When looking at bioavailability and what actually gets delivered, how small of a partical are we talking it needs to be. Emulsifying from my understanding goes down to about 1 micron. My understanding is that nanemulsions break things down smaller. How small do we need to go t get better bioavailability?
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“Nano-emulsion” is more bioavailable, but they are mostly snake oil right now. Even if they are special when produced, there is not much long term stability to most of them. Not saying there isn’t a right way to do it, but right now it’s more of a marketing gimmick in my opinion. I’ve seen plenty of “nano-emulsions” with giant crystals in them.
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I would agree and add that translucent nanoemulsions are the way to go. If they are translucent then you are getting oil droplet sizes under 100 nanometers. Also, as far as I know these are only produced through sonication so it’s likely broken up very effectively.
Also make sure to also send it off to an analytical lab to make sure they didn’t achieve translucence through dilution.
I guess my question is how efficient is macroemulsions. Nano emulsions are the way to go, but that is at a heavy price tag for the equipment. I make it for my daughter and currently not using any of the technology. Cant afford the equipment for nanoemulsions, but the CatScientific x120 is affordable and can emulsify to one micron and it is something that is much cheaper in price than something that produces nanoemulsions. But 1 micron (1000nm) is about as good as the emulsifier can do. Take a good rso mixed with coconut oil, I am looking at increasing the bioavailability as good as I can for whats afforable. My understanding is that ingestion is about 6-14%, usually on the lower side from 6-10% with straight RSO. By add a carrier oil like coconut oil and emulsifying the mixture, surely I could at least reach the 20% mark. Not as good as nanoemulsion, but the macroemulsion should at least give 3 fold compared to current bioavailability. I don’t know. Would like someone to post who could elaborate and enlighten me.
I’m not sure how much you are getting your homogenizer for but this ultrasonic homogenizer is reasonably affordable
I actually used this in my lab to create a nanoemulsion
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There is no solid research on the effect of emulsions on cannabinoid bioavailabillity. Research has shown promising results linking nanoemulsions to increased bioavailabillity for Vitamin D
Really this is all just guesswork until more research comes out. I’ve heard other research (I don’t want to go dig it up) has labeled nanoemulsions as harmful.
I used to cautiously use piperine and somewhat more liberally other non-cannabis derived phytocannabinoids to attempt to target p450 enzymes and increase bioavailability. Based on the pain assessment data I received they were effective. I searched this evening and couldn’t find anyone discussing these here. However, a quick search did turn up some interesting papers that seemed mutually on topic.
This PNL pre-concentrate is new to me, but granted I’ve been out of the loop for a while.
“Preparation of PNL and Advanced-PNLCBD-PNL and THC-PNL were prepared by pre-concentrate method. The final PNL composition was based on our preliminary formulation optimization studies and selected according to optimal solubilization capacity of the active ingredient and smallest particle size obtained upon dilution of the pre-concentrate in aqueous phase. Initially, an amphiphilic co-solvent (ethyl lactate) and soy phospholipid (lecithin) at a ratio of 4:1, respectively, were placed in a clean scintillation tube and heated to 40ºC till completely dissolved. Then, triglyceride tricaprin, polyoxyl 40-hydroxy castor oil, Tween 20, and Span 80 were added at the ratio of 1:1:1:1; the mixture was gently stirred and heated to 40ºC until a homogenous solution was formed. Further, the active ingredient was added, forming the CBD-PNL pre-concentrate containing CBD 3%(w/w) or THC-PNL preconcentrate containing THC 3%(w/w). Pre-concentrates were gently stirred and heated to 40ºC until a homogenous solution was formed. Upon gentle agitation in aqueous phase, these pre-concentrates spontaneously formed drug encapsulated O/W nano-dispersion”
“During the development process, a variety of materials and their combinations were tested. First, we tested the dissolution of CBD and THC in different organic solvents(N-methyl pyrolidine, DMSO, Propylene glycol, ethyl lactate and a combination of these solvents) each time with one or two of the following emulsifiers: tween 20, tween 80, SPAN 20, SPAN 65, SPAN 80, Polyoxyl 40 Hydrogenated Castor oil (HCO 40), and/or the following triglycerides: tricaprin, trilaurin trimyrestin with the phospholipid lecithin. Formulations were screened and those that formed homogeneous, visually clear and stable pre-concentrates with no precipitation of both THC and CBD were selected. 8 final formulations are presented in Table 1 as an example of end-point development products. All formulations successfully dissolved the active molecules, however, upon suspension in water, only formulation attributed as F1 was visually clear. The rest of the formulations (with a different triglyceride or co-solvent) formed milky white dispersions with particle size above 200nm. Since formulations forming particles in size > 100nm are too large to be candidates for oral drug delivery, these formulations were rejected. On the other hand, after introduction to the water phase, formulation1 (with THC or CBD) formed particles of less than 50nm in size. These two formulations were stable; no precipitation of THC or CBD was evident. Therefore, these formulations were the basis for further developing Advanced-PNLs.”
https://sci-hub.tw/10.1016/j.ejps.2017.07.003
I wonder if the terp companies can source the PNL components? I don’t think any of them seem sketch.
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Hi everyone, regardless of whether or not you want to make your own nanoemulsion instead of buying a solution from someone else, I’d recommend checking out our website at www.axiomm.com - there are some pdfs and videos that will be helpful in benchmarking the nanoemulsion you produce.
This video in particular might be useful - link here.
want to increase bioavailability? add Piper nigrum oil, ginger oil, play with essential oils
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these guys sell mystery products. Don’t bother
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I’m assuming you’re making a tincture and not a topical. Your understanding of nano emulsions is correct because they do indeed break things down into smaller parts but the thing to remember here is that in “breaking down” it actually encapsulates your target molecules in some way. So it basically creates a bubble around the THC or CBD. This bubble will then allow the cannabinoids to pass through barriers it typically would not be able to pass through as easily thus upping the amount absorbed by the body. The trick to getting an emulsion to stay is formulating with the right ratios and homogenizing effectively. There are emulsion blades that you can purchase to help with that second step but when trying to mix water and oils they usually want to separate making it tricky to keep an emulsion for extended periods of time. shaking the bottle of tincture before ingesting is always a good idea.
As far as a formulation goes I would start by dissolving your RSO in oils (MCT and Sunflower are my favorites), then adding some Ethanol and finally water to help create your emulsion. The ratios are going to be key in getting the right emulsion to happen. Keep notes and start small scale on everything!
Do you sell SOPs and equipment?
Can this be used with rosin?
You are responding to a thread that has lain dormant for 3years.
As it turns out, neither of the folks you’re hoping for replies from have been seen in these parts in the last 12months (Click on their avatar to explore that).
If you poke around some more you can probably find what you need…
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You can definitely feel a difference taking a oil tincture vs a water soluble formula