

Graywolf

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I've been looking into juicing raw as to not decarboxylate the oil or increase active thc amounts and instead have higher cbd and thc acids...have you tried this at all with oral intake on patients? Or are most looking to get "high" as medication? I low temp purge (100f or less) with vacuum, just enough to reach viscosity but haven't tried eating- only topical application in which it is very effective even without heat activation.


I would venture that most of the patients we make oil for are looking for relief, because oral meds aren't the best way to get high. A number were pronounced end of life and are trying to take a gram a day of oil, without getting wiped out.

We are helping one end of life cancer patient by supplying him with oral medications, who is also juicing. Before he started taking our oil, he reported that the juicing had stopped him from passing blood.

I am watching closely, as juicing is new to us too and up to this point I had been led to believe that the carboxylic acid forms were non active.

We also have one late Stage 7 Alzheimer's patient that we are introducing juicing to, so more there as well. She has already done miraculous things on decarboxylated oil.
 
true grit

true grit

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313
Interesting, definitely keep me posted on the folks doing both! I will say this though, I myself figured the oil would have to be activated/decarboxyl'd to get affects but for the hell of it started to apply it directly to skin issues without heating and the results were rock solid. Which led me to believing in the juicing, but for a normal patient the numbers needed to juice don't seem all realistic. Now if a low temp non activated oil could do the same ingested orally, i may be able to put that to work.

Thanks for the info and keep up the good work man, seems like you are really helping some patients out!!
 
rusty

rusty

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good read graywolf, i might give this a go. is the final product more potent extracted with butane rather than ethanol?
 
Graywolf

Graywolf

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I can't tell much difference in the potency. Butane is non polar and picks up less non active ingredients than polar ethanol, but still picks up waxes.

The most potent that we make, is a butane extraction, winterized to remove the waxes, using ethanol.
 
Graywolf

Graywolf

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Consider eating my butane extractions? Bro it is a done deal! I've even eaten it on ice cream!

Not sure what known cancer causing agents in the first four simple Alkanes bro! All four are a gas at ambient temperatures. n-Butane boils at -5C/31.5F.

n-Butane isn't mother's milk, nor does it come in as attractive a container, but it is non-toxic enough to be used as a food propellant.

Death by inhalation is due to asphyiation, the exact same thing that CO2 does to you bro! In fact, the Butane LC50 Inhalation Vapor Rat, is 658,000 mg/m3 for 4 hours.

By comparison, CO2 LC-50 Rat is only 470,000 ppm 30 minutes. That means that the rats could breath about 29% more Butane without losing consciousness, than CO2.

Are you perhaps confusing cancer stories about complex Alkenes like Benzene, which have boiling points more than a hundred degrees higher?

Here is some MSDS information for both n-Butane and CO2: I didn't bother to add the one for EtOH, because this post is already too large for one response and LC-50 Inhalation Gas Rat, is 20,000 ppm 10 hours Ethanol and it has already been certified as suitable for drinking.
 
Graywolf

Graywolf

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Section 11. n-Butane Toxicological Information

Specific effects

Carcinogenic effects No known significant effects or critical hazards.

Mutagenic effects No known significant effects or critical hazards.

Reproduction toxicity No known significant effects or critical hazards.

No specific information is available in our database regarding the other toxic effects of this material to humans.

Chronic effects on humans May cause damage to the following organs: central nervous system (CNS).

Other toxic effects on humans

Toxicity data:

Butane LC50 Inhalation Vapor Rat 658000 mg/m3 4 hours

Product/ingredient name Result Species Dose Exposure

Products of degradation: carbon oxides (CO, CO2) and water.

Section 12. Ecological information

Products of degradation :

Environmental fate : Not available.

Environmental hazards : No known significant effects or critical hazards.

Toxicity to the environment : Not available.


11. CO2 Toxicological Information

Specific effects

Carcinogenic effects No known significant effects or critical hazards.

Mutagenic effects No known significant effects or critical hazards.

Reproduction toxicity No known significant effects or critical hazards.

No specific information is available in our database regarding the other toxic effects of this material to humans.

Chronic effects on humans May cause damage to the following organs: lungs.

Other toxic effects on humans

Toxicity data

IDLH : 40000 ppm

Carbon dioxide LC50 Inhalation Gas.

Rat 470000 ppm 30 minutes

Symptoms in humans are as follows:

EFFECT: CONCENTRATION:

Breathing rate increases slightly. 1%

Breathing rate increases to 50% above normal level. Prolonged exposure can cause headache, tiredness.
2%

Breathing increases to twice normal rate and becomes labored. Weak

narcotic effect. Impaired hearing, headache, increased blood pressure

and pulse rate.
3%

Breathing increases to approximately four times normal rate, symptoms

of intoxication become evident, and slight choking may be felt.

4 - 5%

Characteristic sharp odor noticeable. Very labored breathing,

headache, visual impairment, and ringing in the ears. Judgment may

be impaired, followed within minutes by loss of consciousness.

5 - 10%

Unconsciousness occurs more rapidly above 10% level. Prolonged

exposure to high concentrations may eventually result in death from

asphyxiation.

10 - 100%

Section 12. Ecological information

Toxicity of the products of biodegradation:

Environmental fate : Not available.

Environmental hazards : This product shows a low bioaccumulation potential.

Toxicity to the environment : Not available.

Aquatic ecotoxicity

Not available.

REPRODUCTIVE EFFECTS: A single study has shown an increase in heart defects in rats exposed to 6% carbon dioxide in air for 24 hours at different times during gestation.

Section 11. Ethanol Toxicological information

Toxicity data
 
Graywolf

Graywolf

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263
PS: For those unaware of the terminology, LC-50 means it was a Lethal Concentration for 50% of the rats tested.
 
Ohiofarmer

Ohiofarmer

932
93
Good thread, it still gets me that people will defend co2 to the last dieing breath when there are much more "ergonomical" and imo better ways of doing pretty much the same thing. misinformantion sells though. take it easy guys
 
neverbreak

neverbreak

1,223
163
We also have one late Stage 7 Alzheimer's patient that we are introducing juicing to, so more there as well. She has already done miraculous things on decarboxylated oil.

can you expand on this?

neverbreak
 
Graywolf

Graywolf

1,597
263
can you expand on this?

neverbreak

In a nutshell, we have a Stage 7 Alzheimers patient that was given less than six months to live four and a half years ago. She regained cognitive skills upon starting a cannabis concentrate regiment, and has long outlived the prognosis. According to OSHU doctors, she is probably in the last six months of her life as we speak, and she still socializes with us and gives good hugs.

We also had a Alzheimers dog patient, that regained her social and cognitive skills, besides gaining more life line.

More detailed information at:

http://skunkpharmresearch.com/alzheimers-mom-and-cannabis/
http://skunkpharmresearch.com/anna-the-dog-and-alzheimers/
 
neverbreak

neverbreak

1,223
163
In a nutshell, we have a Stage 7 Alzheimers patient that was given less than six months to live four and a half years ago. She regained cognitive skills upon starting a cannabis concentrate regiment, and has long outlived the prognosis. According to OSHU doctors, she is probably in the last six months of her life as we speak, and she still socializes with us and gives good hugs.

We also had a Alzheimers dog patient, that regained her social and cognitive skills, besides gaining more life line.

More detailed information at:

http://skunkpharmresearch.com/alzheimers-mom-and-cannabis/
http://skunkpharmresearch.com/anna-the-dog-and-alzheimers/

awesome, thanks for the info and links. very interesting articles. will look into whether there are any other case studies on the same topic.

wow, never knew dogs could get alzheimer's!

neverbreak
 

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