Hello, as my username suggests I am new to all things cannabis and would love some help.
I am currently working on constructing lipid carriers to encapsulate CBD and THC to form a topical formulation for my uni research project. There is a possibility of upscaling this formulation, so the method used has to be simple and cost-effective.
We got government approval for cultivating and formulating products using cannabinoids, but the seeds we ordered haven’t arrived and I don’t have much time left, so, I need to start asap using cannabinoid isolates.
The problem is there are still some legal issues with ordering CBD and THC, but there is a loophole where the acidic forms are easier to obtain.
My question is, am I able to use the acidic form (CBDA and THCA) as a starting material and decarboxylate them during the homogenization process using high pressure (hot) homogenization? Or will that alter their therapeutic potential?
Im making a nanoemulsion and will require to homogenise the lipids and cannabinoids to form nanostructure lipid carriers. So I just wanted to bypass having to wait for the decarboxylated form to arrive by using the acidic form.
Make sure you use a device that shows you the temperature. With sonication you will get into the decarb temps and you can destroy your compounds if you do not know what you are doing. Long and the short to answer your question yes it is totally possible. I do it with CBDa and find it to be more stable than using other methods as CBD can become more volatile than CBD at higher temps.
We run a chiller with ours (never gets over 120F) and we have a thca formulation slight activation but very minor. You can do it np just more costly for pure(r) inactivated cannabinoids.