Chloroform Extraction- First Attempt

atrumblood · Mar 15, 2017

ttystikk said:
To avoid excess chlorophyll extraction, those who use isopropyl alcohol as the solvent do a 'quick wash' to avoid letting the solvent sit too long on the material. Such an approach might be useful with this solvent as well.

I may explore chloroform more in the future when I have some bud I can spare. I'll admit that the bud I used was not the best quality. (~160 seeds in those 26 grams). However my goal was to test whether chloroform would be a good solvent for this process. Next time I will try chilling the chloroform to a below freezing temperature and extract by shaking instead of soxhlet.

Of course if I go that route, I will need to do this all in my fume hood in my lab.

Perhaps I should test these methods out on another plant material instead of bud just to make sure I am not wasting weed.

Some day when I am feeling brave, I may put together a simple CO2 extraction apparatus and give that a try.

natureboygrower · Mar 15, 2017

atrumblood said:
I may explore chloroform more in the future when I have some bud I can spare. I'll admit that the bud I used was not the best quality. (~160 seeds in those 26 grams). However my goal was to test whether chloroform would be a good solvent for this process. Next time I will try chilling the chloroform to a below freezing temperature and extract by shaking instead of soxhlet.

Perhaps I should test these methods out on another plant material instead of bud just to make sure I am not wasting weed.

Some day when I am feeling brave, I may put together a simple CO2 extraction apparatus and give that a try.

thank you for sharing all this! these extractions take time,and should be explored more than with just one run.
I've messed around with a soxhlet all winter using grain alcohol.I've definitely had my share of success and failure lol.my yields after running 28g of decarb material is 3.5/4 grams of finished product.imo it's way stronger than any of the bho I used to make and lasts the same amount of time or longer up against my 5 grams bho yields. I've since moved onto to using my extracts in edibles and what a nice change up.I always figured I'd move away from smoking herb to edibles one day,just wasn't too keen on cannabutter or eating a bho product.now I make and eat gummies during the day and really look forward to hitting a joint at night.look forward to hearing more about your work.

atrumblood · Mar 15, 2017

natureboygrower said:
thank you for sharing all this! these extractions take time,and should be explored more than with just one run.
I've messed around with a soxhlet all winter using grain alcohol.I've definitely had my share of success and failure lol.my yields after running 28g of decarb material is 3.5/4 grams of finished product.imo it's way stronger than any of the bho I used to make and lasts the same amount of time or longer up against my 5 grams bho yields. I've since moved onto to using my extracts in edibles and what a nice change up.I always figured I'd move away from smoking herb to edibles one day,just wasn't too keen on cannabutter or eating a bho product.now I make and eat gummies during the day and really look forward to hitting a joint at night.look forward to hearing more about your work.

Thanks for your support Natureboygrower. My whole reason for wanting to get into extractions is because I have a hard time getting my edibles to be consistent in strength. Some times the edibles are very weak and takes at least 2-3 servings to get you good and buzzed. Other times I can get a batch that kicks my ass with just a few bites. So I want to explore extractions in order to maintain consistency with each batch. If I can come up with a way to make high grade extracts and then measure those out into butter or oil depending on the recipe, then I can reduce the amount of product I need to make edibles and thus increase my profit margin.

atrumblood · Mar 15, 2017

Stay tuned guys. I am not done with this adventure yet. I still intend on finishing the purification of the crude product. If I get even 1 gram of high quality "Dabs" then it was worth it considering I couldn't sell the poor quality weed I used for this.

natureboygrower · Mar 15, 2017

atrumblood said:
Thanks for your support Natureboygrower. My whole reason for wanting to get into extractions is because I have a hard time getting my edibles to be consistent in strength. Some times the edibles are very weak and takes at least 2-3 servings to get you good and buzzed. Other times I can get a batch that kicks my ass with just a few bites. So I want to explore extractions in order to maintain consistency with each batch. If I can come up with a way to make high grade extracts and then measure those out into butter or oil depending on the recipe, then I can reduce the amount of product I need to make edibles and thus increase my profit margin.

I think you'll be happy with your results.I'm happy with mine.I've only done one batch so far (another coming up in another day or so) I used 3 grams of extract and made over 100 regular sized gummy bears.I have not notice any consistency problems.2 gummies in the am and I am set!!

ttystikk · Mar 15, 2017

atrumblood said:
Thanks for your support Natureboygrower. My whole reason for wanting to get into extractions is because I have a hard time getting my edibles to be consistent in strength. Some times the edibles are very weak and takes at least 2-3 servings to get you good and buzzed. Other times I can get a batch that kicks my ass with just a few bites. So I want to explore extractions in order to maintain consistency with each batch. If I can come up with a way to make high grade extracts and then measure those out into butter or oil depending on the recipe, then I can reduce the amount of product I need to make edibles and thus increase my profit margin.

Issues with decarboxylation are a commonly cited reason for such variability in perceived potency.

ttystikk · Mar 15, 2017

natureboygrower said:
I think you'll be happy with your results.I'm happy with mine.I've only done one batch so far (another coming up in another day or so) I used 3 grams of extract and made over 100 regular sized gummy bears.I have not notice any consistency problems.2 gummies in the am and I am set!!

It's consistency between batches that's the challenge. It's a learning process. Fortunately, even the mistakes are usually still edible lol

natureboygrower · Mar 15, 2017

ttystikk said:
It's consistency between batches that's the challenge. It's a learning process. Fortunately, even the mistakes are usually still edible lol

ah ok,gotcha.interesting. unfortunately I won't be able to test that on the next batch,as I'm going to use more extract and from a different strain.good to know though being new to the edibles world.

MikeGanja · Mar 15, 2017

natureboygrower said:
I think you'll be happy with your results.I'm happy with mine.I've only done one batch so far (another coming up in another day or so) I used 3 grams of extract and made over 100 regular sized gummy bears.I have not notice any consistency problems.2 gummies in the am and I am set!!

How do you make those gummy bears? Sounds tasty!

MikeGanja · Mar 15, 2017

atrumblood said:
If I can come up with a way to make high grade extracts and then measure those out into butter or oil depending on the recipe, then I can reduce the amount of product I need to make edibles and thus increase my profit margin.

How is the profit margin in edibles compared to pure extracts? There must be a market, hard to find where I live (EU).

natureboygrower · Mar 15, 2017

MikeGanja said:
How do you make those gummy bears? Sounds tasty!

so easy brother! I'm sure there's a healthier version,I picked this one because it was so simple.
1/2 cup cold water
1 package jello
4 envelopes gelatin
extract
gummy bear molds
I bought a 3 pack of bear molds from amazon(50 bears per silicone mold)
mix the gelatin and jello together add your h20,get that to a boil,put heat to low for 5 minutes.take off from heat and add your extract and mix.syringe your mix into the greased molds and refrigerate. it sets up really fast,they popped right out of the molds after about an hour.they'd be ready beforeto that I think.I sprayed the molds with Pam before I filled them and the molds came with a syringe that worked surprisngly well.you want to work fast getting the mix into the molds,that gelatin set ups really fast.it will solidify after sitting for a bit.

MikeGanja · Mar 15, 2017

natureboygrower said:
so easy brother! I'm sure there's a healthier version,I picked this one because it was so simple.
1/2 cup cold water
1 package jello
4 envelopes gelatin
extract
gummy bear molds
I bought a 3 pack of bear molds from amazon(50 bears per silicone mold)
mix the gelatin and jello together add your h20,get that to a boil,put heat to low for 5 minutes.take off from heat and add your extract and mix.syringe your mix into the greased molds and refrigerate. it sets up really fast,they popped right out of the molds after about an hour.they'd be ready beforeto that I think.I sprayed the molds with Pam before I filled them and the molds came with a syringe that worked surprisngly well.you want to work fast getting the mix into the molds,that gelatin set ups really fast.it will solidify after sitting for a bit.

Thanks alot! I will try that ASAP!

natureboygrower · Mar 15, 2017

MikeGanja said:
Thanks alot! I will try that ASAP!

of course man!one other thing,if you have someone to help it speeds up the mold filling process .I bought two sets of molds so I had two syringes.once they have set up and are out of the mold,dust them with confectionery sugar to keep them from sticking. I broke mine down into 10 bears a bag and froze the whole lot.I'd take a bag out as needed,dump the bag onto a dry paper towel to absorb some moisture off the gummies while they thawed. once thawed I transfer the bears into a dry bag.sorry,forgot a few steps of what I found is helpful :bigjoint:

GL!

BobCajun · Mar 15, 2017

It works with no oil of any kind? Maybe all you need to do is mix extracts with sugar. It bonds onto the sugar. They use that method for some types of hops extracts for brewing. The patent I saw mixed them for about a week though so I don't know if it would work with just a few minutes of mixing. That must be what's happening with your gummi bears though because normally you'd expect the extract to just separate out while it's still liquid gummi mix.

Actually I just did a quick search for the patent and found a similar one. Apparently if you heat it enough you don't need to mix for a week. Would it make weed extracts water soluble? Have to try it and find out. I don't have a bunch of extract around for experiments myself though.

natureboygrower · Mar 15, 2017

BobCajun said:
It works with no oil of any kind? Maybe all you need to do is mix extracts with sugar. It bonds onto the sugar. They use that method for some types of hops extracts for brewing. The patent I saw mixed them for about a week though so I don't know if it would work with just a few minutes of mixing. That must be what's happening with your gummi bears though because normally you'd expect the extract to just separate out while it's still liquid gummi mix.

the color of the gummies is very uniform.there are some gummies where you can see some tiny dots of the darker colored oil but not the majority.
I used lemon flavored jello so the gummies themselves are yellow/orange(easy to spot the ones with the dots).the jello/extract stayed mixed for awhile as I wasn't properly set up and it sat for longer than it had to.

natureboygrower · Mar 15, 2017

BobCajun said:
It works with no oil of any kind? Maybe all you need to do is mix extracts with sugar. It bonds onto the sugar. They use that method for some types of hops extracts for brewing. The patent I saw mixed them for about a week though so I don't know if it would work with just a few minutes of mixing. That must be what's happening with your gummi bears though because normally you'd expect the extract to just separate out while it's still liquid gummi mix.

Actually I just did a quick search for the patent and found a similar one. Apparently if you heat it enough you don't need to mix for a week. Would it make weed extracts water soluble? Have to try it and find out. I don't have a bunch of extract around for experiments myself though.

Maybe it's the gelatin?I just did a little research on gelatin,and it can be used as a separating agent,making b-carotene water soluble.think this might be what is going on?
also, gelatin is a fat,wouldn't that act like an oil?

BobCajun · Mar 15, 2017

natureboygrower said:
Maybe it's the gelatin?I just did a little research on gelatin,and it can be used as a separating agent,making b-carotene water soluble.think this might be what is going on?
also, gelatin is a fat,wouldn't that act like an oil?

Did a search and found that gelatin can in fact be used as a carrier for drugs. Combining it with PEG apparently makes it even better, at least for some drugs. I don't think it said how much of each to use but there may be references in the article. I guess that's why it became a popular way to prepare extracts for use, because it works. Probably be a good idea to eat something with oil or fat in it at the same time though, or at least drink some milk.

atrumblood · Mar 16, 2017

MikeGanja said:
How is the profit margin in edibles compared to pure extracts? There must be a market, hard to find where I live (EU).

From what I understand. A gram of good extract will net you about 50 USD.
So assuming you are able to get 50 USD / gram, and you can get 5 grams from an ounce. Then you can net 250. not bad if you grow your self. If you buy your weed to extract and then resell, you can make a decent profit assuming you can get it cheap.

ttystikk · Mar 16, 2017

atrumblood said:
From what I understand. A gram of good extract will net you about 50 USD.
So assuming you are able to get 50 USD / gram, and you can get 5 grams from an ounce. Then you can net 250. not bad if you grow your self. If you buy your weed to extract and then resell, you can make a decent profit assuming you can get it cheap.

Where do you get 50/gram?? Tell me so I can supply THAT market!

atrumblood · Mar 16, 2017

ttystikk said:
Where do you get 50/gram?? Tell me so I can supply THAT market!

It is just what I hear from my friends and acquaintances. Many have told me they would have no problem paying 50 a pop for good stuff.

Chloroform Extraction- First Attempt

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