ISO extraction and safety

Hi All,

So for the past 20ish years QWISO and RSO have been two go to methods [for me] for creating both smokable and consumable products.

Long and short the internet and forums say a lot about why this is great and terrible. Definitely want to focus on maximizing collection of THC while minimizing any potential health risks.

Would love to get a constructive dialogue going on this topic.

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Look up green dragon in the threads it uses high proof alcohol for extraction over iso can be made into a tincture or rso have heard that’s a much safer option going to be doing some up some soon with some of my outdoor harvest :+1: Not Just Another Tincture Thread

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I use @ReikoX methods to make mine also.I :green_heart::seedling:

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Lol so the suggestion is to not use it. Okay but what about the stuff that has washed with ISA.

Is there a way to purge out Isopropyl Alcohol?
Is it safe to use as a topical?

safe to use in topical.
cannot purge it out as its boiling point is lower than ethyl.

If ISO wasn’t safe for topical use, they wouldn’t sell it over the counter for cleaning cuts and small wounds :wink:

I’ll go out on a limb and say purging ISO isn’t necessary. ISO attracts water from the air and alcohol evaporates much quicker than water. By the time your ISO extraction gets evap’d down to where it isn’t wetting the whole bottom of the evap dish and just rolls around as a bead, the ISO will be entirely gone. You can prove it to yourself by taking a whiff; ISO is detectable by the nose at ppms far smaller than what could harm you :sunglasses::+1: If you’re still paranoid, splash a little water in the evap dish and you’ll know the alcohol is all gone by the time it’s dry.

if anything I just trust the pharmaceutical grade to be closer to pure alcohol + water over the consumer grade, and it’s so much easier to source :joy:

Kaboom. Nuff said.

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Just DON’T try to reduce Green Dragon (or any other alcohol based extractors) using a stove with an open flame. Use a hot plate, or an electric stove. And don’t ask me how big the fireball in my kitchen was back in college…

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Oh for sure going to do outside in a well vented area with a hot plate don’t have blowing myself up on the agenda :sweat_smile: thanks for looking out @Nagel420

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The problem ive read is that some people who just want to make alot of money uses cheap ISO made for soldering or electrics. This is not pure ISO and got alot of bad stuff in it and you dont know what is left. If you use medical grade ISO and follow all the reputable guides out there, you dont have to worry about your health being harmed.

Also just as with BHO, time is your friend! Dont hurry, let It take its course and youll have a fine product.

Pz :v:t2:

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Thanks all.

I was mainly just worried about what remains in the final product after it has been heated away on a hot plate in an open area. We usually leave it on well beyond the point where even the water has evaporated. We usually buy the CVS 99% or 91%. But currently have the 91% first aid target brand bottles. Haven’t sourced anything larger. But the bottles are categorized use on humans, and are supposedly pure ISA & water.

What concerned me is the comment on this site about ISA will convert to benzene and the other about liver failure. I don’t know that either are true.

And yes definitely being careful to avoid the kaboom.

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ISO is not good for the body and even a 1min exposure to fumes can cause damage. If the extraction is made correctly with medical grade or food grade 99% ISO, nothing will be left after the evaporation. ISO evaporate around 10 degree celcius and doing a quick wash and then leave it for 48h will garante you a safe product. Use gloves, glasses and a M3 gasmask with filters made for chemical fumes. This is a cheap and easy way to make sure your own safety while cooking. Remember, 60 sec exposure is all it takes to cause harm.

Here is more info about the subject: https://www.avmor.com/cannabis/effects-of-isopropyl-alcohol-on-humans-cannabis-grow-operation-comes-out-of-the-basement-and-into-the-main-stream/

Pz :v:t2:

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Removal of alcohol residue from oils. I first put it through my water distiller and reduce it to 2/3 oil and1/3 alcohol. I make my own alcohol from a sugar grain fermentation and distill it to 190 proof. At this point I do what they call winterizeing, by putting it in the freezer for a coupl / three days and filter out the solids. Next I add baking soda to get the mixture to a neutral PH(crashing up) Then a water flush and seperationThen On a pan of hot water I float the remaing mix remove most of the remaining alcohol with a blow drier towards the end. Then I do a vacuum purge Using a homade vacuum chamber made from a gallon widemouth jar that I drilled a half in. hole in the lid and glued a chinese cupping cup over hole using the vacuum pump to apply as much vacuum as I can then I place jar in sink of hot water to keep the oil warm helping it to purge the remaining alcohol. When you can do this and no longer get any bubbles rising from the oil product is finished. I have tried syringe filters to clarify the oil but had no luck with it. I add some oil to keef and press to make hash, or add measured amounts to melted milk chocolate for edibles and add to ground up buds for joints too strong to finnish in one sitting and suprising to even heavy stoners

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That’s some next level stuff way cool :+1: @oldhippy

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Jesus christ, do some research outside of High Times.

The bottle if ISO says to not use on a large are of the body. Also says to not internalize.
Guys why??
Its poisonous

The liver and kidneys can deal with small amounts of ISO the get through by contact with small areas of skin. But cover your body with it and you can fry your organs.

You can clean ISO
Plus, benzene is used to gain over 85% alcohol by displacing water from the atmosphere.

Its toxic. Period.

Use fucking food grade alcohol, like everclear.
Get a rotovap if you’re concerned about money.

I’m gonna copy/paste part of my post from the snowhigh thread because it’s too many words to bother rephrasing :joy:

Maybe you wont get 0ppb of solvent out here in the real world but you can easily get low enough that it’s not relevant. A study here found iso gas is detectable by nose around 11-39ppm. I can attest that when an evap dish is low enough, when it’s a bead of liquid instead of wetting the whole pan, I can’t smell iso. The CDC says here:

 "Ten volunteers exposed for 3 to 5 minutes to 200, 400, or 800 ppm reported mild to moderate irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat *at the two higher concentrations* [Nelson et al. 1943]. The probable lethal oral dose has been reported to be *190 grams* [Gosselin et al. 1984]. [Note: An oral dose of 190 grams is equivalent to a worker being exposed to about 50,700 ppm for 30 minutes, assuming a breathing rate of 50 liters per minute and 100% absorption.]" (emphasis added)

Additionally, a publication on isopropanol toxicity from the ncbi (here)says, “Treatment of isopropanol ingestions typically consists of supportive therapy. Ingestions are rarely lethal [1][2][3]” Combined with the facts iso evaporates faster than water and actually pulls water out of the air into the evap dish, lengthening the evap process, residual iso content is not a concern imo.

In regards to benzene, the DOW document states a max limit of 2ppm of benzene in their USP grade iso, corroborated as the USP standard by an article here. The CDC says here “[benzene gas] exposure at 25 ppm for 8 hours has no effect [Gerarde 1960].” and says here, “The average smoker (32 cigarettes per day) takes in about 1.8 milligrams (mg) of benzene per day.” When we’re talking less than 2ppm of benzine in the tiny, tiny, residual amounts rubbing alcohol, which is itself only at ppm levels of the entire end product, worrying starts to sound really silly. Not to mention benzene has an even lower boiling point than isopropanol and actually floats on top of water. I’m no chemist but when benzene evaporates faster than water, and is between the water and the air, how is the water going to evaporate first to trap the benzene in solid hash? The tiny, tiny amounts of benzene a smoker gets more of in one sitting? Before you go anti tobacco on me some of the oldest people in the world are daily smokers.

I can understand your concern, but I would appreciate if you cited some sources before getting hostile and jumping at me about it :joy: I’m perfectly happy to be wrong, especially when safety is a concern, I’m just not convinced I am.

Years ago, I spoke to a different chemist in Oregon who was in BOEL back in the day.
He said he was one of the ones to try out different teks and solvents to extract hash oil in the Middle East to then ship around the world as it was easier, cheaper, and more reliable to traffic hash oil than buds or kief.
Ether was one of the best, but regulated. So then they tried the flurocarbobs and hydrocarbons, finally using butane in the labs in Afghanistan. He said unfortunately many got sick testing those early products and became a big advocate against shitty teks like ISO wash that slowly kills people.
Not long after, the government would use teks designed by BOEL to extract opiates from poppy stalk, so farmers didnt even need to score and collect from the pods - they could get higher biomass yield of alkaloids by simply threshing and extracting the poppy plants.

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I love these blackmarket history lessons. 100x better than some bullsh*t on the History Channel.

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I’d love to hear more about this because I’ve always considered ISO to be safe :eyes: