What's your favorite extraction method for plant oils?
The one thing about social media I hated was the censorship’s (and all the complaining). I had 2 successful homesteading accounts where I shared knowledge on self healing, hunting, living off grid, bartering, crop steering, permaculture, cooking, etc. that were shutdown for “violating TOS”. People reporting my vids because “hunting is unethical” or “ solar is a gimmick”. The cannabis and herbal extraction vids were toast inside 24 hours.
I gave up. I deleted everything but X and just stayed silent.
I’m thinking this may be the place to start over again.
Should I bust out all my gear and let ‘er rip again? What do those of you on nostr:npub12vkcxr0luzwp8e673v29eqjhrr7p9vqq8asav85swaepclllj09sylpugg and #NOSTR think?
Discussion
There are sooo many. I really don’t have a favorite per se. It honestly depends on the sole purpose of the application. I have a background in organic chemistry and chemical engineering so Ive extracted in ways that are. not traditional extraction methods. My wife has her bachelors in Science of nursing with a minor in biometrics so she understands how the body reacts with each constituent of the plant.
But, I can say this…
Rosin is probably my fav. Chemical/solvent extraction can be refined to hide a bad, or otherwise, sub par starting materials, rosin requires the starting material to be perfected to get perfect rosin. It’s literally an art form.
And all from ice water hash, many different types of final products can be made. All intended the way Mother Nature intended…
Natural.
If it's not rosin or ice water hash, I'm not interested. Having worked in cannabis for over a decade, they're the only forms of extract I'm willing to put in my body
Nothing wrong with chemical/solvent extraction when in the right hands. Post processing is just as important as pre and general processing. Rosin has its health drawbacks (look up lipid pneumonia). That’s why I mechanically “winterize” my rosin now.
Chemistry takes time and can’t be rushed. I’ll take an extra two days of post processing to ensure the cleanest product.
Unfortunately, most are just trying to make a quick buck and cut corners, we need more artisinal extractors that do it out of passion like yourself. Personally my preferred method of consumption is vaporizing flowers but even with that you have to be picky about how people are growing them these days.
Very true
Very nice looking! I've only used a rosin press once. I've written (and performed) SOPs for commercial ethanol extraction.
I'd love to play with a CO2 extractor. Even a small setup for home medicines (cannabis, calendula, echinacea, etc) would be fun to play with.
I’m currently working in Illinois working and just built out an ethanol and hash/rosin extraction lab. . CO2 is next on my list of implementation. Terp pulls are superior to alkanes or hydrocarbons. Dial it in and you can make some awesome products. There’s not 1 system out there that’s turnkey that I won’t make some tweaks to.
There was a company that made a small 1lb system. The name escapes me now but, you can find em on eBay rather cheap.
Just look for what you want to pull (alkaloids, polysaccharides, esters, alcohols) and look at the solubility for that particular molecule. Not all are water soluble.
If you do distillation too, I'd love to see pics. I've operated a few wipe-film systems, small and large. Fun stuff!
Now, outside of cannabis…
A food grade alcohol or boiling water (depending on alkaloids and other molecules you’re wanting to achieve) are for most of the botanicals that you find in the wild.