Introduction to Hashish Oil

Hashish oil,is the resinous extract of the cannabis plant, specifically the extract of the mature flowers.

Triturated oil is a form of hash oil with (oil whipped into a crystalline soilid, as described by zubrick, p. 117, Ochem lab survival manual). A ‘hot knife’ is the way hash oil was smoked in the past. There are pipes just for smoking oil, or for vaporizing oil with a glass rod or a soldering iron. Some have titanium nails that are heated, and then “dabs” are put on there. Some have holes in the top that catch escaping smoke, but no hole for the oil to run down. There are tools for dabbing the oil, so it doesn’t get everywhere, mini jars for carrying it, special tubes making the butane extraction simpler.

Properties

Hashish oil is an extract of a natural product and the characteristics and potency of the finished extract varies widely depending on the source material. Its texture can range from viscous oil to sticky solid similar to pine tree pitch. Color can range from honey like light yellow to dark.

One research reported an average potency of 16.8%, but the standard deviation was very wide at +/- 16.3%[1]. United Nations Office on Drug and Crime cites a Swiss source as an example with THC content exceeding 60%.

Producing Hashish Oil

Hashish oil is produced by direct extraction of dried plant material with a suitable solvent. The solvent is then distilled or evaporated to finally yield hashish oil.
All parts of the marihuana plant can be extracted to produce hashish oil, althought the potency and relative composition will vary.

Polar solvent extraction

Suitable polar solvents include:
- Methanol: toxic when ingested, evaporates easily, can be obtained pure.
- Ethanol: Food grade ethanol is expensive. It is always found with some traces of water. Absolute alcohol (without water) is not edible as it contains benzene, thus is not recommended for extraction.
- Isopropanol: It can be obtained pure, is not taxed as ethanol, it doesn't evaporate as fast as methanol or ethanol.
- Acetone

The extraction is carried by mixing finely divided and prealably dried parts of the plant with the solvent. Filtering and evaporating the solvent.
Due to the polar nature of the solvent, some additionnal compounds may be extracted, lowering the potency of the product. Moreover, a second extraction with some solvent may be necessary to get all the psychoactive compounds.

Butane extraction

Preferably, the solvent chosen has a strong selectivity towards the component sought after and minimal solubility for undesirable components. Some commonly used solvents are alcohol and LPG. Solvent extraction works on the principles of "like dissolves" so it can not separate THC from other oils thus the solvent extraction is just a crude extraction.

Some commonly used solvents are alcohols and non-odorized LPG sold as "butane fuel". Various solvents have been used for the extraction of hash oil, however butane fuel products appear to be one of the commonly chosen solvents in some locale due to a combination of acceptable solvent performance and over the counter availability to consumers. Butanes is the first in alkane series to have isomers. Both types of butanes have the same formula C4H10.

The first isomer n-butane which is a straight chain and can be expressed as methylethyl methane. It has a boiling point of -0.5°C, a hair below the freezing point of water.

The second isomer is the iso-butane which has a branched structure and can be expressed as methyl propane and has a boiling of -11.8°C.

Butanes are non-polar solvents. Polarity is a spectrum and within that spectrum, butanes are pretty far to non-polar while water is far on polar side.

Commercially available "butane" is typically not a single component solvent. It is a LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) blend of these two butanes and/or propane. Retail products usually do not specify the composition and each manufacturer the discretion to use whatever blend they wish to use. They're blended for use in lighters and mini torches and the blending is chosen for optimal performance for this use.

Wholesalers may purchase such butane and repackage them as "butane" without specific usage instructions. 3x, 5x, 7x purified etc is a marketing hype. It means nothing without explicit specifications. Any respectable fuel butane is filtered to be free of particles, because they clog up the pores in the pickup tube inside lighters and ruin them. What you're concerned with is the high boiling residues dissolved in it which no amount of filtration will remove. A high level of them is undesirable, but the type of residues matter more. If it's olive oil, it wouldn't matter as much as plasticizers from rubber lines and bearing lubricant oils leeched into it from when it was handled. Food grade may have substantially lower percentage purity than reagent grade, but the quality control is different contaminants.

Provided 99.99% water with 0.01% saccharin contamination. It would taste weird and you wouldn't want to drink it.

A 99.9% purity water with 0.05% ethanol and 0.05% salt would have ten times as much contamination but it is far less objectionable tasting.

Supercritical CO₂ extraction

This method of extraction requires specific apparatus. This method is also used to extract essential oils from plants, and the principle is the same. A current of supercritical carbon dioxide passes trought a tank loaded with the plant material. The oils contained in the plant are readily soluble in the apolar CO₂, thus are extracted. Evaporation of the CO₂ yields hashish oil.

The produced oil is purer than what is obtained from the above methods. In particular, chlorophylls are not extracted.

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References

1. ^Mehmedic, Zlatko & Chandra, Suman & Slade Ph.D, Desmond & Denham B.A, Heather & Foster B.A, Susan & S. Patel Ph.D, Amit & Ross, Samir & A. Khan Ph.D, Ikhlas & Elsohly, Mahmoud. (2010). Potency Trends of Δ9‐THC and Other Cannabinoids in Confiscated Cannabis Preparations from 1993 to 2008*. Journal of Forensic Sciences. 55. 1209 - 1217. 10.1111/j.1556-4029.2010.01441.x.