Tincture - not sure what we have and how to use it

priestriver

Active Member
My wife and I made tincture from an online recipe. Very common recipe ... top of google results. Used 151 clear alcohol. 8 grams of bud. It came out great but when you put it in your mouth, like under the tongue, it burns the hell out of your mouth. So we researched that and found about evaporating the alcohol. But... if the alcohol is gone, what is the result? Our jar of about 3.5 ounces went to about 2 ounces (fluid), and the tasted is less strong, but there is black stuff forming in the bottom and I do not know what that is. We would like to know. We would also like to know is that it? Is that black stuff consumable?? Added some pics of the first result and then the black stuff after evaporation. Thank you
Tincture.jpg

Tincture with black stuff.jpg
 

Hobbes

Well-Known Member
.

There's a good video on youtube by The Magical Butter Machine, where they extract the cannabinoids using alcohol then boil off the alcohol having a RSO like substance left over.

I think the alcohol extraction is much better for you than the toxic solvent Rick uses.

.
 

Fadedawg

Well-Known Member
151 proof is 75% ethanol and sipping whiskey/vodka is only around 40%. If you remove enough alcohol, its percentage of the whole will reach 40%. You only need enough alcohol to keep the oil liquid enough to flow through a dropper.

The dark is your oil falling out of solution because of the amount of water in your 151 proof. Better to use 190 or 200 proof, so as to have less water to remove later.
 

Hugo Phurst

Well-Known Member
I make tincture (151 rum) for my cousin who has arthritis, it burns and taste like shit, puts it in her coffee & it works just fine.

Good luck
 

Fadedawg

Well-Known Member
I make tincture (151 rum) for my cousin who has arthritis, it burns and taste like shit, puts it in her coffee & it works just fine.

Good luck
Good point, there is always the dilution solution if you aren't trying to use it as a sublingual. As noted, if you are using it as a sublingual, you need to get the purity of the ethanol to less than 40%.

On another note, dielectric constant is used as a measure of polarity, with anything less than 15 considered non-polar and everything above polar. The larger the number, the greater the polarity.

Nonpolar solvents most efficiently dissolve non-polar solvents and polar solvents are most effective against polar solutes.

The cannabinoids and terpenes that you are trying to extract are not only non-polar, but hydrophobic, so are not dissolved by water.

Ethanol has a dielectric constant of 25.1, but 151 proof has about 24.5% water, which has a dielectric constant of 80.

That water causes the mixture to extract both the targeted cannabinoids and terpenes, as well as the undesirable non-targeted water soluble and polar elements. It works, but tastes like shit and is typically dark.

That is why I use 190 or 200 proof ethanol for extraction.
 
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Red Hard Head

Well-Known Member
Alcohol vs naphtha. I've tried both. The original recipe naphtha is much stronger than 95% ethanol. It evaporates completely. That said, it's not easy to find purified naphtha. There's other chemicals added or get in during processing.
 

Fadedawg

Well-Known Member
Naphtha is not a product, but a boiling point range, which includes Benzene, a known carcinogen. Light naphtha boils between 30C and 90C, with Benzene boiling at 80C.

For a non-polar extraction, I prefer to use Pentane, Butane, or Propane.
 
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