Thought I'd start a discussion on the topic of the title.
There are a few companies out there with cannabis based terpene isolations. So how do they do it and whats the best way?
To start, this is theory, I have not done this yet, but its pretty simple in basics.
The goal is to capture the same full aroma that we experience when a flower is fresh or properly dried/cured.
Traditional methods such as steam distillation will not produce a product that is representative of what we are after, heat and oxygen alters the aroma.
So if we cant heat the material at all we have to cold distill the essential oil/terpenes. In order to do this we must distill under vacuum.
No problem everyones got a vac pump and chamber now a days.
Basic steps:
Expressing trichomes. The terps are bound up in the trichomes, in order to effectively capture them we must express them, as soon as we do this they are volatizing very quickly. If we are to express the material in cold distilled water we minimize volatility while expressing it to a good carrier liquid from which to cold boil with.
Nitrogen back fill and sweep. Once we've expressed our material into h2o we place the mixture into your vac chamber/distillation unit, back fill with nitrogen gas and use it as a sweeping gas or what ever you prefer to call it, point is no oxygen, once we gas the terps they will easily oxidize and alter their original aroma.
Cold trap it. Vac distill as cold as possible to minimize heat alteration, and collect into an appropriate cold trap. Make sure you're not vacuuming out any goodness and its all getting caught in the cold trap.
Collect cold trap condensate and separate h2o from essential oil in a separatory funnel or similar.
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Its very similar to what the Gin Distillers figured out a decade or so ago, google cold distilled gin botanical infusion and Oxly Gin, there was a NY Times article about it focusing on Alcohol and Food science, one chef cold distilled a few pounds of forest soil to infuse into food.
http://www.ginfoundry.com/gin/oxley-gin/
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/02/dining/02curious.html
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I based this off of a few pretty big hints Tony V of Blue River dropped at various times. Hes stated all he uses is nitrogen gas and distilled water.
Its simple, but did you expect it to be other wise? Lots of tweaking available to refine though. Big key would be not wasting the cannabinoids left behind.
Lets assume a 2.5% return from 500g is 12.5g, @ $200/gram is $2500/500g.
I would have tested it but Im broke af and cant build an effective cold trap for a bit so thought Id share anyway.
All thoughts welcome please.
There are a few companies out there with cannabis based terpene isolations. So how do they do it and whats the best way?
To start, this is theory, I have not done this yet, but its pretty simple in basics.
The goal is to capture the same full aroma that we experience when a flower is fresh or properly dried/cured.
Traditional methods such as steam distillation will not produce a product that is representative of what we are after, heat and oxygen alters the aroma.
So if we cant heat the material at all we have to cold distill the essential oil/terpenes. In order to do this we must distill under vacuum.
No problem everyones got a vac pump and chamber now a days.
Basic steps:
Expressing trichomes. The terps are bound up in the trichomes, in order to effectively capture them we must express them, as soon as we do this they are volatizing very quickly. If we are to express the material in cold distilled water we minimize volatility while expressing it to a good carrier liquid from which to cold boil with.
Nitrogen back fill and sweep. Once we've expressed our material into h2o we place the mixture into your vac chamber/distillation unit, back fill with nitrogen gas and use it as a sweeping gas or what ever you prefer to call it, point is no oxygen, once we gas the terps they will easily oxidize and alter their original aroma.
Cold trap it. Vac distill as cold as possible to minimize heat alteration, and collect into an appropriate cold trap. Make sure you're not vacuuming out any goodness and its all getting caught in the cold trap.
Collect cold trap condensate and separate h2o from essential oil in a separatory funnel or similar.
-
Its very similar to what the Gin Distillers figured out a decade or so ago, google cold distilled gin botanical infusion and Oxly Gin, there was a NY Times article about it focusing on Alcohol and Food science, one chef cold distilled a few pounds of forest soil to infuse into food.
http://www.ginfoundry.com/gin/oxley-gin/
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/02/dining/02curious.html
-
I based this off of a few pretty big hints Tony V of Blue River dropped at various times. Hes stated all he uses is nitrogen gas and distilled water.
Its simple, but did you expect it to be other wise? Lots of tweaking available to refine though. Big key would be not wasting the cannabinoids left behind.
Lets assume a 2.5% return from 500g is 12.5g, @ $200/gram is $2500/500g.
I would have tested it but Im broke af and cant build an effective cold trap for a bit so thought Id share anyway.
All thoughts welcome please.
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