Learned to make oil as a teenager in the eighties from an organic chemistry student, and then learned a little more from the university library, when I was a student back in the 1989/1990 timeframe. Back then the basic approach was a cold iso soak of about half an hour, followed by the old wok with ice as a lid, and a collection cup trick. On occasion we would also use a secondary solvent, either chloroform to make “cherry oil”, or petroleum ether for “honey oil”. This involved concentrating the iso down to a manageable volume, then adding an equal part of water, then of the secondary solvent, shaking, and then running it through a separatory funnel. Anther trick from years gone by is isomerization. If we had material that was premature, we would add 2 drops 5 normal hydrochloric acid to the concentrate, reflux for 45 minutes, neutralize the acid, then finish the cookdown. Times have changed, and I’m learning lots from the younger generation…
I might end up making a post asking about recrystalization of THCa, but I’m not done using the search function yet.
If you were expiramenting with those methods that long ago then you shouldn’t have an issue picking up the new methods. I’m sure a lot of people here would enjoy hearing more about the methods you were using then. Cheers
Young guy here, thanks for contributing your insight!
When you say “cherry oil” and “honey oil”, was the naming based mostly off of visual appearance? Like, the cherry oil and a red color and the honey oil was golden? I wonder if your choice of co-solvents affected the color in that case.
For reference, I was born right around the same timeframe you were a student. My old man would tell me some stories of his own cannabis extract experiences and it was a big influence into why I pursued a chemical engineering education. I certainly value strict academic research, but I’ve learned that shared observations can also help point us all in the right direction. I’m sure if you spend some time with the search bar, you’ll find that a lot of us young guys are not “reinventing the wheel” so to speak. We’ve found what works and ran with it, but there’s still a lot of room for experimentation and innovation.
yes cherry oil was red and honey oil was golden.
to cheat you could take leb red hash and get red oil.
leb blond hash and golden oil. just extracted from hash.
i have a plant that i get red dry sift and red oil from.
Rereading my post, there are a couple things I should add… I see I spoke of 2 drops 5 normal hydrochloric, but I left out “per dram of estimated yield”. Refluxing also needs to be done in glass, since the acid is more reactive with metal than it is with the isomers you’re trying to rearrange.
One thing I’m confused by… When I was in university, I remember reading various textbooks, from the mid fifties through to the eighties, that delved into the different forms of THC… My memory has it that delta one and delta nine are the two naturally occurring psychoactive forms, and I forget if it was delta four or delta six that was the early synthetic stuff. Indicas have more delta one, sativas more delta nine… However, it has had thirty years in my head, and my searches don’t come up with anything about delta one, so I’m left wondering if my memory is wrong, or if what I had learned was.
This quote still holds in 2024 ??? @moronnabis what’s your thought on this ?
Can t recal any literature with this statement but that doesn’t mean it can t be treu
First time I hear this and wonder if this is treu
Anybody ?
I remember David Hoye’s isomerizer machine. I thought it was black magic back then. Little did we know it would open the door for the hemp D8 market years later.
I think going back into the 70’s there was an alternative method of naming the double bonds and carbon core elements.
WIKI: double bond position
“In addition, each of the compounds above may be in different forms depending on the position of the double bond in the alicyclic carbon ring. There is potential for confusion because there are different numbering systems used to describe the position of this double bond. Under the dibenzopyran numbering system widely used today, the major form of THC is called Δ9-THC, while the minor form is called Δ8-THC. Under the alternate terpene numbering system, these same compounds are called Δ1-THC and Δ6-THC, respectively.”
This is only about the numbering convention. He states he “forgot”…but the rest fo that quote/context seems to be in error. I am not aware of any literature to support that statement. I do not think our current knowledge on Sativa and Indica supports this statement.
I have read some folk lure about early chemists converting Indiana rope-dope (hemp-ditch weed) to very psychoactive materials but those may just reflect the current state of knowledge on CBD to D8/D9 isomerization.???
If you think about it a bit…most of the history of cannabis people smoked THCA not THC. I think there came a time when N. African Hashish was decarbed by steam treatment and people became exposed to D9.
So when Lampworker talks about adding 5N HCl to IPA concentrates that were “premature” and refluxing the concentrate for 45 minutes…a lot is going on, I have no idea.
This is correct. You can see this naming convention when reading Razdan et. al 1974 publication on the conversion from Olivetol to D9-THC. Of course, he calls it D1-THC and D8 is refered to as D1(6)-THC. I would have loved a chemical history course on naming conventions in chemistry/biochemistry.
I think you can also number and refer to the cannabinoids as resorcinols and adducts of such.
You see this now and then. I like to use such terminology when comparing the salicylic acid /salicylate moiety to the rescorcinolic acid/rescorcinolate aspect of the cannabinoids: as the added OH on ring system gives different properties to the six membered intramolecular bond strength of acid forms and imparts rather significant differences in solubilities in various solvents. Also useful when describing the “glue” like properties of CBDA/CBD…
