CBD Extraction 101: Popular Methods Explained
It is important to extract CBD in the right way, but it could go wrong if you don’t know how to do it. Here, you’ll learn the most common ways in which you can extract CBD.
In order to obtain cannabidiol (CBD) oil of the best quality, proper attention and care must be given to the extraction process. It is counterproductive to grow high-quality hemp but perform the extraction using low-end techniques. This begs the question: what are the best methods to extract CBD oil?
Popular CBD Extraction Methods
There are four most popular methods for extracting CBD from the hemp plant. These methods are generally considered to be the best in terms of cost, percentage yield, and purity. They are:
Extraction by Solvent
This method is completed in three steps; first, the solvent, a hydrocarbon such as butane or propane, or food-grade alcohol. Trimmings of the hemp plants are soaked in the solvents to capture the active and desirable compound.
Further refinement takes place to capture other useful compounds from the extract. The last step is the final refinement to remove unwanted products and leave pure CBD oil concentrate; here, the concentrate is distilled to separate the solvent from the hemp oil.
The major advantages of this method are: inexpensive (except at large scale), efficient, and solvents can be reused for other non-CBD extracts.
Care must be taken to avoid naked flames as the solvents are fairly flammable. The final distillation must be done properly to avoid the retention of trace quantities of undesirable compounds.
Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Extraction
This method is the latest and most advanced method for extracting CBD oil of the highest quality. In CO2 extraction, the gas is used to extract the active and desirable compounds from hemp plants.
The entire process is divided into three stages that occur in three separate chambers. First, the gaseous CO2 is pressurized and converted into its liquid state. The pressure is increased until the CO2 reaches a temperature at which it exhibits both gaseous and liquid properties.
The C2 -in this state- is then pumped into the second chamber containing the clean and ready hemp plants. In this chamber, the CO2 slowly extracts the CBD oil. The CBD oil and CO2 both flow into the third chamber where the CO2, now at a higher temperature, evaporates. The CBD oil extracted this way is always of the highest concentration.
The only special precaution needed here is to ensure that the second chamber has no leaks. If it does, impurities can escape into the final chamber.
Steam Extraction
This method involves using steam from boiling water to extract CBD oil from hemp plants. The simple apparatus contains a heating element with a chamber to hold the water and hemp plant materials, a conduit or condenser pipe, and a collector.
The water is heated to above its boiling point and the steam produced frees the volatile CBD compounds from the hemp plant. The compounds and steam travel through the conduit or condenser and are collected as liquids in the collector. The mixture is then separated to yield pure CBD oil extract.
While this method is simple, cost-effective, and safe, it does require more hemp plants than the other methods to produce similar volumes of CBD oil, and some heat-sensitive CBDs may get damaged in the process.
Olive Oil Extraction
This method uses olive oil as a secondary solvent. Harvested hemp plants are first heated to break some chemical bonds, then mixed with the olive oil and heated to release the CBDs. The CBD oil extract will be produced as an infusion of CBD and olive oil since olive oil does not evaporate like other solvents.
The increasing demand for CBD products will cause a hike in global prices in the future. To meet the rising demand, more people will turn to self-extraction. It is therefore vital that you understand how it is done.
