I am starting with a 99.9% pure THCa isolate and after decarboxylation to liquify for vapes I am finding that I am losing 10% THC in potency and my “liquid diamonds” are testing around 90%. I am used to seeing a minor drop in potency during the decarb process, but this is higher than usual. Curious to see what other people’s potency is before and after decarb and if there are any tricks to not lose so much potency. Thanks everyone!
You are starting at 99.9% THCa, but your potency is 87.7%. If you still have THCa, for example 40%, then your potencies will be capped at like 94% for your liquid diamonds. This will cover half of the losses you are seeing. Do you see alt cannabinoids popping up following decarb?
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94% makes sense, 90% seemed low. I usually see less than 0.5% of either CBN or THCv. Thanks for your reply
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if you’re noticing an unexpected change in potency but you haven’t changed your process, it could very well be a QC issue. It is VERY hard to accurately quantify THC potencies, especially between 90-100% THC.
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This is the correct answer, in addition to the possibility they aren’t decarbing under vacuum and oxidation is occurring.
I’ve worked in testing labs and I don’t think this is entirely true. As long as your calibration curve R value is >0.99 and your internal standard is at 100% recovery, you’d maybe see 2% fluctuations in replicates. Depends on the lab really.
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Totally depends on the lab. We just did a study using 7 different THC “standards” and found a +/- 15% variability in potency. So from 85% - 115 % THC
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That standard deviation is huge! I’d wanna pick your brain about the extraction/run method and maybe flushing/conditioning that column.
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Bumping this back up.
Curious what other people are seeing their liquid diamonds test at potency wise?
I’ve been using this method for 3+ years in different labs in different states using different testing companies and until recently never saw issues with low potency on my liquid diamonds.
In an attempt to get more info from this thread I will provide more info on our process and what we are seeing.
- Biomass is really nice greenhouse trim; we have around 30+ cultivars
- Using an ETS MEP 30 with 100% butane run at temps ranging from -20 to -40
- Everything is run through a CRC column with CRX, Activated Alumina and Silica
- Quick crash the THC in pans using agitation and then purge our solvent out
- We use a centrifuge to clean the isolate of any remaining terpenes
- our isolate regularly tests at 99.9% THCa but is very fluffy and light, not super crystalized
- Decarboxylate the isolate in an oven at 250f for 12hrs+ our until we see no more activity or off gassing
- There is NO THCa left after our decarb process
- In house testing using an Orange Photonics is showing results from 90%-98% THC
- Third party lab testing is seeing results between 85%-90% THC
At this point we are pretty sure our third-party lab is just testing super low and are going to be sending it out to the other 3 labs we have in the state (MD) for more results.
Happy to answer any other questions from folks on this site and would just love to start some good dialogue around this subject.
THANKS EVERYONE!!!
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Can we see pictures of your isolate?
Given that you’re crashing in pans and not washing, my guess is your lab is getting BOTH potencies wrong.
We are doing something quite similar, but refer to our THCA fraction as “isolish” rather than isolate.
…because it is clearly NOT isolate.
Gets the job done though…
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Indeed.
Certainly looks cleaner.
Have you tried winterizing it to prove the effectiveness of the activated alumina in your CRC stack?
Mind sharing what you are using for a centrifuge?
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We are actually in the process of doing that now and will report back results.
We use the ChemTek CLT-55 with stainless jar inserts, basket supports and 25 micron baskets
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Any chance your CRC stack has mineral acids in it?
If your extract contains mineral acids and you go to decarb it, you will get some conversion to d8. Do your labs report d8 potency?
The labs definitely test for d8 and we never really ping for that, so I don’t think its mineral acids.
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Forgive me for sounding patronizing, but this may be a fundamental misunderstanding of the conversion of THCa to delta9 a well as a definitive inaccuracy of the orange photonics lightlab. Orange photonics gear is within 3-4% accuracy at best, so your 99.9% may actually be 96-97.9%. A true benchtop HPLC for testing labs will be within 2% accuracy assuming they have a clean column, fresh standards, and a 5 point cal curve. Regardless, assuming you do actually have 99.9% THCa, once you decarb you’re losing 13% of that THCa by mass to the CO2 in addition to resulting oxidation reactions which are damn near impossible to avoid unless you’re decarbing slowly under vacuum with no light. 85-90% D9 is pretty standard for the method you’re describing.
…survey says?
Not patronizing at all. I appreciate all feedback. Let me clarify a couple things.
Our 99.9% THCa isolate is tested at our 3rd party state accredited lab, so in this instance that is where the data is coming from.
I am pretty familiar with the fact that you lose 12%-13% mass from Co2 off gassing but what correlation does that have to potency loss.
I’ve already factored in oxidation as part of the problem but would be curious to get more info on how much potency loss is due to oxidation.
Thanks for the convo
Still working on this. Been backed up with other projects.