Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Distilling small scale Cannabis extracts

BluReal - 15-9-2017 at 12:46

Hello,

Like the title says im looking to distill cannabinoids on a small scale. 50-100g 50% extract. So from what i understand short path distillation works best, but my question is this. Does the method of distillation change with small scale like that. Like a different column perhaps? Also i am supposed to keep my flask 1/3-1/2 full. But on 50g distillations, i would need a 150ml flask. i would need a sand bath for that i believe. and how much is lost along the way? is 50g of 50-60% extract to little? Help me out here guys, thanks in advance.

hissingnoise - 16-9-2017 at 01:01

BluReal, my whole world changed back in the early '70s when I discovered the magic of the Herb and I now kinda consider myself a cannabis connoisseur but my interests only go as far as cultivation (equatorial sativa) and basic consumption...

The resin, however, consists of a complex mix of compounds, some (if not all) of which are known to be heat-sensitive.



medchemist - 12-11-2017 at 13:11

BluReal,
Perhaps look at vacuum distillations - by lowering the pressure you lower the boiling points of substances and may be able to avoid decomposition. :D

lemuralia29a - 17-6-2018 at 09:50

what about butane extraction?

symboom - 19-8-2018 at 17:58

Butane gets expensive fast i have seen other organic non polar solvents used supposly ether works and can be evaporated off undervacuum to remove residuals leaving behind thc oil.

Unfortunately some are worried about going down that road
Amature chemistry doesnt have a great reputation thanks to "the king of random" ruining it for everyone else just because he wants more views.
Given the views about the plant society as a whole doesnt fully accept it even though it is used medically and approved by the fda as a treatment for seizures but federally illegal.in a state where it is legal for the herb they use bags that say legal use means responsible use. Which is reasonable.

A side note wellbutrin is a medication that is for treating depression the plant it is derived from is khat and its highly illegal in the US but the medication can be perscribed.
scientists have chemically tweaked the basic cathinone structure to produce other behaviour-modifying molecules including some used as prescription drugs, one being bupropion, which works as an antidepressant and can help people quit smoking.

Another example kratom is a pain relieving plant and the dea conciders it an opiate a strong drug yet many have used it to acually get away from being overly medicated and just use kratom instead for severe pain kratom acording to the goverment has no legitamate use. The country is mad more worried about a plant then the actual citizens health status.
Exactly why my country desperately needs more scientists.
Sorry thats a little off topic.

Hopfully the world as a whole will be more educated in the future and eventually worry about more important things.
do science while it is still legal as cody from codys lab put it.
Motherboard has a great interview with styropyro from youtube
That describes more about amature science and how society views it.

I have found non polar solvents used butane propane olove oil ether and lemonene

[Edited on 20-8-2018 by symboom]

JScott - 23-8-2018 at 10:06

Not sure this is the best place for my first post, but...

I have suffered refractory epilepsy since developing a brain tumor in 1986. I have tried many anti-seizure drugs and none have provided enough relief from the symptoms to be worth the toll they take on me. It took a lot of charting the come and go nature of the symptoms before I realized that those months I went seizure free, were also the months I had used marijuana recreationally. Oddly I had thought the stress of being underemployed was causative, it wasn't until my wife made the connection between our income and my use of cannabis that it made more sense.

Pot works as well as the commercially prepared drugs and with fewer sedating side effects. However, it still makes me sleepy. After years of modest use the "high" is long gone, but it's effect on cognition is still troubling. It is for these reasons that I applied my chemistry hobby to the problem. For the last five years I have been (largely by chance) trying different approaches to refining the oils that I pull from the plant.

What I have found is that you can get very high going down that route, but for me that is opposite of what I was looking for. Each time you pull one constituent from the compound, it entirely changes it's medicinal properties. So far, no high, no seizure relief. I know, I know... what about those kids with the CBC oil???!?! All I can say in answer is that I continue to look for a substance that will stop the seizures but leave me free to think and function as normal.

You want to look at the book:

'Cannabis Alchemy' by D. Gold

My copy came from Amazon.

I can't think of more complete treatment of what can be done and has been done regarding the various cannibinoids. A lot of attention is paid to papers (PhD dissertations and such) published before all of the acrimony regarding this plant (the twenties).

Some of the home made apparatuses diagrammed may give you the willies, but the procedures suggested are tried and true. There is a larger section on temperature and all of the solvents you might consider.

There is a great deal of chemistry suggested and discussed, but this book was also intended for the layperson (obviously).

Butane is one of the better solvents for cannabis extraction but there are many others and good reason to consider them depending on what you hope for. If it is a recreational substance you might choose a different route than I did. The temperatures of soxleting Ethanol are within the tolerances of the substances you seek but you bring over all kinds of stuff that "smokers" would consider objectionable.

If you are very clever, you may synthesize THC Acetate. And be the first to do so since Acetic anhydride went on the naughty list.

Hope I haven't stained my reputation here as a stoner, it's been hard enough living with the seizures, but there are times the cannabis hatred has been overwhelming. Try to explain a positive drug test to a future employer (even with a full medical registration and doctors supervision of my chemistry, I live in one of those pro pot states).

Sorry for all of the edits, I also learned a great deal from (and occasionally confuse this title with the other):

'Marijuana Chemistry' by Michael Starks

also on Amazon

[Edited on 8-23-2018 by JScott]

[Edited on 8-23-2018 by JScott]