Kieran

Dry, then crush fan leaves. Add anhydrous methanol to the leaves and shake around and let sit for a few days, as would normally be done. Pour the Leaf/methanol through cheese cloth or other suitable filter to obtain a solution free of plant matter. Normally, the solvent would be stripped of to obtain the oil. In this instance, we are going to isomerize it, therefore converting the inactive CBDs and CBNs to psycoactive THC. Since it is impossible (for a hobbyist non-chemist) to determine exactly how much CBDs and CNBs are in the solution, and since it varies greatly from plant to plant, we will add a significant excess of sulfuric acid to make sure all the CBDs and CNBs are converted. Any un-used sulfuric acid will be removed later on. Some guides reccomend 1ml acid/g or oil. Since the oil hasnt been weighed we can't use this. Simply by estimation, 25ml of concentrated sulfuric acid is added. If my estimate is under, then not all of the inactives will be converted. If my estimate is over, all inactives will be converted and simply more acid will have to be removed. The solution of acid/oil/methanol is heated in a water bath at 100 degrees celcius and the methanol solvent is stripped of. What is left is a dark oil that reeks like sulfuric acid. This is good, because obviously an excess was used and therefore all of the inactives have been converted. Some distilled water is added to the oil/acid and it is all stirred and heated on the water bath again. The water becomes colored, this is okay it is just removing some crap, in addition to the acid, from the oil - not THC. THC is not water soluable, thats why a water bong gets you Sooo high. After stirring it all around, let it sit and layer. The heavy oil will settle to the bottom and the water layer containing acid and other crap will be on top. Remove the top water layer by decantation. Adding water to the oil to remove water-soluable acid and other crap is called doing a water wash. Two more of these are done after the first one, using less water. After doing the last water wash, the beaker containing the oil is put back on the water bath and heated to 100 degrees celcius to drive off excess water. Smell it, if it reeks like sulfuric acid it needs more water washes. If it doesn't smell then all the sulfuric acid has obviously been removed. What remains after driving off the rest of the water is hash-oil with a very high concentration of active THC, and very little other crap in it. Even if you are not isomerizing your oil, it is still a good idea to give it a water wash, because there are many completely inactive compounds that are soluable in both alcohols and water. As stated earlier, THC is very water insoluable - thats why the water bong is a good way to get high.

Now that SWIM has in SWIM's possession oil that has a very high concentration of THC, he is going to acetylate it. This means forming Acetyl-THC using regular THC as the building block. Acetyl-THC is a much more potent and psycedellic form of THC, in this case it is certainly a worthwhile procedure. I will post the write up later.

Kieran

A few additional points on this synthesis:

-It is advisable to make hash out of your weed if possible before making the oil and isomerizing it. This way, you get a bit of hash and get also assure that there are no tricomes in the oil. Oil with trichomes in it is thick, oil without them is noticably of a smoother consistancy and more viscous.

-After boiling off the methyl alcohol to yield the isomerized oil plus an amount of catylitic sulfuric aicd; to yield an even greater purity of oil in only slightly lesser quantity, you can add some ether to the oil/sulfuric acid, and stir shake, then let sit until it sedentates forms a layer of solid material on the bottom. Be patient to let it layer out, if you are not patient then you have bussiness doing any of this. In fact, you have no bussiness doing any of this if it is illegal in the country you are in to possess THC containg compounds. Measure with a ruler in mm the length of sediment in the bottom, write down how many on paper. the After it layers out and has been measuered with a ruler, add a very small amount more ether, stir and shake. Let it layer out again. Measure in mm how tall the layer of sediment is. If the hieght of the sediment has decreasd, that's good; that means that there is more good stuff in there to pull out with more ether. If this is the case, add more ether. Stir, shake, let sit, measure...Keep doing this process until you notice for sure that the solvent is no longer dissolving any thing. Once no more sediment is being dissolved, filter the mixture and collect the filtrate, the liquid that comes through the filter. Add a quarter of the volume of ether of water. Stir, shake. Seperate the layer in whatever way you wish. A seperatory funnel is reccomended. Decantation is possible also. Save the ether layer, it is your oil. Test the ph of the water layer, it is no doubt highly acidic. Do this process again, using and 1/8 the volume of ether. Test the water layer again, if it is still acidic do another water wash. Keep and water, stirring and shaking and seperating, and testing ph until the water tests neutral. If you get a reading of 6.5 or up, then for safety do one more water wash. If you get two readings in a row of 6.5 then that is due to the ph strip and the fact that for certain reasons, which I won't go into, water can have a ph of 6.8. After doing this, evaporate the ether to yeild the oil. Once it has evaporated to yield thick oil, it can be water washed again. Add watter, stir it around, heat it and let it layer to the bottom, pour off the water. Then heat it to drive off excess ether and water. The final water wash is important, because no matter what solvent you use, a small amount will get trapped within the microscopic physical structure off the oil. Would you rather this solvent be ether or water? I know which I would pick, for sure. It is also interesting at this point, to test the ph of the final water wash, it should be the smae as before, near or right on neutral. Make sure that you test the ph after heating do drive off the ethert o get an accurate reading.

Some addittional notes:

-Use a clear glass vessle that is heat-resistant. No metal. Nothing that isn't meant for heat.
-Be aware of all of the physcial and chemical properties of the chemicals you are using.
-Be aware of the boiling points and flash point of all of the chemicals you are working with, including THC. Never go over, on, or even anywhere near the boiling point of THC during any process in this reaction.
-Because temperature is so important in this reaction, keep the temperature controlled and have a device that will measure the temperature for you, ie: a thermometer.
-All evaporations should be done outside, unless you have either a fume hood thats vents the fumes outside, or an efficient solvent recovey system that condenses the ether and methyl alcohol back into a liquid.
-ether is preferable because it evaporates quickly, and is easiest to work with. Based on their known physical and chemical properties and chemical structures, tolune or xylene would also work.

I would like to dedicate this thread to Ganja Warrior. By isomerizing, you are making THC from something that was not THC before. It is fast, instead of taking months to grow, the process is completed in a few hours. It is making use of leaves, somthing that previously was not marketable. The chemicals involved are cheap, and common. The minimum necessary equiptment is common, and cheap.

Isomerization is an additional felony! You can get a manufacturing a schedule 1 substance, that's WORSE and MORE SEVERE than if you got caught with a methamphetamine or fentanyl lab! This is true, they will take your life, as you know it, away forever just for doing this! The reason they will take your life away forever for synthetically producing THC, but they will only take a decade or so away for growing it, is that they FEAR knowledge. Knowledge is power, and when WE get too powerful THEY get SCARED. Drug Warrior and his fellow Warriors are all scared, they are reactionary. As individuals, they are weak. They are brought together by greed and hate. As individuals, there are some of US that are truly rightous and strong. In fact, many of the most righteous are incarcerated; targeted because of their strength and leadership as individuals. Righteousness and the quest for freedom is a stronger common interest than greed and hate, it always has been. A system that is held together by greed, hate, and misinformation will inevitabley crumble; it is only a matter of time.

----[llllllllllll]=[] ~INJECT YOURSELF WITH KNOWLEDGE DAILY~

Phantom

OK, Couldn't give a damn about your squabble with GW but I am intrigued by this and was wondering why I haven't seen anybody else pick up on this. Sounds almost "too" good though. What are the actual reactions taking place and why is the acid only targeting the CBN and CBD and not reacting with other cannaboids? Why are you doing the initial solvation with methanol instead of ethanol which is a better solvent and isn't poisonous? Not ragging on what you wrote, just chasing some more info.

Phantom
Ghost Who Smokes

afewtimes

OK, Couldn't give a damn about your squabble with GW but I am intrigued by this and was wondering why I haven't seen anybody else pick up on this. Sounds almost "too" good though. What are the actual reactions taking place and why is the acid only targeting the CBN and CBD and not reacting with other cannaboids? Why are you doing the initial solvation with methanol instead of ethanol which is a better solvent and isn't poisonous? Not ragging on what you wrote, just chasing some more info.

I have done similar isomerization experiments in college and I did not understand the nitty gritty details then but I think that it would work since we also used H2SO4 as a catalyst.
I also would like to know the significance of methanol in reaction.

pontoon

...and VERY dangerous!

And doesn't Sulfuric Acid burn on contact?

Interesting recipe...but I sometimes get a little paranoid just workin' with the Everclear!

pOOn

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pOOn

Delta

called Cannabis Alchemy ... by, um, Dr. Atomic, I think. There are other (safer) ways to convert CBD to THC. UV, is one.

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THChemist

I'd, IMO, jump over to the Vaults of Erowid website....



Some points to consider....acetone is better for extraction (ether's the best, but an huge explosion hazard) compared to Methanol or Ethanol based on its insolubility in H20)...This helps in phase extractions....Also read up on the final Isomerization steps of rotating the Delta 1 to the Delata 6 position (aka Delta 8 THC), as it has very psychoactive tendencies.

What ever synthesis path is taken, please excercise great care with the flammable solvents and corrosive acids. Read the Erowid methodologies[Dr. Atomic's is listed]. IMO, Erowid provides some of the most comprehensive information on the net ...check it out and be careful!

Peace...


THChemist

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schoolteacher

anyone know a source of high quality H2SO4?

hookedonhydro

Can another acid other than Sulferic be used to isomerize the cbd's to THC's?
Hydrochloric acid perhaps?

stickeyfinger

from what I understand, Muriatic acid (found at any hardware store) can be used. It is 31%HCL in a aquious solution. I would check the MSDS first though. The "magic" occurs durring a hour to two reflux of the acidicidified caniboids.

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