The first question is why use a quick wash technique to extract the resins, instead of long soaks to extract as much resin as possible, or just boiling the material in alcohol to get the greatest amount of extracted material?
The answer to that is that because alcohol is a polar solvent that is soluble in water, the latter two techniques also extract the water solubles like chlorophyll and plant alkaloids, as well as the plant waxes and vegetable oil.
Perhaps the first question is why use a BHO technique to extract the resins, instead of just boiling the material in alcohol to get the greatest amount of extracted material?
The answer to that is that because butane is relatively non polar, it doesn’t extract the water solubles like chlorophyll and plant alkaloids. Butane produces one of the cleanest extractions, albeit typically at a lower yield than polar alcohol.
Hi
@archie gemmill ..these are a couple excerpts from Skunk Pharm Research their homepage can be found pretty easily online and will explain all the stuff i cant, I use their methods to extract because they are proven,not with just the Eth but with the BHO and iso,CO2,Hexane,... look em up its good info..I still occasionally do bho and iso pulls, each is its own animal with pros and cons,finding what works for you is a great thing cause its exciting learning the processes as long as safety is exercised first and foremost... Hope this helps...Cheers
