CBD has become increasingly popular over the past few years. With its achieving of legal status in the UK and many medicinal benefits, it’s no surprise that vape shops in London have started to stock this extract from the marijuana plant in e liquids, edibles, and tinctures.
When it comes to how you use it, CBD is incredibly versatile, providing differing concentrations and absorptions depending on how you ingest it. However you ingest it, the process of extraction from the marijuana plant is broadly speaking, the same, and whilst you might not be extracting it yourself, you might be interested to know how it got to you in the first place. Below is a simple breakdown of just how the marijuana plant is turned into cannabidiol oil.
The Power of CO2
CO2 is one of the most popular chemical compounds used in the creation of CBD oils. This is largely due to its versatility as a solid, gas and liquid. Extracting CBD oil uses solid CO2 which is pumped from a chamber into one containing cannabis. This second chamber is pressurised enough that it turns the CO2 into a liquid, which then absorbs the oils and flavours of the marijuana. This mixture is then pumped into a third chamber where the CO2 leaves the mixture, and becomes a gas, leaving behind the extracted plant matter.
Liquid Extractors
Liquid extractors are a second way to absorb the unique properties of CBD for use in oils. Much like the CO2 based version, other liquids are pumped through a chamber and take with them the best bits of the cannabidiol compound. These are less costly than CO2 extractors as the liquids used are already in a liquid form, and therefore don’t need to be turned into such as CO2 does.
Other Solvents You Can Use
These liquid solvents include the likes of ethanol, butane, hexane, or isopropyl, all alcohols that are very reactive and cheap to manufacture or buy. These liquids may not be as efficient or clean as CO2 but do offer another way to absorb and extract CBD.
Impurities
This latter method doesn’t come without setbacks. If you use liquid extractors, you may also end up absorbing the cannabis plant’s chlorophyll and other impurities that can make the oil or CBD edibles UK a little more bitter tasting. You’ll need to be a little more precise in your extraction methods to keep these impurities at a minimum.
Infusing With Your Oil
Infusing the extracted CBD into oil is the next step in the process. Decarboxylation is the process of heating the plant material to a high temperature to extract its compounds. You then take this further extracted CBD and add it to a base carrier oil which is heated again.
Winterise Your Solution
To achieve the purest CBD isolate, you then must winterise this solution to extract any remaining impurities. To winterise for CBD isolate, you must freeze it in a 200 proof alcohol overnight and then filter it to get rid of any fats and excess materials. After this further purification, you heat up the mixture to the boiling point of the alcohol to burn it off from the pure CBD.
