Is anyone talking about steam distillation? or oil fractitioning? let's talk stills

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Chartreuse Spruce

Active Member
ya I know it. I can't find the one that actually shows a close up of the whole process in an alcohol solvent distillation. Did it seem to you that his ice is redundant when it just all goes back to the alcohol? I understand when the heated steam hits the cooled plate the separation occurs. But is all goes back in to be cooked for hours. It doesn't take that long to heat activate the actives right? I'm confusing myself. I have a lot to learn.
 
qwizoking

qwizoking

Well-Known Member
This is one of the most impure extractions I've ever seen.. Look first you can't reflux thc second the anol in thc and cbd means the same thing as anol in isopropanol my fav or ethanol. Lastly you can't reflux thc
 
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PurpleBuz

Well-Known Member
Chartreuse Spruce said:
ya I know it. I can't find the one that actually shows a close up of the whole process in an alcohol solvent distillation. Did it seem to you that his ice is redundant when it just all goes back to the alcohol? I understand when the heated steam hits the cooled plate the separation occurs. But is all goes back in to be cooked for hours. It doesn't take that long to heat activate the actives right? I'm confusing myself. I have a lot to learn.
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all the ice does is to prevent wastage of the solvent. At the boiling point of ethanol there is virtually no THC complex in vapor state. its too cold.
smaller serial washes will extract more.
 
qwizoking

qwizoking

Well-Known Member
Still no.. I never heard what solvent was used but essentially all he is doing is soaking it in that.I never saw a final product but I just skimmed. It doesn't matter that's not worth the effort and wouldn't result in a pure product and lots of degredation once again. Stick to polar non polar based extractions.. Most techniques utilize multiple washes in a differen solvent to isolate what you want from crap that gets dragged in
 
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Chartreuse Spruce

Active Member
qwizoking said:
Still no.. I never heard what solvent was used but essentially all he is doing is soaking it in that.I never saw a final product but I just skimmed. It doesn't matter that's not worth the effort and wouldn't result in a pure product and lots of degredation once again. Stick to polar non polar based extractions.. Most techniques utilize multiple washes in a differen solvent to isolate what you want from crap that gets dragged in
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ya I think you might be right. Ive made the oil with pure grain and was nothing like all of that difficulty and the end product is still cannabis oil sticky icky luscious tar that can go anywhere, ready to be put in food, or lotions.
 
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Chartreuse Spruce

Active Member
thanks. you guys probably saved me lots of searching and experimenting. and that word, 'winterizing' is a new one. thanks! I looked it up. do you have a really good link that might sum it up?
 
Fadedawg

Fadedawg

Well-Known Member
Chartreuse Spruce said:
Hi folks. This topic is something I am extremely interested in. It seems to me that this is the best method of extraction for use in curing disease especially the granddaddy of all disease...cancer. I am extremely interested in being proactive and preventing cancer from spreading rather than treating it later. So, I've gone on utube and googled for days trying to grasp the concept of the science of the pressure that creates the end result by distillation. Here's the thing though. Those stills, even homemade, or oil separators or distillers or whatever is the ultimate way of doing things because the end product is sooooo freakin' pure. But, simply making an alcohol based tincture, straining, and letting the alcohol evaporate, makes the same end product plus much clorophyll and other plant molecules. But ultimately the whole plant rather that pure like an essential oil made by distillation. Did I confuse? I like to use cannabis concentrate in everything from lotions to infused oils and butters. fyi...when it soaks in the skin for hours, the feel is amazing. In coconut oil, the color is the most glowing charetruse; it just looks magic. Anyway, does anyone else do anything like this?
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A good book to get on essential oil extraction is The Essential Oils, Volume 1, History, Origin in plants, Production, Analysis, by Ernest Guenther.

The lighter mono and sesquiterpenes are extracted using dry steam, but diterpenes are a stretch, so solvents are normally used for anything heavier than a sesquiterpene.

We normally extract our oils for oral and topicals using either an simple alkane like butane or hexane, or an alkane alcohol like ethanol.
 
rene112388

rene112388

Well-Known Member
Since an extraction pulls out oils with a lower bp, but not thc or anything good, couldn't you theoretically do a steam extraction to clean it up before a classic butane blast or something and come out with a better product?
 
rene112388

rene112388

Well-Known Member
Could you theoretically do a steam extraction to clean up your trim before a butane blast for a purer oil?
 
Blunter the kid

Blunter the kid

Well-Known Member
rene112388 said:
Since an extraction pulls out oils with a lower bp, but not thc or anything good, couldn't you theoretically do a steam extraction to clean it up before a classic butane blast or something and come out with a better product?
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You could steam distill the plant material to remove aromatics prior to extraction with butane followed by winterization and vacuum purge until no solvent is left and add back in the aromatics.
You could make some really good wax out of shake by doing an extraction like this, but the like always the yield depends on the material.
A microwave essential oils extractor could theoretically perform the task of steam distillation, the only thing I don't know is if cannabis really makes enough oils to easily collect the aromatics, because the layer of aromatics will float on top of the water in a very small layer.
This wouldn't necessarily make a purer oil, but when the aromatics are removed it gives you an opportunity to further clean up your extract by doing a hexane/saline wash and winterization procedure, the resulting concentrate would be purged in a vacuum, when the terpenes are removed you can purge the extract without fear of losing anything, and add the aromatics after your extract is fully purged.
 
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Fadedawg

Fadedawg

Well-Known Member
rene112388 said:
Could you theoretically do a steam extraction to clean up your trim before a butane blast for a purer oil?
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You could, but the steam also affects the diterpene cannabinoids, even though left behind the first pass.

We discussed such a joint experiment with a steam extracting essential oil supplier, and adding them back together later, but ultimately decided to do subcritical CO2 and then butane instead.
 
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