SweetSue's Concentrated Cannabis Oil Study Hall

SweetSue;2849452 said:

What's the easiest way I can find to make good-quality oil in my kitchen?

Some possibilities:

1. First off, the thread by 420 Motoco

How To Make Concentrated Cannabis Oil

2. Lab Rat's instructions for SCET, a slow, cold ethanol extraction.

Lab Rat;2745671 said:

Most people out there do the QWET or Quick Wash Ethanol method which yields about 3-4 grams of oil per ounce or around 13% to 14% extraction yield. The total cannabinoid content of an ounce is about 5-5.5 grams of oil, anything above that is just chlorophyll and plant waxes.

The "SCET" method or Slow Cold Ethanol will output maximum cannabinoid content while keeping the chlorophyll and plant waxes locked away in a frozen state. Extraction yield will be 17% to 19% while your oil should look more translucent like maple syrup.

This method improves upon the one posted by 420 Motoco on his main thread so I will not cover the entire extraction:

How To Make Concentrated Cannabis Oil

I do a couple of quick blasts in a food processor, it helps break up the buds and lowers the amount of ethanol needed to cover the product.

Set the freezer at the lowest temperature. Stick all your ethanol and product in the freezer for at least 12 hours. Once your ethanol reaches the coldest temperature your freezer can provide you are done, it's not going to get colder by waiting any longer but you do want your product to freeze so 12 hours should be fine.

Mix your product with your ethanol in a jar with a lid and give it a good shake, put back in the freezer for 12 hours. After 12 hours shake again and put back in the freezer for another 12 hours, shake one last time and strain to get the big stuff out.

Strain through a coffee filter, for high amounts you want to do it through several filters at the same time to avoid warming up your ethanol. At those extremely low temperatures things will get stuck in the filter which would be liquid at room temperature. This is commonly referred to as "winterizing" or filtering while cold.

Evaporate the ethanol and decarb as per Motoco's instructions.

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3. This is how easy it can be to make oil. I don't condone everything she does in this video, there are a couple necessary tweaks to dramatically improve the quality and bioavailability of the CCO, (see below) but this gives you insight into how easy it can be.

Suggested improvements:

- Freeze the decarbed and ground buds, the cup, the fork and the solvent overnight at the lowest temp you can get in your freezer.
- Do 3 quick washes for 3 minutes each. Timing is critical.
- After you strain the wash, freeze it for 24 hours before proceeding with boiling the solvent off.

Adding the winterizing steps cleans out waxes and undesirables from the end product. The critical timing of the washes is to keep from extracting chlorophyll. Your oil will be golden instead of black. Work swiftly, but carefully.

Although it's not a concentrated oil, PsyCro's olive oil extraction is a valuable oil in its own right. Made with fresh plant material it maintains the terpenes and many other compounds lost in the making of concentrated cannabis oil.

4. PsyCro's Olive Oil Extraction Method

PsyCro has a preference for this method of making a cannabis oil concentration because he believes there is more therapeutic value in using fresh plant material. His beliefs are well founded, since science proved in 1995 that myrcene, the predominant monoterpene found in cannabis, degrades by 30% in the first week of drying and drops off to an abysmal 16% of the original composition after three months of drying. Using olive oil allowed him to retain all of this valuable terpene in his oil. We're just learning of the importance of terpenes and their synergistic dance with cannabinoids. It's worth noting that as the bud material dries and cures the sesquiterpenes intensify, which suggests that the medicinal values of oil made with dried buds will have a different effect than this method.

I've done a compilation of his technique. I've taken some license with my write up, but limited that to common sense pointers like covering the resting oil with a cloth to keep out foreign matter. The original post can be found here:

Olive Oil Extract Update

The significant research material that drove his decision to use fresh plant material:

Terpenes In Cannabis.pdf

His Technique:

Use fresh plant material. The olive oil makes it possible to retain everything of medicinal value regardless of water content.

1. Ingredients:

Use a ratio of 400 grams of top-quality fresh buds to a liter of the best cold press olive oil you can get. Use an immersion blender to grind up the plant material as you add it. This method worked well for him to get this much fresh bud incorporated into the oil.

2. Cooking:

Temperature: 105 degrees Celsius (221 degrees Fahrenheit)

Use a double boiler. Water in the bottom pot won't get up to temperature so use sunflower oil for this purpose. A cooking thermometer will keep you attuned to temperature fluctuations. Stir ever five minutes or so. Although you will get fluctuations, they won't be a concern. Keep it as close as you can.

Your chief concern is that fresh bud has a fair quality of water content, so it's going to take a while to get the temperature up as the water evaporates. Use a low flame and just wait it out.

When you hit 100 degrees Celsius (212 degrees Fahrenheit) begin your countdown. Your baseline is 105 degrees Celsius (221 degrees Fahrenheit) for two hours. You'll get a feel for it in time. Keep stirring every five minutes or so throughout the process.

3. Separation

Cover and cool the oil overnight. The next day, after the oil has completely cooled to room temperature, process the oil and bud material as completely as you can. PsyCro used his vita-mix, but any food processor or blender should suffice. The idea is to get the plant material completely broken down.

Pour the entire mix into a glass pitcher and cover lightly to keep out dust and bugs. Let it settle until the finely-ground bud settles to the bottom. Pour the oil off into whatever container you plan to store it in. I'd think a glass corked kitchen bottle would be a good choice here.

To get the most oil out of the plant material PsyCro used the following method:
* Strain leftover material through cheesecloth or gauze.
* Tie it up and throw it into a pot of hot water.
* Mix thoroughly, then strain into another pot.
* Repeat two to three times.
* Separate the oil from the water. I'd think the best way to do this would be to boil the water off, but use whatever method works for you.

4. Consumption/Dosing:

The oil is simply swallowed. You can swish it around in your mouth for faster action.

1.5 ml was the daily dose PsyCro used as his standard. Remember that it takes approximately 1 gram of cannabis (figuring that 400 grams wet is equivalent to 100 grams dry) to produce 10 ml of the infused oil. Increase dose as tolerances build. It makes sense to break the daily dose up into 4 doses, one every 6 hours.

PsyCro's mother-in-law was taking 15 ml to treat her pancreatic cancer. Over a three month period her inoperable tumor shrunk from 5cm to 2cm and markers dropped from a high of 900 down to 80. In his thread (see the link above) he mentions others he helped with a supply of oil.

Have a meal about 30 minutes before ingesting . Alternatively, ingest a tablespoonful of coconut oil or some other fat 30-40 minutes before dosing to occupy the liver and increase the bioavailability of the medicated oil.

From the Cancer Protocol thread:

The bioavailability of cannabinoids is lower when taken on an empty stomach or more accurately an empty liver. Oils are metabolised mostly in the liver and by eating fat 30 minutes before administering cannabis oil the liver will be otherwise occupied when the medicine starts to circulate. A tablespoon of coconut oil is widely considered to be a healthy and effective option. Other supplements can be taken with or mixed into this coconut oil.

There's much more valuable information on giving your body the best chance for bioavailability in the first two posts of the cancer protocol thread, so I'll include a link here:

A Base Treatment Regimen For Cancer

This is a powerful edible oil. Use with caution.

Four different ways to process oil.

Some of us have been using a water or essential oil distiller for production, in an attempt to reclaim part of the solvent and help defray costs. At some point we'll get some good photo documentation of that process.

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