ethanol extraction

Hi everyone,

I was wondering, is there anyone here that can provide any info or links to good info about ethanol extraction? Any input will be greatly appreciated

http://rollitup.org/t/iso-extractions-by-_oakley_.489366/

@qwizoking

Thanks man, but that link is for isopropanol extraction. Can you use ethanol in place?

They are both alcohols. Ethanol being somewhat more polar and less aggressive. Basically the same method but you can double soak times or nearly so, don't get confused into thinking the longer soak yields more or anything like that, it takes more time to extract.. being that its quite polar and your new I would definitely recommend fully drying the herb. It should yield you some good shatter.
Have fun

Few things your gonna want to do to get quality.

Freeze the filters, jar, ethanol and the herb. Everything but the collection vessel basically, condensation kind of not your friend..

Use at least 2 sets of filters, it takes several minutes to go through a coffee filter. A bigger prefilter keeps pieces of plant matter out, from just chilling in the etoh being filtered

Heat and light are your enemy

Importante OK

qwizoking said:

They are both alcohols. Ethanol being somewhat more polar and less aggressive. Basically the same method but you can double soak times or nearly so, don't get confused into thinking the longer soak yields more or anything like that, it takes more time to extract.. being that its quite polar and your new I would definitely recommend fully drying the herb. It should yield you some good shatter.
Have fun

Click to expand...

qwizoking said:

Few things your gonna want to do to get quality.

Freeze the filters, jar, ethanol and the herb. Everything but the collection vessel basically, condensation kind of not your friend..

Use at least 2 sets of filters, it takes several minutes to go through a coffee filter. A bigger prefilter keeps pieces of plant matter out, from just chilling in the etoh being filtered

Heat and light are your enemy

Importante OK

Click to expand...

Thanks a lot I was thinking to pick up some dry ice and drop it in an ethanol bath to get it very cold. It'll be a while ( probably a few months, just switched to 12/12) but I will let you know how it turns out. I mainly want to use etoh because it seems safer, even though it is more expensive than iso. I've done a lot of BHO, and even though I'm outside, I still don't like messing with it. Thanks again

I definitely think you should always do what your comfortable with. And even if its horribly under purged you'll be fine. but etoh and Iso are relatively safe, easily done in doors and such..remember to keep light off, no sunlight!

You say you've done a lot of bho. Why are you trying ethanol now? Just curious

My method is spelled out pretty clearly in this thread.

https://www.rollitup.org/t/just-want-easy-to-make-vape-liquid.850109/

keep the light off? wat are u talkin about ?

Light is the cannabinoids worst enemy, especially while in solution waiting for evap. Light is many times more harmful than heat. Keep the light off your extract, even typical indoor lighting will pretty drastically change the color of the extract..
Seems pretty clear if you read my post, what are you confused about?

What about Moon?

Any amount of measurable light will degrade the compounds. Obviously the lower the intensity less is lost.
I know even you should be able to wrap your head around that.
And I know you've seen the studies comparing extracts at room temp with lab lighting and room temp In the dark as well as sunlight. Let's not distract newcomers with your nonsense

You should try implementing some of the subtle techniques I've talked about. But I suppose I don't want anyone else making a product that resembles mine

qwizoking said:

I definitely think you should always do what your comfortable with. And even if its horribly under purged you'll be fine. but etoh and Iso are relatively safe, easily done in doors and such..remember to keep light off, no sunlight!

You say you've done a lot of bho. Why are you trying ethanol now? Just curious

Click to expand...

I just never felt safe doing it outside of a chemical fume hood. That's pretty much the only reason.

Many organic compounds are sensitive to light through degradation, isomerization, etc. Even your DNA is sensitive to damage by light...for example, you can get cis-syn thymine dimer formation though exposure of dsDNA to UV light. That DNA ain't getting replicated anymore....

qwizoking said:

Light is the cannabinoids worst enemy, especially while in solution waiting for evap. Light is many times more harmful than heat. Keep the light off your extract, even typical indoor lighting will pretty drastically change the color of the extract..
Seems pretty clear if you read my post, what are you confused about?

Click to expand...

Perhaps more convoluted than it may appear on the surface.

Define light. http://www.tulane.edu/~sanelson/eens211/proplight.htm

Light is just a segment of the electromagnetic spectrum continuum.

Are we talking only the visible spectrum?

If so, are we talking all of the visible specrum?

It is my understanding that we are talking about light in the UV frequency range.

Many of the waves shorter than UV pass through solid objects. They are present even when the concentrate is in an opaque container. Are they of concern?

Is there any difference in the effects of polarized UV and unpolarized UV?

Why don't you test it..
Not sure what your getting at? You may not care if light touches your extracts, but It makes a difference. You just feeling argumentative today? Or do you honestly not understand
No they aren't of concern, or at least not enough to matter, simply having a solid opaque container stops degradation. Well drastically slows it.
A typical fluorescent light that might be in your kitchen is more than enough, they also fade plastics etc, most people have observed this..medicine beer and weed should generally not see any light lol

Most polymers can be degraded by photolysis to give lower molecular weight molecules. Electromagnetic waves with the energy of visible light or higher, such asultraviolet light, X-rays and gamma rays are usually involved in such reactions.
This is probly what we should avoid

i wasnt being a dick. i honestly have never heard anyone worry about light.. seeing as how.. most of the time. the outdoor purge is done so quickly. and once inside cfls and such dont really have that much intense light so i just didnt understand if we were talking about like HIDS. or CFLS. or all light or wat... anything that can help the community im up for learning about..

because i havent seen a difference. in blowing extracts at night with no sunlight.. and bringing inside and purging during the time i slept.. with the same strain and material. the next morning to finish off the next few tubes.. and both runs came out identical... yield was a lil more on the second run because it was the end of the bag.. meaning more kief in the bottom of the bag.. but other then that. .it was the exact same color and was a nice hard as a rock shatter.

but shit.. maybe it just wasnt enough time to degrade enough?.... but i try to get my shit done asap.. and into parchment. into a bag.. and into the safe.. so its in total darkness all day...

but seriously if your seeing this make a difference.. please.. continue

qwizoking said:

Why don't you test it..
Not sure what your getting at? You may not care if light touches your extracts, but It makes a difference. You just feeling argumentative today? Or do you honestly not understand
No they aren't of concern, or at least not enough to matter, simply having a solid opaque container stops degradation. Well drastically slows it.
A typical fluorescent light that might be in your kitchen is more than enough, they also fade plastics etc, most people have observed this..medicine beer and weed should generally not see any light lol

Most polymers can be degraded by photolysis to give lower molecular weight molecules. Electromagnetic waves with the energy of visible light or higher, such asultraviolet light, X-rays and gamma rays are usually involved in such reactions.
This is probly what we should avoid

Click to expand...

Not feeling argumentative, and I sure thought I understood. Perhaps I'm too incompetent to perceive my incompetence on the subject?

As I noted, light is just a narrow segment of the electromagnetic spectrum, so why just that narrow spectrum would be involved seems like a reasonable question. Why not higher and lower on the spectrum?

Jump indirectly asked about polarized light, which does have significantly different properties, so not an unreasonable question.

My tongue in cheek guess would be that the stability of the cannabis essential oils is affected by electromagnetic waves in general, but very little until the frequency closes in on the UV spectrum and above. For that reason, I store mine in a cobalt blue container, to reflect the UV.

That of course, means it is absorbing the other wave lengths.

Just for conversation, the essential oil lives and breaths daily bathed in light, sooooo if it were a shrinking violet, why is it not destroyed in short order insitu?

Frankly I laughed at the whole light exposure thing. Yeah light degrades THC but imo at a rate that's insignificant compared to heat at room temperatures / light levels. I suppose I don't have the glow...

SnapsProvolone said:

Frankly I laughed at the whole light exposure thing. Yeah light degrades THC but imo at a rate that's insignificant compared to heat at room temperatures / light levels. I suppose I don't have the glow...

Click to expand...

I think the key here is time of exposure. You don't want it to sit for days and weeks in the light, but the time you're doing it isn't really going to do anything noticeable.

mc130p said:

I think the key here is time of exposure. You don't want it to sit for days and weeks in the light, but the time you're doing it isn't really going to do anything noticeable.

Click to expand...

Ahhhhhhhh, perspective! Not black and white, but a spot on a continuum.

Electromagnetic waves have different levels of energy, depending on their frequency and amplitude, and as the beats get shorter (increase in tempo), usually so does the amplitude.

Somewhat like the wind, they may buffet molecules at lower frequency and energy rates, but as the frequency and energy rate increases, segments start to snap and break off the molecule more frequently.

To the original point, light shortens the life of your concentrate, but unless it is intense UV, it isn't rapidly.

No reason to give anything away, so I still store my concentrates in the dark or in cobalt blue containers.