Maybe OT- Hash Oil

[Charlie Workman]

This may seem slightly OT, but bear with me. I live in a place with medical marijuana available. For the last couple of months I have been helping a patient make hash oil using a technique I found on the web. Personally, I don't smoke the stuff. It involves placing the leaf in a capped PVC pipe and running butane through it. The liquid butane is collected and evaporated leaving the oil. Since I'm more of a cook than a chemist I am curious as to the principles involved. The technique is written up by potheads, so little theory is explained. Can anyone enlighten me as to how and why this works? Also, would it work for the extraction of other alkaloids, such as nicotine? I am told the oil is very pure and potent. If it does work for other toxins it would be far better than any others I've read. This technique is so easy as to be mindboggling. Also, I have half a pound of powdered aconitum napellus root I've been wanting to try out.

----------------------------------------------------------------------"To paraphrase Aristotle, life is a gas"
-Gidget

[PYRO500]

This is definitely the wrong place to talk about drugs the only time they may be mentioned is when they pertain to explosives (PETN etc.) or weapons (poisons toxins knock out drugs etc.) this is a warning, make sure future topics pertain to the nature of this forum.

[nbk2000]

Some liquified hydrocarbons act as solvents for oils and resins (like hash and nicotine). Liquid CO2 is also used by industry for extracting caffeine from coffee to make it decaf.

So the idea of using liquid butane (which boils at like 30 degrees F) as an extractant is quite feasible.

I'd think it as simple as cooling off a butane cylinder in a slurry of dry ice and acetone to get it very cold, then pouring it into a PVC pressure vessel that has also been previously cooled with the matter to be extracted inside.

After capping and letting it warm up to room temp to soak for a bit, cool down with the dry ice/acetone slurry, uncap, filter, and let evaporate to leave the desired material behind for further work up.

But keep your topics related in the future to subject matter pertaining to the forum. In other words, no recreational drugs. Only criminal use of drugs for murder/rape/kidnapping.

[A-BOMB]

And Charlie If you want to talk about drugs go to the HIVE look on a search engine but be warned the admin/owner was arrested a little while ago and it is just back up so be careful. I think the url is <a href="http://www.poppies.org" target="_blank">www.poppies.org</a>

<small>[ June 19, 2002, 10:39 AM: Message edited by: A-BOMB ]</small>

[Rhadon]

The URL is
<a href="http://www.the-hive.ws" target="_blank">http://www.the-hive.ws</a>

The admin got arrested <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="eek.gif" /> ?? Help!

[Charlie Workman]

I think you guys misunderstood me. I'm not interested in the drug aspect. This is legal where I am, anyway. I'm interested in the potential for the easy extraction of toxic substances, such as those mentioned. I've done a enough extractions of alks (colchicine, nicotine, etc.) to be on the look out for a better way. I guess I'll have to run a few experiments to see. I'll let you know if they work. BTW, I've been to the Hive, Rhodium, et al. No joy. Maybe I'll run it past them and see if anyone can explain the principle to me. These sites are worth an in depth look. There is much overlapping chemistry.
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"To paraphrase Aristotle, life is a gas"
-Gidget

[Charlie Workman]

PS- Thanks NBK, I think you're probably correct. I only mentioned the oil in passing, as an example of this extraction working. Drug research has many crossover weapons applications, such as extracting the essence from Nasty Plants. Some of their improvised equipment is truly ingenious.
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"To paraphrase Aristotle, life is a gas"
-Gidget

[VX]

The fact that the super critical butane only extracts THC from the crude cannabis surly means that it is generally a poor solvent. It is because very few things dissolve in it that makes it good for this use. It is obviously worth trying it with other substances but I would not hold out much hope for an equally good result.

See <a href="http://home.conceptsfa.nl/~boogaar1/ganeralalkaloidextraction.htm" target="_blank">this site</a> for a method that can be used for extracting alkaloids. (Although THC is not an alkaloid)

[BoB-]

I hope I dont get castrated but; Just use alcohol, Denatured (methylated spirits), rubbing alcohol, or even grain alcohol like everclear will work. Soak it for a few days (a week is better) then remove the alcohol through slow heating.

Just *make sure* all the alcohol is gone, meths and rubbing alcohol are poisonous.

A really discusting tasting but incrediblly intoxicating drink can be made by soaking buds in everclear for a week, then just strain it, and drink up :)

[00Buckshot]

Well according to the hive, the fastest and most efficiant OTC solvent make oil with is butane. Alcohols will work but it takes days to finish, compared to the butane which takes minutes. The stuff just evaporates so fast and clean.

[Cricket]

I also really got interested in this a while back. I never got around to using the butane, but I did use acetone. It will leave a blackish goo (like honey, duh) that can be smoked (special way, flame destroys THC), or dropped onto tobacco or more weed. I always sold it, well most of it :) . Maybe to conserve butane (kinda expensive), you could use the acetone and then the butane. And also, I think water will disolve the nicotine from tobacco (not as pure as some other solvent I bet though).

[Charlie Workman]

Everyone seems to be missing the point-this is not a dope post. Have I created a monster that can no longer be suppressed? Seriously, I took another look through the Hive to see if I missed anything. Got an idea for an even easier extractor. Does anyone know offhand what type of tobacco contains the most nicotine? I live in CA, where everything related to tobacco is taxed up the ass.
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"To paraphrase Artistotle, life is a gas"
-Gidget

[0EZ0]

For the sake of information:

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica"> The main mind-altering cannabinoid is a little number called delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, for short. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica">Taken from <a href="http://www.doitnow.org/pages/126.html" target="_blank">here</a>

<small>[ June 21, 2002, 04:13 AM: Message edited by: 0EZ0 ]</small>

[xoo1246]

Remove

<small>[ December 25, 2002, 04:13 PM: Message edited by: xoo1246 ]</small>

[0EZ0]

@xoo1246,

I strongly oppose using drugs, as they tend to f**k people up :(

My post was purely for informational purposes...

<small>[ June 21, 2002, 06:05 AM: Message edited by: 0EZ0 ]</small>

[00Buckshot]

All my hate, all my urges to see what I hate burn, and my strongest beliefs are all somehow connected to chronic drug use.

At least for me, explosives and drugs go hand in hand.