What's better, resin or rosin? And what the hell is the difference?

  • Thread starter Koerta
  • Start date
  • Tagged users None
Koerta

Koerta

21
3
Evening everyone! Hopefully y'all are all staying dabbed up & happy!
But before I go too heavy, let's clear up some items first...

What are trichomes? (not trichromes interweb...)
- They are the hairlike, glandular structures protruding from the epidermis of a plant. They contain the bulk of the desired molecules sought in most botanical extractions. They look like microscopic white (or transparent) pins with clear heads initially, that degrade to amber and then brown as the plant matures.

What are terpenes?
- These are a huge class of aromatic, oily compounds found in plants (not only cannabis, but many plants). They serve as chemical signals, insecticides, fungicides and more to assist the plant's function.

How can we get at the goodies locked inside of these trichomes then?
- several methods are commonly used today including:
solvent extraction- propane/butane,
solventless or water extraction,
dry-sifting techniques,
ultrasonic transduction

There are advantages and disadvantages to each which I'll address briefly:

Solvent extraction-
Pros: best possible terpene profile, cheap due to recycleability of the solvent
Cons: can create a dangerous environment if accidents arise, explosive gas release, toxic nature of solvent, process is hard to scale up to industrial size. Requires specialized equipment and personnel.

Water-based extraction-
Pros: cheap, easy to do, little equipment or training is required, safe
Cons: cannot remove as many terpenes as solvents, requires more specific material preparation for best results(freeze-dried crumble).

Dry-sifting-
Pros: easy, cheap, simple equipment requirements, shallow learning curve to operate, old-school
Cons: cannot avoid introducing some plant material which produces a slightly more "planty" taste profile.

Ultrasonic transduction-
New application of a technology used in supplement manufacturing for years
Pros: more complete collection/harvest of the trichome heads, high throughput
Cons: expensive initial equipment investment
 
Kanzeon

Kanzeon

1,899
263
I've found that rosin, especially hash rosin, has been my concentrate preference for a while. Especially from good cured bud. Live or cured resin is my 1A.

Diamonds are nice and it's a cool process, but I don't see the point of separating out the terp sauce from the THC- if someone needs straight THC for medical purposes, there's distillate. For me, it's all about how the cannabinoid and terpene mix of the strain interacts with a person's physiology. THC is a big part of that, but not everything.

Hash is wonderful as well, but isopropyl is in short supply so I can't clean my bags. For some reason (entourage effect?), it just hits harder than most concentrates.

Shatter and dry concentrates are what I'd settle for if I am out of my own bud completely. Dried concentrates are best for one scenario: travel. 😉
 
Kanzeon

Kanzeon

1,899
263
I started off with concentrates, haha. I really enjoy manually vaping dry herb (blowtorch and a metal enail adapter), but it's a more time consuming and labor intensive process than just ripping off a dab.
 
Koerta

Koerta

21
3
I've found that rosin, especially hash rosin, has been my concentrate preference for a while. Especially from good cured bud. Live or cured resin is my 1A.

Diamonds are nice and it's a cool process, but I don't see the point of separating out the terp sauce from the THC- if someone needs straight THC for medical purposes, there's distillate. For me, it's all about how the cannabinoid and terpene mix of the strain interacts with a person's physiology. THC is a big part of that, but not everything.

Hash is wonderful as well, but isopropyl is in short supply so I can't clean my bags. For some reason (entourage effect?), it just hits harder than most concentrates.

Shatter and dry concentrates are what I'd settle for if I am out of my own bud completely. Dried concentrates are best for one scenario: travel. 😉
I like this post, thanks! I would address the point of separating the terpenes from a pharmacological vantage; there are medicinal benefits to the terpenes too, and as such, they warrant individual study after isolation. The entourage effect is undeniable, I am very interested in deliberate recombinations of THC/CBD + terpenes for designed therapeutic effect. The rosin process will capture a more accurate profile of the original plant material due to the fact that it harvests only the trichome heads. Solvents will extract the trichome "stalks" too, and all the surface oils, leading to generally more "terpy" concentrates that their watery brethren.
 
Koerta

Koerta

21
3
I started off with concentrates, haha. I really enjoy manually vaping dry herb (blowtorch and a metal enail adapter), but it's a more time consuming and labor intensive process than just ripping off a dab.
Same here brother! My first attempt at a marijuana concentration was as a teenager in 1997... using acetone and a pipe column to wash some buds... I hadn't studied chemistry much yet, but I knew that bud resin was sticky and that acetone was great a removing sticky stuff. Fast forward 20 years and it seems the world is ready for this. :)
 
jaguarlax

jaguarlax

Supporter
888
143
I've found that rosin, especially hash rosin, has been my concentrate preference for a while. Especially from good cured bud. Live or cured resin is my 1A.

Diamonds are nice and it's a cool process, but I don't see the point of separating out the terp sauce from the THC- if someone needs straight THC for medical purposes, there's distillate. For me, it's all about how the cannabinoid and terpene mix of the strain interacts with a person's physiology. THC is a big part of that, but not everything.

Hash is wonderful as well, but isopropyl is in short supply so I can't clean my bags. For some reason (entourage effect?), it just hits harder than most concentrates.

Shatter and dry concentrates are what I'd settle for if I am out of my own bud completely. Dried concentrates are best for one scenario: travel. 😉

Yup..Rosin has been my go to for about a year now... @Koerta what is your understanding between the difference between rosin/resin or live rosin/resin
 
Mikelej14

Mikelej14

590
143
Im a fan of distillate. Super clean leaves almost nothing behind making less cleaning required on the rig :p plus it works exceptionally well. 💁
 
20200503 121707
Koerta

Koerta

21
3
Yup..Rosin has been my go to for about a year now... @Koerta what is your understanding between the difference between rosin/resin or live rosin/resin
"Rosin" is the result from pressing bubble hash on a heated press...the glands rupture, and their contents are collected after pressing.
"Resins", though, are generally the products obtained after solvent extraction. They contain plant gums and lipids, and so lend a softer consistency.
 
Koerta

Koerta

21
3
Yup..Rosin has been my go to for about a year now... @Koerta what is your understanding between the difference between rosin/resin or live rosin/resin
Regarding "live" products, those are plants that are flash frozen immediately after harvest, and then taken to extraction to preserve most of the terpenes.
 
Kanzeon

Kanzeon

1,899
263
I like this post, thanks! I would address the point of separating the terpenes from a pharmacological vantage; there are medicinal benefits to the terpenes too, and as such, they warrant individual study after isolation.

Yes, however it's more cost and labor-effective to use terps derived from plants other than cannabis, especially with the process of making diamonds.

I'd be interested to see a study done on the difference in effects of a particular strain's extracted, filtered resin versus the isolated and combined cannabinoids and terpenes that it consists of versus the total cannabinoid content of the dry matter.

Since CBD exists more in the leaves than the trichomes, trichome-centered extraction methods might actually be altering the entourage effect of a given strain.
 
Koerta

Koerta

21
3
Yes, however it's more cost and labor-effective to use terps derived from plants other than cannabis, especially with the process of making diamonds.

I'd be interested to see a study done on the difference in effects of a particular strain's extracted, filtered resin versus the isolated and combined cannabinoids and terpenes that it consists of versus the total cannabinoid content of the dry matter.

Since CBD exists more in the leaves than the trichomes, trichome-centered extraction methods might actually be altering the entourage effect of a given strain.
I completely agree, and I also believe that the entourage effect is altered. It may be anecdotal, but my personal experience has been that rosins pressed from water-hash feel more gentle, when "partoken", than the exact same strains extracted with solvents. I'm fairly certain that the extra terpenes in a solvent extraction are responsible for this difference, as I know through testing that there are no solvents present. My next test will be to dab individual terpenes in an attempt to ascertain their various palpable effects. As more analytical labs come online, more bench time will become available for such studies. :)
 
Top Bottom