Jumping back into BHO!

I discovered bho a few years ago and absolutely fell in love with it due to the fact that you don't have to consume a large amount for a large effect and the effect it produced for me was very different and much more pleasurable than smoking dried flowers. I also noticed the irritation in my throat was significantly less because I smoked BHO much less frequently than when I had been smoking dried flowers. All in all BHO was and continues to be a hands down win for me and now that I have a perpetual grow setup, I am now interested in learning how to perfect the process of purging that I never really did perfect.

From what I can remember years ago, after the hot water bath OUTSIDE you then transfer the non purged oil into a smaller dish and set on a hot plate at a steady 120 degrees Fahrenheit for about 12 hours and VOILA!

I haven't made oil in a couple years or so I thought I'd check in with the experts here in the concentrates section to help steer me in the right direction on this purging process. I am patient and I am absolutely in no hurry or rush for a finished product so if the 12 hour hot plate at 120 F will provide a 100% purge then I will continue with good old reliable.

I've seen some pretty wild stuff with people using all sorts of extraction devices from simple to closed loop systems which all seems unnecessary to simply purge the gas from the oil product.

A feller by the name of fdd2black (misspell?) once chimed in with some great advice on a long thread about purging BHO. He told everybody to stop complicating a simple process and told people to use the power of the SUN to purge your bho. If I remember right he covered the pyrex dish so as to protect the precious oil from any flying contaminants and then just left it out in the sun for 2 days and he got beautifully purged bho...no pumps required. With that said, I can't really set my BHO outside in the sun due to neighbors but could I not put it in my flower tent for a nice safe purge under a glowing 600w hortilux hps? The gears in my brain are rapidly spinning...

Anyhow, I've said my piece now hopefully the pros here in concentrates can help steer me in the right direction so I can help the rest of the world learn how to easily and safely make properly purged bho

Low and slow on heat is fine, but stay closer to 100 and go for like 72 hrs. Otherwise now a days everyone uses vac pumps and chambers to reduce exposure to heat therefore keeping those precious terpines. This could be discussed for hours. Usual rule of thumb is like 85-115 for shatter, 115-140 for wax, and 140+ for oil.

francy420 said:

Low and slow on heat is fine, but stay closer to 100 and go for like 72 hrs. Otherwise now a days everyone uses vac pumps and chambers to reduce exposure to heat therefore keeping those precious terpines. This could be discussed for hours. Usual rule of thumb is like 85-115 for shatter, 115-140 for wax, and 140+ for oil.

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Thanks for the advice francy. Since butane boils at 30.2°F, it would seem the lower the temp, the better the end product. It seems that the delicate balance is heating the oil enough so that is is viscous enough to be able to easily dissipate the gas pockets without raising the heat too much so as to destroy the flavor quality. Truth be told though, I'm making BHO for the medicinal qualities and simply desire a pure product free of adulterants, so the preservation of terpenes isn't of particular concern. For the future though, I think that is something I will work on. I'm also interested in refining a process for making Absolute Shatter. Good read on it over at ICMAG in the concentrates section.

BTW, I just looked this up for the known vaporization temperature of the essential oils in cannabis:

What exactly are the essential oils that we are extracting from the cannabis plant, and what are their properties?

Here is a nifty list that I scored off ICMag, posted by Spurr, who used http://cannabis-med.org/data/pdf/2001-03-04-7.pdf as his information source:

?-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) Boiling point: 157*C / 314.6 degree Fahrenheit Properties: Euphoriant, Analgesic, Antiinflammatory, Antioxidant, Antiemetic

cannabidiol (CBD) Boiling point: 160-180*C / 320-356 degree Fahrenheit Properties: Anxiolytic, Analgesic, Antipsychotic, Antiinflammatory, Antioxidant, Antispasmodic

Cannabinol (CBN) Boiling point: 185*C / 365 degree Fahrenheit Properties: Oxidation, breakdown, product, Sedative, Antibiotic

cannabichromene (CBC) Boiling point: 220*C / 428 degree Fahrenheit Properties: Antiinflammatory, Antibiotic, Antifungal

cannabigerol (CBG) Boiling point: MP52 Properties: Antiinflammatory, Antibiotic, Antifungal

?-8-tetrahydrocannabinol (?-8-THC) Boiling point: 175-178*C / 347-352.4 degree Fahrenheit Properties: Resembles ?-9-THC, Less psychoactive, More stable Antiemetic

tetrahydrocannabivarin (THCV) Boiling point: < 220*C / <428 degree Fahrenheit Properties: Analgesic, Euphoriant

Terpenoid essential oils, their boiling points, and properties

ß-myrcene Boiling point: 166-168*C / 330.8-334.4 degree Fahrenheit Properties: Analgesic. Antiinflammatory, Antibiotic, Antimutagenic

ß-caryophyllene Boiling point: 119*C / 246.2 degree Fahrenheit Properties: Antiinflammatory, Cytoprotective (gastric mucosa), Antimalarial

d-limonene Boiling point: 177*C / 350.6 degree Fahrenheit Properties: Cannabinoid agonist?, Immune potentiator, Antidepressant, Antimutagenic

linalool Boiling point: 198*C / 388.4 degree Fahrenheit Properties: Sedative, Antidepressant, Anxiolytic, Immune potentiator

pulegone Boiling point: 224*C / 435.2 degree Fahrenheit Properties: Memory booster?, AChE inhibitor, Sedative, Antipyretic

1,8-cineole (eucalyptol) Boiling point: 176*C / 348.8 degree Fahrenheit Properties: AChE inhibitor, Increases cerebral, blood flow, Stimulant, Antibiotic, Antiviral, Antiinflammatory, Antinociceptive

a-pinene Boiling point: 156*C / 312.8 degree Fahrenheit Properties: Antiinflammatory, Bronchodilator, Stimulant, Antibiotic, Antineoplastic, AChE inhibitor

a-terpineol Boiling point: 217-218*C / 422.6-424.4 degree Fahrenheit Properties: Sedative, Antibiotic, AChE inhibitor, Antioxidant, Antimalarial

terpineol-4-ol Boiling point: 209*C / 408.2 degree Fahrenheit Properties: AChE inhibitor. Antibiotic

p-cymene Boiling point: 177*C / 350.6 degree Fahrenheit Properties: Antibiotic, Anticandidal, AChE inhibitor

Flavonoid and phytosterol components, their boiling points, and properties

apigenin Boiling point: 178*C / 352.4 degree Fahrenheit Properties: Anxiolytic, Antiinflammatory, Estrogenic

quercetin Boiling point: 250*C / 482 degree Fahrenheit Properties: Antioxidant, Antimutagenic, Antiviral, Antineoplastic

cannflavin A Boiling point: 182*C / 359.6 degree Fahrenheit Properties: COX inhibitor, LO inhibitor

ß-sitosterol Boiling point: 134*C / 273.2 degree Fahrenheit Properties: Antiinflammatory, 5-a-reductase, inhibitor

I believe we are getting most of those in our extractions, but someone like Grey Wolf would know much more than I. You are correct about temp which is why we use vac chambers. Butane boils at 30.2F, but under vac it is like -32F (not exact numbers) So in theory you can use less heat for less time. And actually terpenes may be just as important to overall effect as thc itself. People describe a better effect off a product with more terpines than one with more thc. Still just speculation I believe though. There are guys on here that could answer way better than me.

Some prefer a cold trap to keep solvent / terps from ending up in your vacuum pump oil. One could then also addback a good percentage of the trapped terps evaporated during purge.

SnapsProvolone said:

Some prefer a cold trap to keep solvent / terps from ending up in your vacuum pump oil. One could then also addback a good percentage of the trapped terps evaporated during purge.

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I guess you could but it wont last for very long because terpenes have significant vapor pressure and are quite volatile. The waxy cuticle on the trichome actually encapsulates the terpenes and solvent extractions destroy the cuticle and release the terpenes which are carried away with the purging solvent. You could recapture and add them back in but unless the concentrate is kept in an airtight container at cold temperatures they will just evaporate again.