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Isolation of THCA

G.O. Joe

Well-known member
Veteran
THCA dissolves in dilute NaOH solutions, but that's THCA in nonpolar solvent, not within trichomes. Pure water is not the same as mostly pure water, but the solubility in mostly pure water isn't much either. The dissolving of cannabinoids in most acids would be undesirable.
 

HG23

Member
Are you sure those people are making their high purity THCa from short path distillation? It has been proposed that the actual boiling points of CBD and THC are too close to separate with current distillation techniques.
 

snake11

Member
That links to a .pdf of CAnnabis Alchemy. It's an old text that describes isolating THC and somerizing it. It also detail how to make THC Acetate.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwcyJZbpGU4sYk1vQVo1Q3NwN0U/view?usp=sharing

If you want to isolate THC then why not get into short path distillation like everyone else is?

People are currently making THCa distillates of a high purity that are a white granular crystal.

Again, short path decarbes the oil which leaves you with THC not THCA. The high purity powder is not from short path.
 

Pangea

Active member
Veteran
So, Ive had large crystals form in jars of unpurged bho, when I separate them and remove the terp / bho resin from their exterior they are solid and clear. When crushed they form a white fine powder. Im sure they have a lot of butane residue but other than that they seems pretty pure and wouldnt contain much if any fats/waxs/lipids or terps. The largest single crystal ive weighed is 8mg, but they tend to break easily when that large while cleaning/handling them.

When I do process the unpurged oil with crystals I have to be sure to crush them with a rolling pin before vac'in or you'll get a crystal in a dab and itll taste butany.

If vac'd on their own they do not react untill heated to melt, which im not sure the temp of yet but its over 130f.

A 25mg dab of these crystals is much stronger than any reg 25mg bho dab.

Im just starting to play around with them so not sure whats what, just wondering if anyone else has seen or played with similar?

Also, the description of sams purified THCA sounds different than horatio's or sclabs of a white powder, whats with that..?

I'll get some pics of some crystals up later.

:cheers:
 
Why not just synthesize from olivetol?
Even a .1% impurity can cause discoloration and since the compound is hygroscopic the difference in texture could be due to the weather.
 

Pangea

Active member
Veteran
The last pic(111c) has a uncleaned/purged crystal that weights 25mg, should weigh 18mg'ish after, If I dont break it, its on the far right.
 

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G.O. Joe

Well-known member
Veteran
A melting point determination would be good science. Do those crystals make CO2 when heated?
 

Pangea

Active member
Veteran
I heated them in stages, started at 130f and ramp up 10f every 5 minutes, left it at 160f for 10 minutes, took it to 170f for 10 minutes then hit 180 and kept going got to 195 and left it for 5 minutes, then stopped cause my vessel had some tape on the side that started to smell, the crystals had no reaction, no change. Ill get the actual melt point tomorrow and not the reaction, but so far its at 195f its holdin steady.
 
Woa! Pangea, that is some cool shit right there!

Send in for testing!

Typically labs want a half gram for potency testing (sclabs), but I am sure if you call they could work it out with a smaller sample for you if you call and explain the situation.

As far as distillation of THC-A (not thc acetate, not delta9, but unactivated crystalline thc acid, with the COOH), I do not see how that is possible with the boiling points of various cannabanoids being so close and the relatively low temperature that THC-A decarboxilates at (in relation to boiling point). Perhaps there is more to distillation than I fully understand and I am missing something but I hope someone can clear this thread up on this point.
 

G.O. Joe

Well-known member
Veteran
Obviously THCA can't be distilled, but arguing is pointless. The only reference that gives a mp for THCA is US 7,700,368 and they said 70C, yellow crystal. They did not decolorize with carbon, not that, THC they did - they say their THCA and THC is purer than everyone else's and almost claim crystalline THC.
 

Pangea

Active member
Veteran
Yeah im not saying its distilled, seems more precipitated? My quick google gave 70-80c melt point, and that reference says 70c, so Im not sure whats up with my crystals.

thegreenman91, I would send it for analysis asap if there was such a service up here in Canada, still saving up for a srigc, but that wouldnt help in this situation...

If I had to put a wager down, Id say the terpenes are precipitating the thc or thca. Anyone know how Horatio's making his isolate? He's playing with terpenes a lot, wouldnt be a stretch to imagine he's stumbled across the same thing.

All the talk about nucleation, isnt that the first step to crystallization?

Either way, I dont know what my crystals are, but more tokin science has been done, I dont want to say its got a lot of butane in it anymore, I suck at tasting residual butane, but yesterday smoked quite a bit of it and didnt notice any of the taste I thought I did previously. It hits very hard, weak knees had to sit down hard, from 35mg.

Hope this help some folks who have more resources educationally and financially...

ps: that large crystal ended up 18mg cleaned up.
 
Its just surprising how large of crystals it has grown. Sugar wax is wax that the thca has percipitated out due to high terpene level or denaturing of terpenes (i think). but it precipitates as sugar not as chunks.

Insanely low dose though.

When running CO2 extractions we sometimes end up with a white powdery sometimes silvery substance at the top of the extraction vessle on the filter plate, We have yet to identify it. There are still unknowns.
 
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