DIY CBD capsules, ongoing journey

[Humanrob]

I'm definitely interested in your results, man! Please be sure to tag me on your results from your next batch.

Will do -- it'll be a couple of weeks before I make it, and maybe a few more before I have anything worth sharing, but I'll be back --

 

[Humanrob]

I'm trying to distill down the pieces of the puzzle I've found that I haven't found conflicting data on:
- The absorption of CBD is 4-5x higher when it is taken orally with or infused in fatty/oil
- CBD taken with food is 4x less effective (...at least in rabbits)
Conclusion so far: infused oil capsules taken between meals are the most effective method of taking CBD orally.

Next challenge;
- CBDA is many times (have read varying amounts) more effective than CBD for nausea, pain, and inflammation

To keep it CBD-A-, I have to avoid decarboxylation, or heat in the production process. There seem to be a couple of methods, like freezing the flower and the alcohol and making a cold tincture. This can be totally or partially air evaporated to concentrate it, but heatless evaporation can take some time, especially with larger batches.

(Edited to remove incorrect information, thanks WildBill!)

I need to find a cold method for infusing oil.

If anyone has any information on this, I'd love to hear it!

 

[WildBill]

So you read that the THCa and CBDa is water soluble? That just doesn't sound right to me.

 

[Humanrob]

So you read that the THCa and CBDa is water soluble? That just doesn't sound right to me.

Yeah, good catch. I just reviewed the article where I thought I read that, and I misread or misremembered the information. It does cross the BBB but it has nothing to do with water solubility. My bad. I complain about misinformation on the web, and then contribute to it...

The other question still holds; I need to find a cold method of oil infusion. With my last batch after heat infusing CBD into coconut oil, when it had mostly cooled before siphoning and injecting it into capsules I mixed some raw CBDA kief into it. I stirred a bunch, but found the kief settled to the bottom of the batch and stirring before each application was not confidence inspiring in terms of consistency. I'm going to try just leaving kief in oil for a few days at room temps, and see if it breaks down/dissolves at all.

Thanks for keeping it real --

 

[WildBill]

Without the heat See if this will suffice for your needs. I don't know for sure how well this would work or how long the evaporation process will take, but it's the only thing that I can think of that is relatively easy to do. Maybe someone else will have some input on this idea.
Let me lay out a possible methodology. We're gonna go back to high school science class!
Since you say you want to preserve the maximum amount of terpenes, I would just do a dry ice shake or ice water shake. Dried flower would still work, but you're going to lose some terpenes in a drying process.
Ice water hash would have to be dried.
Dry ice hash could probably be used within the hour with no problems. It just depends on your extraction rooms temperature and the humidity.
Do the frozen alcohol extraction bit.
Filter out the rosin heads and stems with a Büchner funnel.
Now here comes the 70s science class bit.
You're going to need two things.
And automotive style vacuum pump you can get those Locally at Harbor Freight or just order them through Amazon. If you can get it locally it would be better.
I'm pretty sure Amazon is going to be the best place to get the next item. The next item is a vacuum dome. The ones I saw had some sort of gasket at the bottom. If they don't have a gasket at the bottom you can glue sheet rubber to some sort of platform that you make. One inch plywood should withstand the stresses. You could use a thick marble plate like what you would work candy with or chocolate If your dome has the gasket.
Just put your filtered alcohol cannabis solution under the dome In a glass bowl with a lot of surface area . It's still gonna take a fairly long time to evaporate the alcohol but it would be a lot quicker and more sterile than open evaporation. It still needs to be done outside and with a fan blowing on the vacuum pump.
What's left is not gonna be like RSO since it's not heated.
The reason I said get one locally is that the alcohol Vapor is really hard on that vacuum pump. After every use I would turn it on and then mist some oil into the suction line to help lubricate things. That's just going to forestall the failure that eventually will occur. Take out the extended warranty .

It is basically an ExtractCraft Source Turbo Concentrate Extractor without the heat

The end product should be pretty decent.

Like I said, that's untested by me, but I see no reason why it wouldn't work.

 

[Humanrob]

Without the heat See if this will suffice for your needs. I don't know for sure how well this would work or how long the evaporation process will take, but it's the only thing that I can think of that is relatively easy to do. Maybe someone else will have some input on this idea.
Let me lay out a possible methodology. We're gonna go back to high school science class!
Since you say you want to preserve the maximum amount of terpenes, I would just do a dry ice shake or ice water shake. Dried flower would still work, but you're going to lose some terpenes in a drying process.
Ice water hash would have to be dried.
Dry ice hash could probably be used within the hour with no problems. It just depends on your extraction rooms temperature and the humidity.
Do the frozen alcohol extraction bit.
Filter out the rosin heads and stems with a Büchner funnel.
Now here comes the 70s science class bit.
You're going to need two things.
And automotive style vacuum pump you can get those Locally at Harbor Freight or just order them through Amazon. If you can get it locally it would be better.
I'm pretty sure Amazon is going to be the best place to get the next item. The next item is a vacuum dome. The ones I saw had some sort of gasket at the bottom. If they don't have a gasket at the bottom you can glue sheet rubber to some sort of platform that you make. One inch plywood should withstand the stresses. You could use a thick marble plate like what you would work candy with or chocolate If your dome has the gasket.
Just put your filtered alcohol cannabis solution under the dome In a glass bowl with a lot of surface area . It's still gonna take a fairly long time to evaporate the alcohol but it would be a lot quicker and more sterile than open evaporation. It still needs to be done outside and with a fan blowing on the vacuum pump.
What's left is not gonna be like RSO since it's not heated.
The reason I said get one locally is that the alcohol Vapor is really hard on that vacuum pump. After every use I would turn it on and then missed some all into the suction line to help lubricate things. That's just going to forestall the failure that eventually will occur. Take out the extended warranty .

It is basically an ExtractCraft Source Turbo Concentrate Extractor without the heat

The end product should be pretty decent.

Like I said, that's untested by me, but I see no reason why it wouldn't work.

Well now I know where the Wild in WildBill comes from...

 

[Humanrob]

Quick update on the THCA -- four hours at 90º in a food dryer was apparently enough to decarb it, because I was stoned half the day I tested it. That was explicitly not the point of those caps. This batch was largely made from older stock (a little over a year old), and I've read that over time, THCA turns to THC naturally, so that might have been part of it. I will say that lately it takes very little THC to get me high, not sure why that is but it's been an increasing trend in the last six months or so.

One other wild card variable -- I'm on fairly large amounts of CBD that I take throughout the day, from the moment I wake up until right before I go to bed. I have found that depending on how much food I've eaten and how close to a meal I take them, they interact with other things, especially THC. Since they're all competing for the same receptors in my brain, it seems like sometimes they share and sometimes one or the other wins. It seems in the entourage dance, only one dancer leads.

Not sure if these little ramblings have any value, I hope they're useful --