Hey there everyone! I am working with a client currently who’s having issues with their CBD Rosin and are asking me questions that I’m not able to answer. I’d love some insight from people who are far more knowledgeable than I in this field.
I have a client who is producing CBD Rosin from their hemp flower. However, once the rosin has been pressed, the testing results are showing THC quantities of 2-5%, which is well above the <0.3% they are looking for.
I know far less than I should about the chemistry behind THC/CBD formation. Presuming that the flower they are pressing from is <0.3% and not 2-5% THC, what could be going on during the pressing/squishing process that is allowing such a high amount of THC to form in the final product?
What might be a way to remedy this? Obviously I can imagine in a closed-loop scenario you could strain out THC from the solution, but in a flower or hash rosin scenario, any ideas on how to fix this?
It’s not my extraction, not my flower, I don’t own the business. I’m not even an extraction tech - I work in the field of sales and I’m just getting asked difficult questions by my client.
PRESUMING the flower is good to go on the THC side, would concentrating the cannabinoids be the only way this could occur? Is there a second potential cause?
Most extracts of legal hemp end up with illegal THC. The hemp is at 0.3% THC already, then you extract just the good stuff and concentrate everything, so the THC rate goes up as does the CBD rate. You don’t make CBD go from 10% to 70% without THC going from 0.3 to 2.1%.
All distillate and crude from hemp is illegally high in THC until it is either diluted as an oil or has the THC distilled out of it.
There is an easy answer to this.
While you’re pressing the CBD you’re buddy is getting higher THC percentages because via the heated plates on the press you’re decarboxylating the THCa and CBDa. The (a) is the acid form of THC and CBD which is converted into THC and CBD which the end result is higher CBD percentages and THC percentages.
This can be explained easily. When the flower is tested for CBD and THC content, the % is based on the entire flower. When heated and pressed, your rosin production will yield about 15% and the remaining “puck” will weigh in at about 85%.So when you now test the rosin, 85% of the flower is no longer available to be part of the net THC / CBD %. Your CBD % will probably go from about 12% up to about 48%, increasing by 4 times. If your THC was at .3%, then your THC would now also increase about 4 times to about 1.2%. Now if you had a Delta 9 THC of .2?? but a total THC of .4 - .5 or higher, your resulting Total THC would also be increased about 4 times, 2.0%. Also the heat applied during pressing is able to transform THCA to THC. To bring your rossin back to legal limits, mix your rossin with MCT oil or even better Hemp seed oil. Mix by weight to reduce the % THC back down to .3 or less. If you track your weights before and after pressing, adding hemp seed oil or MCT oil in the amount of the left over “puck” after pressing will bring you back to the original CBD / THC %. If you use hemp seed oil, keep refrigerated and out of direct sunlight. Hemp seed oil has a short shelf life even refrigerated, 3 - 4 months before becoming rancid. MCT oil is pretty much “unlimited” shelf life.
@tiremanbri would the MCT oil added in change the puck to the point that it could not be used as a dabble product since that is what they were trying to achieve? Asking as I own a hemp store in a state the THC levels must remain at .3 for all products. I was considering purchasing a press for my aging flower and then selling the crumble. Hoping to not lose my investment in the flower.
Please do not put mct oil into a product instead for dabs. You would have to put quite a bit in and it would be a bad product and would also be potentially dangerous.
The only way to make concentrates that remain under the legal limit are:
Chromatography which wouldn’t end up that great (haven’t tried but I assume this is the case)
Start with flower that has a low enough thc level where it won’t be a issue. CBG varieties could be good for this, as well as early crops of cbd flower or cultivars with ND THC levels, which I have not seen but people claim to have them.
Repress the rosin, for a cbda/thca fraction, collect the goopy terp fraction that comes off, throw away the cbda/thca fraction, buy cbd isolate and add the goopy terp in. Wallah
If your starting material is .3% and then you extract it making a concentration it is going to make whatever percentage of cannabinoids that was present in the initial material higher. So no matter what your extract is going to be hot in it’s raw form. All hemp extracts are.
We were messing with CBG extracts and it was slightly over on THC. We remedied that by adding hemp derived terps. At 2-5%, you’re going to have a hard time getting that legal.
