Does it depend on the extraction process, or the strain being used? I’m not very knowledgeable about this, so I figured I’d reach out and see if I could find out through someone in this community. Any answers would be greatly appreciated.
Posted Mar 26, 2022, 2:01 PM UTC
It indicates that the potency of your oil is high. The higher the percentage of THCA means you will need less oil to get high. If you have high CBGa then it won't get you high but should help with pain.
The A on the end is the acid group and keeps the molecule inactive. Once the acid group is removed it is now active and your body can accept the molecule. To remove the acid group you must decarb, and most molecules can be decarbed at the same temperature.
They sell you THCA because your cart or dab rig will remove the acid group once you light it up.
The only thing the acidic form changes is really psychoactive effects. You will still get all medicinal benefits from the acidic forms of cannabinoids, the only thing is they won't get you high. To get high from an acidic cannabinoid, it must be decarboxylated or smoked/vaped, which decarboxylates it. If you don't want to get high, but still want the medical effects from THC, you can ingest THCa, and it will still be incredibly beneficial
It’s fresh.
It tells you that heat was not applied to it for very long or at a very high temperature.
"Full spectrum" is a marketing term that means different things in the context of different extraction methods.
For example, full spectrum live/hash rosin means that it's the product of squishing trichomes collected at many different sizes of micron screens.
Ripeness of the plant. The ratios will change as it gets farther along in flower. Had to harvest early once, and the concentrates that came from it tested at 84% thc and 9% cbg. theres a lot of theories about chopping a little early to try to pull out other compounds. No clue how the cbg does. It was an interesting anomoly tho. Becuase the same strain would have almost no cbg when it make it to full ripeness. But the early cut stuff made almost white wax(this is before crc days) and the normal ripe was a bright blonde color.
It's not decarbed maybe?
If the bud is badass the thc% doesnt matter.
it depends on all of these things you mentioned, but more than anything else it depends on the temp you are extracting at. different cannabinoids decarb from their acidic form at different temps.
It's not decarbed - "thca", "cbga", "cbca" etc are all acidic forms, so not decarbed. Since it's not a distillate and is full spec, the high percentages are mostly due to the plant, solvent and temp likely play lesser roles.
Quality full spectrum oils are going to be extracted with either hydrocarbons or ethanol. in either case, the extraction is going to happen at extremely low temps. (-20c minimum, colder for hydrocarbons). The removal of solvents is where heat may degrade terpenes and cannabinoids. For hydrocarbon extracts, the solvent recovery temps are generally still too low to decarboxylate most cannabinoids. For ethanol concentrates, things are a bit hotter. More opportunity and time for decarb there. Batch size will influence the time under heat as well.
But yeah, the MOST important factor that is going to determine the chemotype/cannabinoid content of an extract is of course, the source material.
man, i got my brain on rosin squishing so much i tend to forget people like solvents too lmao! a bit daunting to try and take on....
Haha, hydrocarbon and ethanol extracts are here to stay in the industry for sure. Rosin is a super inefficient way to make concentrates, and properly made BHO/PHO is still technically more pure, and usually richer in terps. Definitely not advisable to "take on" making your own extracts with those solvents though- it requires tens of thousands of dollars of laboratory equipment to do it safely. Even if you have the funding, it's best left to people with a background in chemical equipment / lab production. With adequate chilling, ventilation, solvent recovery systems, and a C1D1 extraction booth, stuff can still go seriously wrong. If you don't know what you're doing, you'll eventually be seriously injured. Ethanol is generally safer than hydrocarbons, but for the home-extractor....stick to squishin!!
right, but when you decarboxylate any of the acidic forms they turn into the non acidic, D9 isomers etc etc. So, when you press your material at a lower temp you end up with a lot more of the acidic forms.