THCA extraction

BobCajun

BobCajun

Well-Known Member
I tried extracting THCA from some buds. Turned out alright. I extracted the resin from the buds of a small branch while still fresh, using camping fuel. The amount of bud would have been about 2 grams dried by estimate. I poured that amber solution into some deionized water with about 1 ml of potassium carbonate pH up solution mixed in, and swirled it around to mix it well. Then I suctioned the water layer out from under the camping fuel layer with a small eye dropper type thing used to measure out nutrients. I put that water in another glass, a dropper full at a time. When that was all transferred I added a little more pure water, mixed and suctioned a couple more times to get it all.

I let the water solution sit a while to evaporate any slight amount of camping fuel that may still be in it. When all the smell was gone I added about a ml of 17% phosphoric acid pH down solution, which caused immediate precipitation of a large cloud of white material. I filtered that out with some paper towel, didn't have any coffee filters. I put pure water through the powder in the filter to flush any remaining phosphoric acid out and then dried it.

After drying, I tried some. I put a little rock on some ashes in a pipe. Sizzled quite a bit. You have to go slow on it so it doesn't spatter too much. I think there was still a lot of water in it. Very smooth smoking, no coughing or harshness at all. Very little flavor. Leaves no residue when heated on foil. I got higher when smoked on the ashes though. The small amount of potassium hydroxide which is naturally in ashes would also neutralize any slight amount of phosphoric acid that may still be in the rocks. I tested the water afterwards and it was in the 3s, so apparently I put more acid than needed. This was just a crude experiment to see what would happen, no precise measuring or anything. Nice clean high. No complaints. It's good budrock.





 
BobCajun

BobCajun

Well-Known Member
I wonder what would happen if you dried out the potassium tetrahydrocannabinolate from the water solution and then tried heating the powder in a pipe. I suspect that it would decompose into THC and potassium carbonate, which would be left as a residue in the pipe. If that doesn't turn out to be true then at least the dry powder may be a good way to store THCA long term. It's probably not susceptible to oxidation in the salt form.

As for the oil in the camping fuel, I just got it dried out. Camping fuel dries very slowly. It looks and smells like oil, though not as thick as it normally would be. I smoked some and I could feel it but it was very weak, like "fool's oil", like you extracted some hemp. There must have been some active THC in the extract but very little. I got 0.25 gram of the oil. Didn't weigh the THCA when completely dry because I was smoking it as it dried but in a somewhat dry state it was 0.45 g. I guess the bud would have been more than the 2 g I estimated when dried.
 
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BobCajun

BobCajun

Well-Known Member
This is so new that you could probably sell the THCA to some rube dispensary for hella money. Look the prices here. If they test it it will come out to 95% + THCA. $80 for 285 mg, so about $300 a gram. There's a sucka born every day, huh? They'll say how the hell'd you get that and you say you used a complicated electrolytic process, that's why you have to charge them so much.

BTW, THCA has antitumor activity without getting you high, so you can take massive doses without being completely knocked out. My discovery of how easy it is to extract THCA will save a few cancer victims. Ergo, my experiment was of value. I probably shouldn't have revealed this but what's the point in me having a product that nobody has ever used and is therefore not popular?
 
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Greengenes707

Greengenes707

Well-Known Member
BobCajun said:
I tried extracting THCA from some buds. Turned out alright. I extracted the resin from the buds of a small branch while still fresh, using camping fuel. The amount of bud would have been about 2 grams dried by estimate. I poured that amber solution into some deionized water with about 1 ml of potassium carbonate pH up solution mixed in, and swirled it around to mix it well. Then I suctioned the water layer out from under the camping fuel layer with a small eye dropper type thing used to measure out nutrients. I put that water in another glass, a dropper full at a time. When that was all transferred I added a little more pure water, mixed and suctioned a couple more times to get it all.

I let the water solution sit a while to evaporate any slight amount of camping fuel that may still be in it. When all the smell was gone I added about a ml of 17% phosphoric acid pH down solution, which caused immediate precipitation of a large cloud of white material. I filtered that out with some paper towel, didn't have any coffee filters. I put pure water through the powder in the filter to flush any remaining phosphoric acid out and then dried it.

After drying, I tried some. I put a little rock on some ashes in a pipe. Sizzled quite a bit. You have to go slow on it so it doesn't spatter too much. I think there was still a lot of water in it. Very smooth smoking, no coughing or harshness at all. Very little flavor. Leaves no residue when heated on foil. I got higher when smoked on the ashes though. The small amount of potassium hydroxide which is naturally in ashes would also neutralize any slight amount of phosphoric acid that may still be in the rocks. I tested the water afterwards and it was in the 3s, so apparently I put more acid than needed. This was just a crude experiment to see what would happen, no precise measuring or anything. Nice clean high. No complaints. It's good budrock.





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Nice. Would love to see some lab results and a residual solvent test. Definitely looks like needs some more purification, still see color. But a good start. You got balls for dropping it in your pipe untested.
You could get more detailed into the process more and would probably stir up more talk. Maybe a video. Otherwise, there are a few people/groups out making totally pure THCa, and can be learned from and/or followed.
 
BobCajun

BobCajun

Well-Known Member
Greengenes707 said:
Nice. Would love to see some lab results and a residual solvent test. Definitely looks like needs some more purification, still see color. But a good start. You got balls for dropping it in your pipe untested.
You could get more detailed into the process more and would probably stir up more talk. Maybe a video. Otherwise, there are a few people/groups out making totally pure THCa, and can be learned from and/or followed.
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If you look to buy it you can't find much, except for Aphios. Anyway, it's very easy to make. It doesn't have to be potassium carbonate. It can even be baking soda, just that it's not as soluble as potassium carbonate and it's convenient to buy a ready made solution as pH up. Same with the acid. It can be vinegar. Again, phosphoric is just convenient as pH down.

You could probably skip the camping fuel and just use rosin or BHO. If you heated the alkaline water with those and mixed vigorously and let it cool and settle you would probably be able to get most of the THCA. It's pretty cool to smoke because it's like the Cannabis version of crack.

Another good thing about it is that THCA from top bud will be the same as from trimmings and bottom bud. It's a pure compound, aside from possibly a slight amount of CBDA. It's easier to standardize than herb,hash or other extracts.

BTW, the alkaline part of the process is supposed to be at a pH of about 13 and the acid part is supposed to be about 3. If using solvent, a person would have to make sure that their pH meter is not made of polystyrene or other type of plastic that dissolves in some solvents. I would only use a tester on the water part of the mixture, by extracting a small amount in a dropper. I wouldn't advise sticking it in there while the solvent layer is on top of the water layer.
 
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Greengenes707

Greengenes707

Well-Known Member
There is plenty of info. There is not step by step picture/video guide. But there is plenty of info to be absorbed.
The base patents are a start...
https://www.google.com/patents/US20050266108

then nerd out on some social media were guys like to drop tid bits of secrets/processes...thinking no one will get them all together. They should think again.

Then there is the good old textbooks that cost me an arm and a leg. AP chem will pay off after all.
Like Heisenberg said...it's just chemistry.
 
BobCajun

BobCajun

Well-Known Member
Greengenes707 said:
There is plenty of info. There is not step by step picture/video guide. But there is plenty of info to be absorbed.
The base patents are a start...
https://www.google.com/patents/US20050266108

then nerd out on some social media were guys like to drop tid bits of secrets/processes...thinking no one will get them all together. They should think again.

Then there is the good old textbooks that cost me an arm and a leg. AP chem will pay off after all.
Like Heisenberg said...it's just chemistry.
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It's actually a simple acid/base extraction but in reverse. Whereas crack is the free base of cocaine hydrochloride, THCA is the free acid of potassium tetrahydrocannabinolate, or whatever base you used. Just so happens that THCA has similar characteristics to crack, in that it melts at a low temperature, only 105 C, so it has similar smoking characteristics. Presumably most of it decarboxylates during smoking.
 
BobCajun

BobCajun

Well-Known Member
It should be possible to do this with butane. You would use cold water. Probably a separatory funnel would be good for getting the water layer out easily. Then you just prepare the BHO as usual but it will be weak in potency though high in terpenes. Some people may want that kind of medicine, BHO light with extra terpenes. For the deathly ill person on the go.
 
BobCajun

BobCajun

Well-Known Member
lio lacidem said:
Look up guild extract they are putting out lab tested 99.9% thca. Looks like a piece of clear quartz.
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I don't see it on their site, just tinctures and such. I suppose now CBD sales might slump a little, since THCA has 4x the pain relieving power. I wouldn't buy any stock in CBD companies right now, other than shorting them.

I mentioned earlier the possibility of using butane for the extraction but I was watching a few butane water rocket videos on YouTube and found that mixing butane and water vigorously tends to have nasty results. However, it's fine when just floating on the water, so you could probably stir it slowly without much danger. Just don't shake it or anything crazy like that. Actually best just to stick with camping fuel. Just don't pour it down the drain instead of drying it out though. It's very polluting, though I suppose polluting the air isn't great either. You could just leave the weak oil in the solvent and reuse it for a few more extractions until it got too full of oil, I suppose. Get your money's worth out of it.

Here's a way to avoid the camping fuel or butane. Extract the resin with alcohol or acetone. Add the potassium or sodium carbonate/bicarbonate solution gradually with stirring. Add a bunch more water to make the oil precipitate. Remove and filter the water part and add the acid to precipitate the THCA. It's a little dirtier than the camping fuel method but avoids toxic petro solvents.
 
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