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How to Distill Oils From Plant Material

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These days, people are choosing more holistic ways to help them with symptoms of anxiety or pain, and cannabis has become a popular choice.

The way the CBD oil and the endocannabinoid system interact is pretty amazing and has led to some life-changing discoveries for people with certain ailments. As research on cannabis and CBD continues to grow so will the industry and the ways we can use it in our everyday lives.

As legalization increases, more people are discovering the benefits of this plant. There are many ways CBD may improve your everyday life.  When it comes to making the oil for CBD products, there are three main types that you can use. These three are referred to as CBD isolate, full-spectrum and broad-spectrum CBD.

So what’s the difference between them? CBD isolate is the purest form of CBD. Full-spectrum CBD is an extract that contains other parts of the cannabis plant like cannabinoids and terpenes. The third one is broad-spectrum CBD, and it’s similar to full-spectrum, except that it aims to have zero levels of THC.

All three use the same method to distill and extract the CBD from the cannabis plant. Each one of the methods has its own different benefits and slightly different ways of extracting the oil from the plant, and you can learn more about them below.

Steam Extraction

This method has been used for many years, it uses water to create steam to separate the CBS oil from the cannabis plant matter, like the leaves and stems. The downside is that it can still be less efficient than if you were to use the CO2 extraction method.

The main issue is that the steam can overheat, which will ruin the product trying to be extracted. Oftentimes if this happens it lowers the efficiency and therapeutic properties because of the change in chemical properties. Make sure when you’re looking to buy wholesale full-spectrum CBD oil that you find one that was made using the CO2 method, as it’s deemed the most natural and balanced of them all.

Extraction using Solvents

This method is used by many people who try to extract CBD at home because it’s the least expensive method of extraction. Instead of using water like CO2, it uses a solvent to separate the oil from the plant matter. Some of the natural options that people use for solvents include olive oils, ethanol or hydrocarbon solvents. The other popular options, like butane, propane, naphtha or petroleum are a bit questionable to use. While this is a cheap option, it can often leave the product and the consumer with a bad taste, literally. Some products end up smelling and tasting strange and who knows what toxic residues can be left behind.

CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) Extraction

The method of using CO2 to extract CBD oil is the most commonly used one within the industry, they often refer to it as SFE (Supercritical Fluid Extraction). The method uses carbon dioxide that has states of liquid and gas that separate the oil itself from the plant parts. It can also be considered an environmentally friendly method by extracting CBD oil with CO2 because it doesn’t emit a lot of harmful gases into the atmosphere. The CO2 can also be reused in the process, which is a sustainable way to keep producing it. This method is popular because it’s safe for the consumer, the producer or manufacturer and of course, the environment.