Use Of Ethanol In Cannabinoid Sciences
Cannabinoid sciences have been one of the most thriving platforms, leading the world in providing therapeutic, and potential breakthrough treatments for patients and clients seeking revolution in disease treatment. One specific derivative from the cannabinoid tree, CBD (cannabidiol), is commonly used in a oil base, prescribed to patients to treat the associated diseases such as Lennos-Gastaut syndrome, Dravet syndrome, and even tuberous sclerosis complex for ages 1 and older. The chemicals that we supply to our community are the essential building blocks for all manufacturing facilities that produce small and large quantities of CBD as a drug product. Once the production is made, we also pride ourselves in being the supplier of the material needed to complete the release testing of the CBD finished product before releasing to market.
In a normal production process where CBD as final dosage is manufactured, hemp can be taken as crude, distillate or isolate, then purified to make the final drug substance material. The first step of this would be known as the distillation of the active ingredient. In this case, this would be the CBD. This distillation typically applies to crude, or distillate material as they normally obtain a mixture of impurities, hydrocarbons and other low purity. Isolate material would normally skip the distillate process as conventional isolate is received as powder; if needed, this powder (isolate) can be recrystallized by using an Ethanol and Water azeotrope, to remove lower lying process impurities where applicable. The job of this distillation step is to “fractionate” the different components from the still (distillation column), and recover the material of interest based on the active material’s boiling point. This process applies Raoult’s Law and Dalton’s Law simply by illuminating partial pressures, and the sum of total pressure exerted by the mixing of gasses at equal parts. Dalton’s Law is also applied, where the chemical illuminates the state at which partial pressure of single liquids in a mixture equal the product of vapor pressure of each pure component based on their mole fraction. Once the distillation process is complete, crystallization from a processing standpoint, involves the use of chemicals that we, Lab Alley supply.
Crystallization is considered the act of purification that takes impure solids, and remove the excess impurities, that would yield the pure material. In order to do this, the active material would be placed into a tank, with a mixer or celstir, flushed with nitrogen, then introduced with 190 Proof Ethanol, Food Grade (sold by Lab Alley). This powerful chemical is an alcohol that is used in purification processes due to its versatility in binding any process and organic impurities from the active material. It also has a low boiling point; when it is time to dry in the final packaging stages, the free ethanol would be absent. This chemical services a company well from a business model standpoint, as it will cut down the production time in having to dry the material more than once to remove residual Ethanol.
Once Ethanol is introduced into the tank, the mixture triturates the active ingredient for 4-5 hours. During this time, the ethanol is doing its job, as it scavenges the impurities that may be bound to the active material. Most crude, or distillate material would be yellow to orange in color, depending on where the product originated. A quick reference point to know if the Ethanol is working as should, you will see the color from the active material, be absorbed into the ethanol. This indication means that as the mixture progress, the impurities become displaced from the active material to the Ethanol. After 4-5 hours of mixing, the crystallization step settles in the tank, to separate the crystals and the supernatant. Once the color is observed to be within reason, crystallization can be moved to filtration and final packaging.
Let say, the final active material (CBD) has been dried, packed and completed with the intent to sell and or use in a finished product. We can start by using this pure, refined CBD active material to make a drug product formulation that involves the use of another one of Lab Alley’s chemical supply: Ethanol 200 Proof. This denatured alcohol can be used in final product mixes of CBD/Hemp Oil bases as a preservative to ensure that microbial components are not able to grow in the bottle after a 2-3 year assigned shelf life after usage. Most formulation work would show that as you increase Ethanol 200 in a formulation, you corroborate the products anti-microbial effectiveness. This test is performed by microbiological labs to ensure that while the bottle is used, and applied and consumed by customers, the microbes remain absent. This satisfies the normal release procedure needed from the microbial end to sell compliant CBD as a finished product. On the chemistry side, this involves a lot more reagents and chemicals with more detailed testing.
Testing of the CBD finished product formulation would be after method and process development is complete, verified and effective. Two pertinent tests, that are critical for the release of this material for sell would be HPLC potency, and GC Ethanol. HPLC potency is used to determine the active purity of the CBD in the final product. This test will typically involve the use of mobile phase and diluents to prepare the solution to be analyze on the HPLC system. This would involve the supplies that we provide such as glass beakers for material preparation, trichloroacetic acid and nitric acid for mobile phase preparation. Lastly, Isopropanol for cleaning and sanitization of the workspace on prepared, primed and ready for analysis.
Lab Alley is a major supplier in the market for all material and supplies necessary to carry out your entire company projects from start to finish, with the CBD manufacturing line being a prime example. We work to ensure that all essential chemicals that are sold, meet your respective grade, and are delivered to you with an outstanding delivery time. Here at Lab Alley, we aim to do our best in servicing each industry through theory and best practices behind the market in which you aim to serve, while offering exemplar customer service while doing business.
