Tomato Leaf Extraction

From here

I have found out from "hard experience" some of these good smelling plant compounds get badly degraded even at the boiling temp of acetone. I picked some wonderful smelling flowers in Nevada, refluxed in acetone, and ended up with stuff that smelled like wet hay

Good Luck, have fun, and watch those ticks back yonder--don't laugh, I have Lyme Disease from a daggum Oklahoma deer tick.

Quote: Originally posted by arkoma

Quote: Phytochemicals These are typical phytochemicals found in tomato: phytoene, phytofluene, beta-carotene, flavonoids, carotenoids, lycopene, quercetin, polyphenols, kaempferol. From here I have found out from "hard experience" some of these good smelling plant compounds get badly degraded even at the boiling temp of acetone. I picked some wonderful smelling flowers in Nevada, refluxed in acetone, and ended up with stuff that smelled like wet hay

good clean acetone leaves NO smell behind. I buy the Wally World 99%, 97 cent bottles of acetone polish remover and distill them to get rid of the bitrex.

I've reading about "supercritical" extraction of oils with CO₂ and I've done butane extractions of "certain herbs". Today I ran across a method using R134a refrigerant, which my brother happens to have a few cans of laying around. If I figure out and appropriate homebuilt rig to do it, I'll pass it on to you.

Research BHO (warning cannabis chemistry), but you'll get an idea of what I wanna try with R134a. Cannabis ALSO contains its active oils in trichomes

trichomes on my friends Blue Dream female two years ago:

Alright alright, this doesn't need to turn into a stoner thread now! You guys go on and start one in Whimsy.
We're talking about tomatoes here, not pot!

[Edited on 7-17-2014 by zts16]

I was happy to see this open as I want to give it a try also. after reading the first bit I had a thought,.. given that I spend a LOT of time in the emerald triangle( doing *completely* unrelated work) I first thought of using "bubble bags" to acquire the resin glands. exactly as one would do for marijuana plant resin. the bags have diff size mesh at the bottom, and are filled with plant material, water and ice. the ice stiffens up the resin, sloshing around causes it to fall off into solution, and straining each bag out in order traps the appropriate size particles in the mesh. I don't do this, but living here you cant help but learn a few things

I also LOVE the smell of tomatoes and had set aside a large amount of our tomato plants for extraction via the previously mentioned alcohols last fall. the material went bad( not even cut down) in 2 days. we ended up with an early frost snap, ruptured all the cells and freed the wonderful smells I was after. only the wet hay smell left

in my research to find out what was responsible for the wonderful smell, I found very little. several headaches from lots of looking but the useful data was hidden in THOUSANDS of irrelevant house hold tips for growing tomato's. even after using the advanced search options and scientific wording it was a full scale brute force approach. every one thinks they have the best tips for growing the plant, and posts their drivel about it.. LAME. the few bits I found useful seemed to imply that the smell was actually a very minor constituent, and delicate at that. I don't have the papers I found, Home compy, but it was suggested they might be present in hormone scale, so very very very small amounts.

but I guess getting the resin glands off would tell a tale pretty quick, as to whether it was minor/major constituent.

one thing I learned while reading was, for delicate smells, afraid of heat/oxygen, they used to spread lard or oil( thick at room temp) in a pan or tray, and press the plant in it. cover with more layers and set aside for some time. usually flowers. afterward the scent laden fat could be used in soaps or what have you, or extracted with solvents(in the absence of what would normally come out if only an alcohol pull).

thankfully I have quite a while before my t'maters stop growing. more time to plan. bubble bags might be easy enough to mimic with out buying pot specific instruments( + them is spendy). a few patches of the screen, same as in a silk screen printing shop, should work on the small scale I have in mind. I just happen to know a screen printer it would be pretty sweet to nail this down, as I have always said I love the smell so much I would make incense out of it if I could. I won't be able to help out for at least 3 weeks though, still working away from home, so Ill keep reading hoping to find some more definitive info.

though I briefly touch on the marijuana subject, it is only to highlight a process I want to use for science, not drugs. so don't take this comment as some marijuana glorification. I am QUITE interested in the tomato smell, and have FAR too much to lose to mess with pot processing. they treat it like methamphetamine manufacture here, even if you only use water and ice. so... I choose to stay legit

[Edited on 17-7-2014 by violet sin]



[Edited on 17-7-2014 by violet sin]

Quote: Originally posted by zts16

Alright alright, this doesn't need to turn into a stoner thread now! You guys go on and start one in Whimsy. We're talking about tomatoes here, not pot! [Edited on 7-17-2014 by zts16]

it actually was on topic trichomes, plant resins, extractions

Edit--this is my idea. attach a cheap automotive A/C charge kit to it, and turn the can upside down for liquid flow.



[Edited on 7-17-2014 by arkoma]



Found this link today

[Edited on 7-17-2014 by arkoma]

and I got to second hand brag about my kid, on point too I have no probs with what people do on their own time, I just don't want it to look like I manufacture because I know a little bit. ya know

I will check that paper out this evening, thanks also, arkoma, note I mentioned ambient temp as 70'F because I remember seeing you are in a HOT climate, where you'd have to cool "ambient" to match the standard. lol. the r134A seems interesting. just wish there was an easy way to recycle it so you weren't constantly poping for cans of it.... well dry ice may be the key. I don't know what the vapor pressure would be at -78'C in a dryice/acetone cooled reciever, but it would be liquid mp, -103.3'C bp, -26.3'C. one of those double walled steel single cup size thermos might work good for that. DI/Acetone inside cup like normal and vapors would enter the vacuum shielded area( obviously drilled with two ports, and hose barbs top and bottom) and drain out the bottom as a liquid. its NOWHERE as dangerous as trying to keep butane, and in small amounts if it leaks its not gonna kill ya. be nice to see/calculate what kind of pressure would be developed in a freezer setting? garage freezer, not in the house
-Violet Sin-

edited, spelling

[Edited on 17-7-2014 by violet sin]

Left is the extraction in progress, you can see the green extract beginning to enter the siphon, right is the final product. It is very sticky and oily, and I'm not entirely sure how I will be able to remove it from the watch glass in a manner that would allow me to store it somehow. The nice floral aroma has gotten stronger since it has completely dried out.