How to extract THC and all its uses

Alan Martínez Benito

CEO of Pev Grow, expert grower with more than 20 years of experience.
In constant struggle for the regulation of cannabis, mainly in the medicinal field.
30-08-2019 10:00:55 - Updated: 30 August, 2019

THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol)  is the main psychoactive constituent of marijuana or cannabis. Knowing how to extract and process THC safely is both art and technique combined, and today we will give you a brief overview of the different methods for do it. With these techniques you will be able to isolate THC from your Normal flowering or autoflowering strains in the most efficient way and without spending a fortune to do it.

If you are under 18, please do not continue reading. This information is for ADULTS only. We will never incite to the consumption of narcotic, alcoholic or addictive substances in minors.

As we have told you before, you will not be able to buy THC oil, having said that, it’s time for you to know the different ways to extract and make THC. We won’t use complicated technical terms, with the word “Tetrahydrocannabinol” we have had enough, but we will do our best to use an easy and understandable vocabulary for everyone.

🔥 How to extract pure THC ?

 

There are several techniques and methods for extracting THC. Some allow excellent purity margins, even close to 100%, while others offer resin with 60% purity. Although the methods may be artisanal, behind them lies a whole science based on chemistry.

Extraction of pure THC is feasible only if the right methods are used. The best way is through mechanical extraction methods. With this methodology the percentage of hashish THC is usually high in purity, as long as you apply it correctly.

THC extraction can also be done by physical-chemical methods, which are often more complicated and sometimes dangerous. In this case we are talking about processes of extraction and not just separation of hashish THC.

First, let’s see how to extract THC by physical or mechanical methods:

How to extract THC from dry marijuana by mechanical methods

We don’t want to fall into theoretical issues, but you should know that this aspect is important. Marijuana, like any vegetable, has its conditions when it comes to sowing and harvesting. If you want to extract hashish with high quality THC you must not neglect any detail.

The idea of this method is to be able to extract the best trichomes of the plant (a trichome is a very small part of plants and, speaking of marijuana, they are very important since they concentrate great part of cannabis’ properties).

How to extract THC from dried flowers:

1.  The first thing is that you must have the marijuana buds dry and well conserved. This is done in hermetically sealed glass containers, although you must open them to air them during the first 5 days.
2. Also there are methods where they are frozen. In this way the properties of the substance are preserved intact. But to keep it without freezing implies a process of maturation and cured of 4 to 6 months.
3. This method consists of sieving and repeating the sieving by means of meshes of different sizes, using dry flowers.  This can be done by manual shaking or with machines.
4. With the dried flowers, we follow a sieving process that allows us to take as many trichomes as possible. We can use silkscreen meshes, ideal for filtering out “garbage” and keep the best.
5. The first mesh of 160 microns will be the starting point for the basic hash. From there it will go to an intermediate mesh of 70 microns. What remains here is “the best of the best”. All that’s left is to pass it through the 45-micron mesh, and what’s left there will be the “second best”. The remains that pass are of “third quality”.
6. This is the rough explanation. The sieving process can have variations in the number of meshes, and it’s assumed that the greater the number of meshes, the better the result. Some tools use a system of 190 – 160 – 70 – 45 – 25 (where anything less than 25 and more than 190 is discarded).

This is a basic method for dry pure THC extraction, by purely mechanical means. The variant of doing it with frozen flowers is not very different.

At the end, you must collect the trichomes with a card and store them in resin form through a pressing process.

🎯 How to make homemade THC ?

There are many ways to make homemade THC. In practice we can say that the various methods that exist for making THC can be considered “homemade“. So far, the legal status of cannabis in the world has not been favorable to manufacturing THC at an industrial level.

But if we had to define a classic way of making homemade THC, we would keep the traditional methods of sieving, bubble hash (hashish made with water and ice), pressing and any other method that allows the extraction of cannabinoids and terpenes by mechanical means.

We have already seen a homemade method of dry THC extraction. Now we will see how to extract hashish THC with ice and water, the famous bubble hash.

Get the following materials:

1. Put the weed into the freezer, at least 30 minutes before starting the process.
2. Fill one of the buckets up to 1/3 of the volume with water, preferably cold water.
3. Fill half the volume of the bucket with ice. We want to achieve a temperature between 1º and 4º.
4. With buds or remains of grass well shredded, proceed to put them in the pyramidal bag.
5. Put the bag inside one of the buckets. Start beating with a mixer, or whatever it is that is used to give movement to all the vegetable matter in the water. When finished, take the other bucket and put the meshes in ascending form, from the smallest to the largest.
6. Wear gloves to protect your hands from the cold and proceed to filter the ice and water. Press the meshes to pour the water, taking care to prevent plant debris from entering the meshes. If they release foam, you can add water to rinse, and then press by hand.
7. The final step is to convert the resin into powder to make it easier to dry. This is where the use of the strainer comes into play. You must use a cardboard covered with baking paper where you will collect all the powdered resin. Then, just let it rest until it dries.

To press the mixture, you have to wait from 20 days to one month of drying. This is the basic way to extract hashish THC with ice and water.

✨ How to make synthetic THC ?

You may have heard about k2 spices and synthetic marijuana. This is an artificial THC substance that has nothing to do with natural marijuana. If you want to know how to make synthetic THC you will have to become a chemical specialist (a Walter White), as these are laboratory drugs.

In specialized laboratories synthetic cannabinoids are manufactured, which seek to emulate the effects of natural marijuana in a safe and legal way. But, apparently they are very dangerous drugs since their long-term effects on the organism and the cerebral receivers are unknown.

⭐ How to extract THC for cooking ?

Marijuana can be a real culinary delight. The important thing is to know how to extract THC to cook, so we can add these concentrated in different menus, and they will have a “special” effect.

In this article we have shown you several ways to extract the best trichomes that give you the purest hashish. Now we’ll see a way to extract drops of THC that can be added as oil to meals.

With these methods you won’t have to buy liquid THC, although it’s a good option if you want to save time making your recipes.

You can extract THC for cooking in the following ways:

• Marijuana flour: the bud or leaves of the cannabis must be dry and have been cleaned thoroughly. You grind them with a chopper and then with a grinder until you get a very fine powder. With this flour you will be able to prepare diverse recipes.
• Extracts: this involves removing the THC from the trichomes of the plant and set it in some suitable substance in the form of resin. The substance can be greasy like butter, oil or alcohol.

How to make E-Liquid with THC ?

Vaping marijuana in the form of eLiquid with THC and CBD is one of the great pleasures of life. The best thing is that we can make this liquid ourselves with few materials in our own home.

A necessary step is to heat alcohol, so please take all possible safety measures and don’t be careless.

Materials:

• 2 large glass jars.
• 5 to 6 gr. of high quality buds.
• Large pot for boiling.
• Container with 5 ml dropper.
• Food grade propylene glycol.
• Ethyl alcohol or ethanol (high-grade alcohol. Never use common disinfectant alcohol).
• Syringe 5 – 10 ml.
• Baking tray and aluminium foil.
• Gloves and safety goggles.

Steps:

1. Decarboxylation of marijuana. It’s a chemical process that you can’t skip to activate THC. You must finely chop the buds and put them 15 minutes in an oven at 105 – 110º.

2. Put the decarboxylated cannabis in one of the glass jars and fill it with high grade alcohol.

3. Evaporate the alcohol. This is done in a bain-marie with half a liter of water in the pot and introducing the jar until the alcohol evaporates and the mixture becomes dark. Remember to be careful with temperature and alcohol.

4. Add more alcohol until you reach the original level.

5. Take the other glass container and pour the mixture while using a cloth to strain the buds. Return to step 3 until only 5 ml remain.

6. Prepare the mix. Add 20 ml of propylene glycol and mix well. You should get 25 ml of THC E-Liquid from your 6 gr. of marijuana.

How to make oil with THC ?

The procedure we have just shown you is the standard variant to make medical marijuana oil for pain or any use you want. Next we will tell you a well-known alternative procedure.

Materials and ingredients are as follows:

• 1 1.90 litre bowl or container.
• 1 Ceramic or glass medium bowl.
• Large wooden spoon.
• Silicone spatula.
• Oral syringes.
• Bain-marie pot.
• Gloves and safety equipment.
• 29 grs og marihuana.
• 1 gallon of high-grade alcohol for human consumption. Everclear recommended.

Procedure:

1. Put the cannabis buds in the glass container and then fill the jar with the high-grade alcohol solvent until it is 1 inch or 2.5 cm from being filled.

2. Mix with the spoon, crushing the weed with the solvent for 3 minutes.

3. Strain the mix of marijuana with solvent in the other container.

4. Soak, stir and strain the solution a second time.

5. Evaporate the solvent alcohol in a bain-marie. Add water to the bottom of the pot. Add the dark green mixture. Turn on the stove and start heating. When bubbling, turn it off and let it evaporate on its own. Continue and clean the sides with a spatula.

6.  When you see only a dark green liquid, the solvent will be evaporated. That’s your THC oil. As it cools, it will become thicker.

7. Store your oil in the syringe.

⛳ Conclusion

We have seen some general procedures on how to extract and make THC at home. It’s time for you to experiment on your own, but it’s very important that you understand that the procedures or system you use are worthless if you don’t have a good raw material.

For an experiment to be successful and you want to repeat the good results, it’s necessary that your cannabis has the same phenotype and has been sown and harvested under the best conditions.

This is the only way to extract a pure THC that can be used to prepare recipes or medicinal oils.

So, how did the THC extraction go for you? We’d be delighted to hear about your experience.😜

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