The other day I was asked by an acquaintance why the tincture they were making had very little, if any, noticeable medicinal or psychoactive effect. They swore they followed the same process found in a book on making edibles and soaked the cannabis in high proof for weeks but the tincture just didn’t work.
The answer was simple but one that many in the cannabis industry don’t understand. One very important and necessary extra step had been overlooked. Cannabis used to make tinctures as well as other edible cannabis products requires decarboxylation. From asking around I have a feeling a lot of you just blurted out “Say What?â€
So here is the deal. THCA (Tetrahydrocannabinolic Acid) is found in abundance in growing and harvested cannabis and is a biosynthetic precursor of THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol). Wow, this sounds scary like organic chemistry, doesn’t it? It is, so for both of our benefits, I’ll give you the dumbed down version.
Research suggests THCA has anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects but does not produce the psychoactive effect that make you feel “highâ€. This “high†is from the cannabinoid THC, of which little if any is found when cannabis is growing or recently harvested.
Decarboxylation is a chemical reaction that releases carbon dioxide (CO2). This means a chemical reaction takes place in which carboxylic acids loose a carbon atom from a carbon chain. This process converts THCA to THC, the much loved compound with many medicinal and psychoactive effects. When the cannabis drys, it very very slowly begins to decarboxylate and converts THCA to THC.
The good news is we don’t have to wait years for cannabis to decarboxylate. We can speed things along with a process that is a lot simpler than you might expect. Simply heating dried cannabis to the correct temperature for enough time releases that carbon dioxide and creates THC. Why have so many of you never heard of this before? Decarboxylating takes place without extra effort when cannabis is heated during the act of smoking or vaporizing. It also takes place to some degree when cannabis is cooked into butter or when hash and kief are added to a favorite recipe and then cooked in the oven.
When making tinctures, cannabis is not heated or baked, it is simply soaked in high proof alcohol. Decarboxylation never takes place and you end up with a product with a lot of THCA and very little THC. This may be a good for some symptoms but will not produce the results most expect.
Setting Up The Experiment
After explaining decarboxylation it became clear why the tincture was ineffective. Naturally they wanted to know how to decarboxylate cannabis quickly and easily so they could get on with making their tincture. I knew how to do it, but I really needed to nerd out for a bit so I could give them the best possible answer.
It really is as easy as heating the cannabis, but for how long and at what temperature? If the cannabis is heated to much, we run the risk of vaporizing and losing some of the important cannabinoids, terpenes and flavonoids which have medicinal properties. At the same time we want remove the CO2 as quickly and effectively as possible.
According to a report published by John M. McPartland and Ethan B. Russo “Cannabis and Cannabis Extracts: Greater Than the Sum of Their Parts?â€, the boiling points, and hence vapor point of the major cannabinoids, terpenes, and flavonoids range from 246.2° and 435.2° Fahrenheit. I have included a substantial list taken from this report in the appendix of this article. This indicates that by staying under 246.2° Fahrenheit there should be little if any inadvertent vaporization of plant compounds that might produce medicinal benefits. I do need to qualify the above statement by saying that some terpenes actually evaporate to some degree while the plant is growing and there is not much that can be done about it.
I decided to conduct a bit of an experiment to see if my hypothesis was correct. I had some extra kief and trim that I had been keeping in storage for a rainy day. They would work perfect for the experiment and there would be no great loss if things didn’t go as planned.
Easy Steps to Decarboxylation
Consumer grade ovens are not always exact so I decided to shoot for a decarboxylation temperature of around 240° Fahrenheit. This should produce quick results without losing any medicinal potency. 30 minutes seemed like a nice round number for a first test and should give the kief and trim plenty of time to come up to temperature.
Kief has a tendency to ball up in the bag which could lead to uneven temperatures and possibly uneven decarboxylation. Before I put it in the oven, I loosened up the clumps with a fork. While most of the trim was already fairly broken up from its time in the kief tumbler, there were still some budlets in the trim that I wanted to break apart.
A few minutes in the Cuisinart works great for breaking up trim and also works well on buds if you have a bunch of joints to roll. The static from the plastic separated out some low grade kief which loosely clung to the lid of the Cuisinart. I brushed this back into the trim.
I placed a pizza stone on the middle rack of the oven and set the oven dial to bake at as close to 240° Fahrenheit as possible. Ovens lose a lot of heat when the door is opened and sometimes the temperature spikes with little explanation. The pizza stone absorbs the heat and helps maintain a constant temperature. In order to track my temperature accurately I used a thermometer with a heat resistant cord. I placed the thermometer on the pizza stone and the digital readout on the counter next to the oven where it could be monitored.
Once the temperature reached about 240° and did not appear to be increasing I placed a small Pyrex bowl of kief and another of the trim on the pizza stone. I set my timer for 30 minutes and continued to monitor the temperature. A Pyrex lasagna dish would be perfect for larger quantities. As expected, the temperature fell a few degrees from opening the door and then came back up to temperature. Throughout the half hour the temperature rose and fell several times for no apparent reason but stayed between 229° and 245° Fahrenheit.
After 30 minutes I removed both Pyrex containers with an oven mit and placed them on the counter to cool. Both the kief and the trim had noticeably fluffed up and gave off a slightly roasted scent. I took a few grams of each and packaged them for lab testing.
I returned the Pyrex dishes to the oven and set the timer for another half hour. I was pretty sure that 30 minutes had been enough to mostly decarboxylate the kief and trim, but just in case I wanted a backup test at a full hour. Either way I had to be patient and wait a few days for the test results to come back.
Results of Decarboxylation Experiment
The following charts show the results of the 30 minute and 60 minute decarboxylation experiments. Also included are the lab results from testing done prior to any artificial decarboxylation to establish a starting point. Note that because of the age of both the kief and the trim, decarboxylation had begun to take place to some degree naturally. This may not be your starting point, but should not affect the results of the experiment much.
Kief
| Compound | Before Decarb | 30 Min Decarb | 60 Min Decarb |
| THCA | 24.5% | 2.6% | .1% |
| THC | 3.8% | 25.4% | 25.5% |
| CBDA | .6% | .3% | .3% |
| CBD | 0% | 1% | .1% |
| CBN | .4% | 1% | 1.4% |
| Moisture | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Total Cannabanoids | 29.3% | 30.3% | 27.4% |
Cannabis Trim
| Compound | Before Decarb | 30 Min Decarb | 60 Min Decarb |
| THCA | 6.5% | 2.9% | .2% |
| THC | .6% | 4.8% | 6.9% |
| CBDA | .2% | .2% | .1% |
| CBD | 0% | 0% | .1% |
| CBN | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Moisture | 3.4% | 4.5% | 0% |
| Total Cannabanoids | 7.3% | 7.9% | 7.3% |
Testing provided by SC Labs
As you can see from the two charts, 30 minutes was not quite enough to completely decarboxylate either the kief or the trim. At 30 minutes the kief was about 90% decarboxylated but the trim was only about 60% decarboxylated. This difference is likely because the trim had a higher starting moisture content. After 60 minutes however, both keif and trim samples were close enough to 100% decarboxylation for my satisfaction.
So there you have it. 240° F for 60 minutes should be enough to decarboxylate any cannabis with a reasonably low moisture content. For material with higher moisture content, the time can be extended but the temperature should not be increased. If you are concerned about losing organic compounds, lower heat can be used but the time should be extended to compensate.
Interesting Findings
As with most experiments, the results often lead to new questions. Here are a few unexpected finding that may lead to future experiments.
The kief and trim both appear to have lost some total cannabinoids after the second 30 minutes in the oven. Some of you might suggest this is from vaporization from being at temperature for too long. This could be true, thought they were from the same plant they were not the exact same samples. Additionally lab tests do have a margin of error, so I’m not sure that is a safe assumption. This would need to be tested with more samples to have a solid verdict.
For some reason the moisture content of the trim tested higher after the first 30 minutes in the oven. I have no idea why this would be. It could just be a fluke.
Tbe CBDA did not appear to convert to CBD during the decarboxylation of the THCA. Some further research might shed some light on this.
Appendix – Cannabis Cannabinoids, Terpenes and Flavonoids
As I mentioned above, here is the list of some commonly found cannabinoids, terpenes and flavonoids that I used to pick my decarboxylation temperature. This is by no means a complete list but it’s the best I could find.
Phytocannabinoids
THC (Δ-9-tetrahydrocannabinol)
Boiling point: 157° C / 314.6° Fahrenheit
Properties: Euphoriant, Analgesic, Anti Inflammatory, Antioxidant, Antiemetic
CBD (cannabidiol)
Boiling point: 160-180°C / 320-356° Fahrenheit
Properties: Anxiolytic, Analgesic, Antipsychotic, Anti Inflammatory, Antioxidant, Antispasmodic
CBN (Cannabinol)
Boiling point: 185°C / 365° Fahrenheit
Properties: Oxidation, breakdown, product, Sedative, Antibiotic
CBC (cannabichromene)
Boiling point: 220° / 428° Fahrenheit
Properties: Anti Inflammatory, Antibiotic, Antifungal
Δ-8-THC (Δ-8-tetrahydrocannabinol)
Boiling point: 175-178°C / 347-352.4° Fahrenheit
Properties: Resembles Δ-9-THC, Less psychoactive, More stable Antiemetic
THCV (Tetrahydrocannabivarin)
Boiling point: < 220°C / <428° Fahrenheit
Properties: Analgesic, Euphoriant
Terpenoid Essential Oil Components of Cannabis
β-Myrcene
Boiling point: 166-168°C / 330.8-334.4° Fahrenheit
Properties: Analgesic. Anti Inflammatory, Antibiotic, Antimutagenic
β-Caryophyllene
Boiling point: 119°C / 246.2° Fahrenheit
Properties: Anti Inflammatory, Cytoprotective (gastric mucosa), Antimalarial
d-Limonene
Boiling point: 177°C / 350.6° Fahrenheit
Properties: Cannabinoid agonist?, Immune potentiator, Antidepressant, Antimutagenic
Linalool
Boiling point: 198°C / 388.4° Fahrenheit
Properties: Sedative, Antidepressant, Anxiolytic, Immune potentiator
Pulegone
Boiling point: 224°C / 435.2° Fahrenheit
Properties: Memory booster?, AChE inhibitor, Sedative, Antipyretic
1,8-Cineole (Eucalyptol)
Boiling point: 176°C / 348.8° Fahrenheit
Properties: AChE inhibitor, Increases cerebral, blood flow, Stimulant, Antibiotic, Antiviral, Anti Inflammatory, Antinociceptive
α-Pinene
Boiling point: 156°C / 312.8° Fahrenheit
Properties: Anti Inflammatory, Bronchodilator, Stimulant, Antibiotic, Antineoplastic, AChE inhibitor
α-Terpineol
Boiling point: 217-218°C / 422.6-424.4° Fahrenheit
Properties: Sedative, Antibiotic, AChE inhibitor, Antioxidant, Antimalarial
Terpineol-4-ol
Boiling point: 209°C / 408.2° Fahrenheit
Properties: AChE inhibitor. Antibiotic
p-Cymene
Boiling point: 177°C / 350.6° Fahrenheit
Properties: Antibiotic, Anticandidal, AChE inhibitor
Borneol
Boiling point: 210°C / 410° Fahrenheit
Properties: Antibiotic
Δ-3-Carene
Boiling point: 168*C / 334.4° Fahrenheit
Properties: Anti Inflammatory
Flavonoid and Phytosterol Components of Cannabis
Apigenin
Boiling point: 178°C / 352.4° Fahrenheit
Properties: Anxiolytic, Anti Inflammatory, Estrogenic
Quercetin
Boiling point: 250°C / 482° Fahrenheit
Properties: Antioxidant, Antimutagenic, Antiviral, Antineoplastic
Cannflavin A
Boiling point: 182°C / 359.6° Fahrenheit
Properties: COX inhibitor, LO inhibitor
β-Sitosterol
Boiling point: 134°C / 273.2° Fahrenheit
Properties: Anti Inflammatory, 5-α-reductase, inhibitor
Decarboxylating Cannabis: Turning THCA into THC,
Great info! Thanks.
Just curious…. I am growing to make edibles. Can I take the plant straight from the planter and put it in the oven? Then make cannibutter? Or do I need to dry and cure it first? I don’t smoke it.
You don’t need to cure it, but I would air dry it first. Do you need to? Probably not, but I would.
If you started the extraction process with a high proof alcohol without decarboxylating the cannabis is there a way to decarboxylate the THCa in the alcohol? Can you just heat the alcohol mixture.
Yes, this method works but when you heat alcohol it evaporates into a flammable gas so proceed with caution.
Hey Rambo, I am an avid edibles maker, who is just beginning to work with some bho, and I was curious if you have any history with that? While I’m cooking the oil, it steadily releases bubbles, which begin to trickle toward the end of the timer. I was wondering if you think this is the decarboxylation occuring here, and also when the bubbles cease to occur, would you agree this is a way for me to judge that the decarboxylation is completed?
I think you are on the right track here. I am guessing your bubbles are a good indicator but I’m not scientist so can’t tell you for certain.
I have made Green Dragon a few times before with the results ranging from very disappointing to totally awesome. The decarb process is the critical step, and I have long wondered what the optimal time/temp combination is. This thread is wicked cool and a huge help. Thanks!
Hey I have a question. What size Pyrex bowl were you using for the amount of cannabis you used?
I used a small custard size dish, but I don’t think it makes any difference.
THANK YOU! I have been searching ages for an article THIS CLEAR! <3 You rock!
Hi Rambo, thank you so much for this informative and useful article. I have needed to find an alternative to pulling cannabis into my lungs for a long time and think I’ve finally found it! With so much information on the web it’s hard to get reliable data on how to do it properly and I’d tried a couple of times, only to waste.
Before I found your article, I had boiled then brought to a simmer for 2 hours: water, butter and dried ground bud. My understanding was that boiling in water keeps the temp at 212 degrees F. After reading your article and no means of testing, I figured that this may have been a good balance to your 1 hour @ 240 degrees. After cooling it, I baked the butter into chocolate & peanut butter chip cookies, which turned out great, with each cookie equaling about 1/8 gram or one pretty good toke.
But I’m thinking that a tincture may be the way to go.
My question is: if you decarboxylate in water like I did or dry like you did, and then bake it at 350 for 15 minutes or cook it as an ingredient in a recipe, doesn’t that further break down or vaporize the cannabinoids or THC or other good stuff? That is, if I took the bud butter I made and spread it on toast or a cracker, wouldn’t it be more potent? It seems to me that cooking it twice might be overdoing or losing something. Any thoughts?
I’m glad you found the article helpful. To answer your question, you can’t over decarboxylate cannabis. It is either fully decarboxylated or partially but once it get to 100% it doesn’t keep going. That being said, temperatures that are to high will vaporize the cannabinoids and you will loose them. This likely happens to some degree when you bake edibles in the oven at 350. That being said, enough is probably trapped that you still have a mighty potent brownie.
Very precise information Rambo, congratulations. I’d like to have your opinion on this : let’s suppose there’s a safe way to decarb in high proof alcohol at 240F or above, in a sealed high pressure vessel. Would there be significant gains to this approach, or am I just wasting my time?
I have talked to a few people who do it this way and they say it works quite well. The key word is safe.
Temps to evaporate alcohol above 194 deg f will produce fusal oil which is the chemical that causes hangovers. Other poison compounds evaporate off at higher temps as well. Just sayin!
Rambo,
Regarding the increased moisture content after 30 minutes in the oven:
The way that most ovens burn fuel (hydrocarbons) leave CO2 (or CO) and H2O as byproducts. It’s common in commercial settings to notice a damp oven when it first starts heating up, before the average temperature is hot enough to dispel the moisture before it gets a chance to build up.
Preheating your oven (perhaps longer than the preheat cycle), should make that a non-issue.
Hi just dropped in today, nice place you got by the way, and I’ve got a question.
So if I set my vaporizer to less than 240, the spent bud regarded as waste is converted into a higher drug if eaten or extracted.
Q. So why waste good dope on an oven your not going to sleep with.
If you vaporize at 240 degrees F you are likely getting very few of the cannabinoids in the cannabis because this temperature is to low for vaporization. As for your Q. I don’t sleep with my oven and I have no idea what you are talking about. Ask clear and concise questions if you want answers.
I vaporize @200 degrees C. I found that what remains can be slow cooked in coconut oil (150 F for a few hours)–in effect, doubling the mileage. Actually, perhaps quadrupling it as the high lasts so much longer when ingested.
Thanks for a great post.
Sorry if this question sounds a little stupid or slow, but decarboxylazation would occur even if the kief or plant matter was in oil correct? And then if it did the oil would contain all the canabinoids correct?
Cannabis will decarboxylate in oil, or in pretty much any other substance it is in as long as there is heat. This takes place when you make butter as well as when you make with that butter or oil.
I don’t have a conventional oven. Tried using a toaster oven with a thermometer and burned it all up, all the product was wasted. I’m wondering if anybody has had any success decarbing in a crock pot?
A crockpot will work if your are making oil or butter, it will decarb while you make it.
Hi Rambo,
I’ve been reading that with age and heat THC into CBN causing a more sedative effect, “Fresh samples of marijuana contain very little CBN but curing, poor storage, or processing such as when making hashish, can cause much of the THC to be oxidized to CBN. Pure forms of CBN have at most 10 percent of the psychoactivity of THC.
Like CBD, it is suspected of potentiating certain aspects of the high, although so far these effects appear to be slight. CBN seems to potentiate THC’s disorienting qualities. One may feel more dizzy or drugged or generally messed up but not necessarily higher.
In fact, with a high proportion of CBN, the high may start well but feels as if it never quite reaches its peak, and when coming down one feels tired or sleepy. High CBN in homegrown grass is not desirable since it represents a loss of 90 percent of the psychoactivity of its precursor THC.” (copied from http://www.420magazine.com/forums/cannabis-facts-information/76763-marijuana-cannabinoids-thc-cbd-cbn.html
Do you know anything about this? Such as, wouldn’t over decarboxylation cause this breakdown, or how can one minimize CBN conversion if trying to minimize sedative effects, in both decarbing and making extracts in fats or heated alcohol?
My understanding is that THC does not turn into CBN after the buds are harvested but THC degrades into CBN if the plant is allowed to continue to grow past full maturity. I don’t know that much about it but I know that CBN will not increase over time once the buds are harvested. Decarbing will not effect CBN levels.
Apologies mod, for misplacement
I’d like to echo praise for the article and comments, and ask:
1. When making alcohol tincture, having decarb’d, does the container need to be sealed? Obviously some alcohol will evaporate, but will the boiling/evap. point of the dissolved THC be lowered and evaporate with it? Certain posts seem to suggest not but clarification would be excellent
I’m aware of my display of ignorance of what is probably quite basic chemistry there
2. Removal of moisture alone does not constitute decarboxylation. Fine. However, is the COOH NECESSARILY lost as moisture is? That is to say – does moisture loss in fact represent decarb’ing and are they part of the same chemical reaction? (COOH release being infeasible to measure)
I agree it seems strange that water loss should require any chemical reaction but…
This I ask because some, within their domains, seemingly reputable posters advocate and describe decarb’ing with nothing more than freezing for a few hours – the freezing drawing out the moisture and I can only presume COOH with it.
3. Does soaking raw in room temp/chilled alcohol decarb if given long enough? Does the alcohol perhaps inhibit the process?
Thankyou kind people
1. when salt water evaporates, what is left behind? Salt or nothing? Same principles applies to THC in Alcohol.
2. Decarbing requires heat it has nothing to do with drying your cannabis. You can dry it until in turns to dust and still have THCA.
3. Soaking cannabis in alcohol does not decarb cannabis.
4. I wrote a whole damn article on how to decarb cannabis. If you want to know how to do it, just follow the steps I took. They are pretty clearly spelled out above. Don’t make it harder then it needs to be.
a little something on tinctures (no hijack)
Tinctures can be made by steeping herbs in pure grain alcohol, vinegar and/or distilled water, or by pressing them through a tincture press. Those that come through a tincture press are purer and more concentrated, and using a press allows you to get that last little bit of concentrated herbal goodness out of the herbs that you are pressing.
Rambo, your information is very useful for me… I am a home brewer and would love to incorporate herb into a hoppy, high alcohol content home brew. I was wondering your opinion on how I should go about getting the psycho active effect in the beer… Should I just Decarb bud in the oven and throw it into the fermented wort? Also, if the vape temp is 314 and boil point of THC is 246 why can’t I Decarb in the boil @ 214 for a couple hours? Please help thanks for the all this great stuff.
I would make an extraction with high proof first. Evaporate off most of the high proof so what remains is highly concentrated with THC. Then add the desired dose to the beer as you are bottling it.
So, ur saying I should Decarb in oven @ 200 for 2 hrs then soak in high proof? How long would you recomend soak? Thank you so very much for your wisdom
Rambo.. WONDERFUL ARTICLE!!
Jeff.. I make ginger beer. Last batch I added about 1 ice cube worth of fresh cannabis juice to a pint bottle. The result was.. totally unexpected. First the ginger beer carbonated overnight!! It usually takes 7 days. Secondly it totally changed the flavor of the ginger beer. I don’t know how to describe the flavor (other than pleasant), and I can barely taste the ginger. Thirdly.. it increased the sweetness exponentially. Obviously there is no ‘high’ as it is not decarb’ed. I wonder if I merely brought the juice to the boil, before adding to the mixture, if it would decarb..? interesting hypothesis.
I also had a comment for Strawberry needing pain relief without being messed up.. You will need to get a low THC high CBD variety like Charlotts Web or Cannatonic #4. these will give great pain relief without any high so your patient can still function.
Also.. I am a gardener… I have tried but CAN NOT grow cannabis..Thank God for my caregiver!!
On the subject of tinctures.. I want to try a glycerine one as the alcohol ones burn my mouth.
I’m 68 yrs old and suffer from gulacoma & severe depression. I’ve been treated at the va hospital. Will proof of my medical history be enough to allow me to get a prescriptlon to purchase medical mariajuna legally?
Also if I grow my own how long do I have to wait ,after planting,before harvesting and using it? And where can I get those little bottles?
Hey Cliff, hope you get to feeling better. Not sure what state you are in but California you can get a medical card for anywhere between 40-75$ or so. You may use it as soon as you get it and they will go over uses, rules and things with you IF you go someplace reputable. Don’t trust those Skype doctors or whatever. I picked Medicann for mine. Good luck to you.
…or move here to Washington state
Rambo you are like the Mr Wizard of decarboxylating! Thank you for doing all the hard work and putting this info out there. Edibles usually do not work for me at all, but I am thinking of trying something like homemade tootsie rolls with coconut oil and decarbed kief. Really appreciate all the tips so I don’t waste things on a fixed Veteran’s income. Blessings
I’ve been doing this method for almost 2 years, almost modifying it everytime. My last batch was a lil over 200g’s being cooked into 2 sticks of butter. The cookies cooked out almost a neon, vibrant “grass” green. Anyone besides my mom and I who ate just 1 cookie lightweight hallucinated and didnt make it past 20 min of ingestion before passin out. RECIPE:
280 for 10min, then as follows:
245 for 25min,
265 for 15min.
270 for 10min.
Then lastly, 250 for 15min.
-dueces.
Is it possible to decarb a tincture? I have obviously made the same mistake and don’t want to waste what I have. Please offer suggestions. Thanks
you can heat the tinctures in a well ventilated room and let it cook down. You will need to add more alcohol later or the potency will increase. Be careful.
Great post Rambo,
I appreciate all the good insight. I have a question now that I understand the decarb process thanks to you. I’ve seen so many videos and read so much on how to make a proper and potent trim tincture. I’m using high grade alcohol. I’ve heard I should soak the trim in the alcohol anywhere from 2hrs to 30days. What can you or anyone suggest a solid time would b to soak my trim tincture before straining? Time is of the essence but I don’t want to sacrifice leaving valuble THC behind.
I honestly don’t know but I plan on running and experiment on this at some point.
Great article.Is there any advantage to decarbing and then smoking or vaporizing either through the oven method or water simmer method or is this naturally done through the burning process when smoked. Hope this makes sense. Just looking for a way to increase potency I guess.
Thanks
You didn’t read the whole article did you? decarbing is done when you smoke or vaporize
I found something real cool,
My crockpot hi setting is 275 (close enough to 220)
so I just decarb in my crockpot.
I like my weed ground fine before when I make tincture so I blend it with water before it goes into the crockpot. I place the ground weed and water in the crock pot. It takes a while to evaporate the water off and until this takes place it won’t go above 200.( you can skip this step if you don’t care if your weed is ground. After it is dry it goes up to 275 for a while (how long is up to you) not being to critical I would say between 30 and 90 min ( it doesn’t require much to leave it go for a while).
After it is decarbed I add the ever clear slowly as not to crack the crockpot, let sit a while on warm at 130 (great for transfer) and strain.
Kind of an all in one cooking system :). no muss no fuss.
This is a nice site and I appreciate it.
I use ever clear because I like the idea of a food grade product.
One question still unclear to me is the thc to ever clear ratio. It seems to me if the tincture thc percent is 10 then the dregs are still 10% is there any benefit in washing the dregs again and evaporating the alchol off? and is there any close to known minimum amount of alcohol to weed ratio.
Good idea with the crockpot method. I would calibrate the temperature gauge on it first before a large batch, who knows how close the thermometer has to be on those things or how well the thermostat is actually working. Is the reason for the initial water step to make sure the cannabis is being evenly heated? And I would go as far to say that a second extraction of the dregs wouldn’t hurt because there is a good chance you didn’t get a 100% recovery during your first extraction. At the very least you can rinse the dregs with more alcohol. The additional percent recovery from a second extraction and/or a rinsing is probably not enough to make a noticeable difference, but anything worth doing is worth doing right!
How about this article? They decarbed for 30 min at 145C (293F) which left them with a lot of THC, and almost no terpenes. Even heating the product for 5 min in close 100C greatly reduces the terpene levels.. http://www.cannabis-med.org/data/pdf/en_2013_01_1.pdf
Personally I want terpenes. Some of them have almost as much medicinal effect as cannabinoids and they work synergistically.
I would recommend retaining all plant material in distilled H2O, applying heat to boil at 212 Degrees F for 30 to 60 minutes, or not to exceed the above noted findings of 246.2 degrees F (Use a candy thermometer. Reduce H2O solution to thick soup, add to 95% Ethanol 1:2 ratio and let sit for three weeks for extraction of decarboxylated herb, then add Distilled Water to herb ethanol solution to bring about 25%-40% alcohol for 2 and 4 ounce dropper bottles. Begin dosing to level of treatment 3 times per day.
Hi, I have severe chronic pancreatitis and am in svere pain daily, what is the best method for using cannabis for pain control, I am a long time smoker and it helps a lot witht the nausea. Thanks for your help, I am in a non legal state so can’t be real picky!
Edibles and tinctures work great for long term pain relief. A little cannabis can go a lot further and you are less likely to get in trouble for having a brownie in your car then a bag of weed.
while your list of vaporisation temperatures is correct it is not complete there are 483 different identifiable chemical constituents known to exist in cannabis. The most distinctive and specific class of compounds are the cannabinoids (66 known), that are only known to exist in the cannabis plant, you’ll find the compete list here: http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=000636
Whilst this articles give a more comprehensive listiing of all chemicals present in cannabis it unfortunately does not list all chemicals specifically nor does it give a list of vaporisation temperatures for all these substances, but if you want to know what cannabis is made of then this is interesting reading, but please read the full article as later entries update facts stated earlier on in the thread.
Rambo,
Thank you for taking the time to research and post your results. I have had many failed attempts. You have cleared up the mystery this definitely WORKS.
Thanks for the info on de-carbing. I noticed that after the process that the remains smell like weed that has been vaporized. I didn’t get that smell on my first try but on my second try I used a pyrometer (probe) in the oven like you did and found I was 30-40F low on temperature.
Will it work on regular ol buds too? I assume it might but id hate to ruin a quarter pound of buds
yes, this works on all kinds of marijuana but works best if it is ground up first
Thank you Rambo for such a thorough guide. I just finished reading every single response in this thread, and I still think decarboxylation is the most misunderstood component in edibles and tinctures. One thing I don’t think has been much mentioned- size of the grind- obviously a powder grind will be much more affected by 1 hour @ 240° than 1 or 2 mm sized bits will… Other than color, what other indications do we need to keep an eye out for? Feel? Dryness? My well dried and cured bud felt almost the same as before decarb- after 1 hour in a brand new preheated (for over 30 mins) oven (with separate oven thermometer). It’s almost as if the sticky, abundant trichomes just kind of melted together. My understanding is it should feel dry as powder, but maybe not? Also glad to read that you can’t over decarb- other boards don’t necessarily agree with that- they say degradation definitely occurs past a certain point. Makes sense so long as you don’t go too hot, you can’t hurt anything by vaporization. I’m highly encouraged however, as I made an alcohol tincture yesterday that has a lot of promise. I’m here to learn, so if anyone has anything to contribute, I’m all ears. Peace!
I don’t think you need visual confirmation of any time. Its a mater of time and temperature. If you get those right then you don’t have to worry about the rest.
Fantastic! I was wondering if anyone has considered doing a gas infusion of co2 to provide the catalyst? My thought was to use a whipped cream ‘cracker’ with a co2 cartridge instead of NOS. If you put the bud in the canister, then charged it with the CO2, would the bud de-carb from the gas rather than heating it out of the plant?
Hi I appreciate all you have provided for making tinctures. I have recently had to become a caregiver for a family member with pancreatic cancer and nausea is really bothering him. He is worried of getting too “high” and I have researched strains that might have higher THC content. I was wondering if I can use bud that was previously vaporized to extract THC? And do you have a strain that you would recommend for nausea? I really appreciate all the info you have provided so far! Thanks you. Studamedler
I would not use cannabis that has already been vaporized as there will be very little cannabinoids left behind if any. As for getting to high, start with small doses and have him work his way up to what feels comfortable to him. As for nausea, I’m not really sure what strain to recommend. Honestly it changes from patient to patient but most should help.
could a person decarb weed and simply store and mix in food at a latter date for consumption. Is there any loss of thc during storage after decarbing?
Great article Rambo! There must be a million people out there all with a different way of doing it. Thought I would share this: I was told decarbing in a container with as little oxygen as possible will greatly assist in the process and preserve any invisible terpenes one cant see escaping during the process… Also allowing sufficient cool down time before opening.
BadKittySmiles world summit videos on Youtube has a similar process as well…
Then I saw Dr. Hornsby talking about 311 being the optimal temp for decarbing. Wow 311.
Anyways just rambling on, thanks for your post it’s great!!!
Yes I would like to know if you can decarb and store? If so, how long? Id like to be able to make firecrackers or something of the sort while on vacation. Any. Quick recipes that you recommend? Brownies will be too bulky to take. I need to be able to make a snack w/o oven or microwave. Thanks for all the info 🙂
Cannabis should store indefinitely after decarbing or at least as long as cannabis that has not been decarbed. If you want something that travels well I recommend tinctures. A small two oz bottle could last you a month if made correctly
This is so very different from the way I make my tincture. I intentionally do not activate the THC. I freeze the product in a quart mason jar as well as freeze the Everclear. After 24 hrs, I pour the alcohol into the mason jar. Once a day I stir it up, and after 2 weeks strain out the product.
I’ll put some of it into a spray bottle and spray my coffee beans. Once the alcohol evaporates, the oil that’s left blends with the coffee bean oil and I have a medicated cup of coffee every morning. No high off it, just pure pain relief. Takes away all those aches and pains I wake up.
I’ll also put some in a little dropper bottle to do drops under my tongue for instant pain relief.
I’ve even take it one step further and extracted off all the alcohol and get the black RSO oil.
Crap, did my comment go through? Nothing is showing up, and no mention of “Moderation” first.
Comments do get moderated or there would be a ton of crap on here. I do my best to keep up on it but sometimes I do fall behind. I didn’t see another comment from you though. Try again?
A question that I can’t seem to find the answer for, if the herb is heated in the tincture./oil/butter/reduction phase why is it necessary to decarboxylize at all? I have used a mini crock pot, filled with raw honey and a bouquet garni of harlequin for my step mother with ALS, She reports feeling livelier and healthier eating a teaspoon a day.
I went to the trouble of decarbing some high THC indica for a coconut oil tincture for my father, who has neuropathy. He reports no effects when he takes it.
In a third experiment, I put some chopped Indica in the mini crock pot, and just covered with a small amount of coconut oil, Heated it for about 2 hours, and then added chocolate for edibles. This I have taken myself and find the effect to be stronger and more mellow than when I vape it.
I feel so confused by conflicting info and techniques and my own experimenting. I only want to heal these very sick people in my family and Im kind of afraid of doing it wrong and wasting everyone’s time and money.
If the cannabis is being cooked into an edible it does not need to be decarbed ahead of time. Decarbing is required for making tinctures because there is not heating in the tinctures making process. Oil/butter/ reductions are not tinctures. The process of making them requires heat for long periods of time. This process effectively decarbs for you. Only when making extracts that will be consumed orally with not heat involved is the decarb process in the article required.
Thank you!!!
Jennifer
Do you have to decarb first if you are making e juice for vaping in e cigs like the ego with 1.6mil cartomizer?
I have never made e juice for e cigs. I don’t really know how the catomizer works but if it uses heat to make smoke then you probably not need to. If not heat is used then yes you would need to decarb first
Thanks for the input Cartomizer use heat from a lithium battery in e cigs so the decarbing is not necessary..
How does thc bond to raw honey?
I don’t believe it does unless maybe their is enough wax in the honey for it to bond to the wax.
I’m sorry if this has already been answered, but I am a bit confused from reading the comments here, as well as the conflicting information throughout the internet.
I understand decarbing cannabis converts THCA to THC. You then have the psychoactive component activated. However, my understanding is that plain decarbed cannabis, although THC active, is not readily ingested into the body, and thus we need the THC molecules to attach to fat molecules or alcohol molecules.
How long is needed for THC molecules to bind with fat molecules and/or alcohol molecules?
In the comments, you equated the natural evaporation process to sea salt, indicating that if a combined mixture of decarbed cannabis and alcohol was left to evaporate naturally, then the end product would be a THC active product that would be readily absorbed into the body (due to the THC molecule being attached to the alcohol molecule). How long should the mixture be left before allowing to naturally evaporate?
Some recipes call for 30-60 days with no heat, others call for heating the mixture, and even some say that a few minutes of cold alcohol shaking (somewhat like Rick Simpson Oil) will extract the THC and combine with the alcohol molecules.
Also, I have read that heating the alcohol & decarbed cannabis is actually necessary in order to bind the THC and alcohol molecules. Even if it is incorrect (which it seems like it is), that heat is needed to bind the molecules, would heating simply expedite the process, since it would basically just be speeding up the natural evaporation process?
Basically, what I’m trying to get at is, how long does it take for THC to bind to alcohol molecules? And once the THC molecules are bound to the alcohol molecules, since it seems you can naturally evaporate the alcohol without loss of THC, could you expedite this process with gentle heating so that evaporation would take place within a shorter period of time?
And how long does it take for THC to bind to fat molecules? Do either processes REQUIRE heat if the cannabis is already decarboxylated beforehand?
Thank you
The fat/butter/oil or alcohol is simply used to extract the cannabinoids from the plant material. Once they are extracted from the plant and decarbed, they no longer need the alcohol or fat to be absorbed by the body. So if decarbed properly and extracted with alcohol the alcohol can be evaporated off and you will be left with basically a decarbed hash oil. This can be spoked, made into tincture or even taken in pill form. Eating straight has can be pretty hard on the stomach though so most people mix it in with something else.
Thank you! So I understand the fat/butter/oil or alcohol is used to extract the cannabinoids from the plant, and I understand that once it has been extracted by the alcohol or oil that it is readily absorbed into the body.
I was curious the temperature and time it took for the fat/butter/oil or alcohol to extract the cannabinoids, i.e., how long should I leave the cannabis/alcohol mixture before evaporating it off? How long & at what temperature should I leave the cannabis/oil mixture?
Was just hoping someone had the chemistry knowledge behind that! Hopefully someone does, if not I plan on a few different batches and testing the cannabis beforehand and then the finished product after to see which process works best, with scientific testing to back it up! Thanks again!
Or does the THC bind to the alcohol in a very short order of time, allowing you to combine & agitate the decarbed cannabis and high-proof alcohol for a short period of time before allowing to evaporate?
Hi I’m kinda new to decarboxylating weed and I wanted to knew if there’s an alternative way as oppose of using the oven
Interesting stuff. I was wondering, if the THCa turns to THC with heat/time, and THC turns into CBN also over time/with heat, wouldn’t you be able to make more CBN by heating it for say twice the time?
sorry if i got something wrong, or if this was already asked, but the post by mcfudge got me thinking about this.
jealous of all you medical state people, medicating is still just “getting high” to the state government in louisiana.
im really glad i found your comment on the how to page for tincture. inhaling combusted plant matter has begun to take its toll on my respiratory system so ive been looking into making tinctures to give my lungs a break. I thank you for this post which will save me the cost and embarrassment of doing it wrong the first time. Thanks!