Indeed, it is commonly used as a component of a dna buffer soultion.
solution.https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.researchgate.net/post/Does_anyone_know_what_the_effects_of_denatured_alcohol_on_DNA_preservation_are/amp
This is dispensary grade extract testing nominal at 65% THC. I placed it into rubbing alcohol at 70% iso and 30% water. The white clouds roll out of solution within minutes really but this was left at room temp overnight.
The white clumping strands are very long and seem to twist out of solution using rubbing alcohol. The white chunks that form tend to form a layer on the bottom of the vessel and are like wax. If the white cloudy strands represent DNA then it makes sense that I see so much of it precipitate when I dewax like I do using rubbing alcohol versus ethanol.
The idea is to get a solvent just barely strong enough to keep cannabinoid in solution but encourage all other compounds to drop out of solution. Isopropyl alcohol is crappy at holding onto DNA and like compounds compared to ethanol. Add water and it really rejects those solids. I always keep coming back to iso for a whole range of steps. It is cheap but it is much more versatile than I generally see blog posts about. There are some very cool nuances with the stuff in labs but here is a link that talks a bit more on topic about just why you might select one over the other.
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I am almost positive I never said anything about alcohol breaking down DNA. UV light can damage DNA… but DNA has little to nothing to do with extraction in this case, anyway… which is another reason I am sure I never said that.
Is there someone else on here or another forum going by my nickname? I am getting misquoted and just completely incorrectly remembered or interpreted a lot, lately!
Water over 5% in ethanol (more than the azeotrope, iow) causes resin to begin louching (milky microemulsion), or crashing out of solution, as you say. This can be extracted by partitioning with a non-polar solvent.
My apologies @Photon_noir I was absolutely wrong about what I said about alcohol damaging DNA. Because I was unsure myself I decided to try and find out where I got that idea from in the first place, and then only common ground between my “not so good memory” and Google (lol) was the fact that ETOH and IPA both caused the DNA and RNA to precipitate out, which would obviously cause some problems during a crystalization step for the record 
lol my appologies! Hopefully detention isnt too long I have plans today lol
No worries. I’ve just been getting that a lot, lately. I guess it’s a hazard of being everyone’s chemical encyclopedia. 
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I just wanted to repost this chart with my highlights and labeling the x-axis for those who missed it. It shows the relative alcohols’ (isopropyl and ethanol) and their water azeotropes’ (iso~86%, EtOH~95%) solubilities of vegetable oil, which is mostly composed of fatty acids, triglycerides, and some phosphatides (aka: lecithin and friends). This plot answers a lot of the questions asked in this thread.
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can you please cite this figure Photon?
thanks
Hi boys and girls, I’m new to the site. Enjoying all the knowledge available, big thanks to whoever made this a reality.
I have a question, hopefully someone has an answer.
Running an ethanol extractor and I received some product that might or might not have been sprayed with liquid sulfure late in flower. Does the sulfur separate and attach to the ethanol?
If so, is there a way to remove said sulfur and how?
Thank you.
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My experience is that you’ll probably be fine.
I didn’t pull sulphur with ethanol until I was also pulling water.
When I added water to my biomass, to aide in distilling off the last 10% or so of my solvent, I got blue ethanol both times. So I stopped trying to get my solvent back that way. I initially thought the sulphur was coming from sulphur containing amino acids in the biomass, but after reading others reports of sulphur in their BHO, I’m more inclined to blame my grow team. I should probably confirm.
as for remediation: Search results for 'sulphur' - Future4200
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Right on, thanks for the info.
according to the interwebs, sulphur is insoluble in water, and sparingly soluble in ethanol…
so I’m back to not knowing how I achieved blue alcohol.
if your material is contaminated with sulphur, something like this is appropriate
https://www.hillbillystills.com/product/copper-mesh-packing/
and @Photon_noir has given remediation tips.
Regarding your statement that the water:EtOH azeo is useful for all steps of the cannabis resin solvent application, is there any method of saline or acid washes without first adding a nonpolar / hydrocarbon solvent?
If anyone has a good link for reasonably priced high quality liters of pentane & heptane, please show the link, I see it discussed but looking to buy right now. Lab society took down the pentane.
Here is my latest order I am already ¾ of the way through lolz. It shows hexane in a gallon jug but it comes in four one quart plastic bottles.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OKP6XHU/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Let me also suggest an alternative to saline in these washes though it is off topic so I will keep it short. I plan a detailed photo post soon. Disolve your compound in hexane. I use a 100 ml sep funnel so I disolve whatever I got in 50 ml hexane. I am always an ounce or less. Put it into the sep funnel. Now add about 20 ml methanol. Pure Methanol and hexane are immiscible but will mix in the presence of crude. A trace of water tips this balance.
Now fill to the top with tap water, no salt. Allow it to settle a minute. Drain the obvious white or funky layer from the hexane. There will still be methanol in it so keep pouring water through until it clears coming out. When the hexane layer returns to its original fill mark the methanol has all been washed out along with polar compounds. Then add another 20 ml methanol and repeat the cycle. After a few cycles you will just end up with a clear lower layer. Wash is then done.
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Blue is not a color normally associated with sulfur. Blue in ethanol is usually copper oxides from the large copper stills used to make it. Your situation may be “azulene” from the sound of it, but I have not heard of or seen that during ethanol recovery. Not sure what to make of what little I know of your situation. However, if sulfur is an issue, pure copper mesh soaking in the solution can pull it out. See a recent post on the
subject.
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Thanks Beaker, I was trying an ad hoc way of doing the same with the only nonpolar I had on hand, limonene, just last night, didn’t work great but I was just winging it. So it helpful to me when you give a tek that spells out order of operation and quantities to use so nicely. I look forward to your further posts on the subject.
I am allowed 5000ppm of heptane or pentane, but less than 300 hexane. I wouldn’t think it would be hard to get below that 300 mark, but 5000 / less toxic = I’d prefer to use. Too bad all the pentane I see requires a 16 liter buy in to get it to ~50$/L.
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Don’t forget about sulphur being a h+ donor!
Are they weighing the copper pads first? I’d be curious to see how well that works.
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@puccinia Another non polar solvent I have used and even have a bit left of is dichloromethane. Here is the link from my own order history. It is just barely on the non polar list of solvent polarity and is a halogenated hydrocarbon instead of the typical hydrocarbon arrangements of the chemicals you listed there.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ISANYTI/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
It seems to work just fine as a non polar solvent in the way I use solvents. I did not reorder it because it did not seem to work better than the others AND … it smells like socks worn three too many days if you know what I mean. I can deal with a gasoline smell (hexane, pentane, etc.), but the foot odor on steroids smell? Nope. However it might solve problems perfectly for what you are after? Ear plugs if soft can double as nostril plugs too I suppose… 