I’ve got a couple topical products in my line, and I’m well aware the BA is abysmal via dermal absorption. I was thinking of rocking some new bath bombs or something of the like, and was curious if anyone had tips for making the cannabinoids topically active.
I know DMSO seems to be an option, but I’ve found it to be super rash-inducing and really itchy for most skin types.
I’m guessing the only way to get the cannabanoids into the pores is by opening and in turn aggravating the pores… But just wondering if there’s any new science out there I should delve into?
Many commercially available products use up to 3%. Stronger preparations go to 5%, such as professional Biofreeze. I’ve seen menthol products sold as analgesics at 10%. There is definitely a balance between effectiveness and practicality with menthol. It has a strong cooling effect, especially at higher concentrations. While it may work great as a transdermal agent, at higher concentrations the cooling effect could be off putting to some people. Though menthol does have a very low instance of negative reactions or irritation even at higher concentrations. It really comes down to preference on how much chill a person wants to experience.
Topicals i use 160mg cannabinoids per fl oz. It starts to exponentially taper off on its effectiveness i think if you use more. As far as the best carrier, grape seed oil has been shown to be the best trandermal carrier, transporting more of the dissolved medicine into the body then any other commercially available topical oil
My company specializes in topicals, we have been producing high quality herbal extracts for 35 years, the owner and founder is currently elected president of the American Herbalists Guild Herbal Research Chapter- I grew up working in the apothecary and have now moved into cannabinoid extraction and distillation- finishing the production lab build out this week (=
up until recently we have been purchasing our oil but I am now set to process Wisconsin hemp in house.
There is a place for oil carriers and a place for alcohol carriers, alcohol is generally more penetrating and added terpenes pack more punch per ml than an oil carrier where things are softened a bit, but many patients may experience irritation with alcohol- and it is not good to use on mucus membranes or other very sensitive areas.
Liposomes make a huge difference in terms of absorption and efficacy, as does co-blending with other anti-inflammatory herbs like knotweed and cohosh- you think cannabis is the only thing that affects inflammation? There are hundreds of herbs with valuble constituients and a whole field of human knowledge and study dedicated to understand how to effectively extract and blend them to their fullest effect.
Here is a link to a product my company makes that we produced and private labelled via sister co Honeycolony.com
and a review by a customer
our other brand is a line of personal intimacy/massage oils with excellent healing qualities, launching more products as soon as I get our first 1000# of biomass extracted- www.Empathica.co
Beta-caryophyllene and linalool are both great terps and I use them in the morpho blend- but its really the whole combined package that makes it work so well, so start studying your anti-inflammatory phytocompounds.
wow I totally forgot the most relevant line we make in terms of oil:
Skincare- for the most sensitive parts of a persons body =D
There is a wealth of knowledge on that site in terms of various oils and their specific uses in the blend, check out the resources and blog posts, and the product descriptions.
Also if you have a lady in your life you should probably grab a bottle- its really wonderful stuff.
We used surfactant in the past but the taste is terrible, we tried sonication and I didn’t find that they were stable enough + probe tip heavy metals issues- I could have gotten a cup horn or flowcell setup but I was already into the next thing- we have a way to make them now that I can’t share yet but am working on parenting now- totally different approach, but in order to really dial the system in I need a microfluidic particle size analyzer and those are about $82k … saving up.
Well the moment you can share any details I’m all ears. I’m holding back right now for all the reasons you mentioned above. Can you drop a hint as to what kind of tech you’re using?
Man, you ought to check out high-shear homogenizers for particle size reduction. I prefer them to sonication and they don’t have a lot of downtime like a sonication system would.
@tweedledew what do you mean topically active? I think the bath bomb idea is great! Just don’t put any food coloring dye in them! It stains your skin. Bath bombs are great, and flying off the shelves. From my experience, the cannabinoids are absorbed transdermally.