Every pet owner is often very concerned about their beloved fur babies’ health. So, when pet parent hears that a particular product can help their pets in several ways, they want to get this product in its best and purest form.
For some time now, CBD (Cannabidiol) oil has gained a lot of recognition for how beneficial it is to animals. You can visit https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-1439/cannabidiol-cbd if you wish to learn more about cannabidiol. When shopping for this product, pet owners often consider several factors like the manufacturer’s reliability, if the product was tested thoroughly, and how potent it is.
Granted, these factors are important to determine the purity of CBD oil. However, one factor is usually overlooked but happens to be something that affects the product’s final result significantly: How it was extracted.
Because of how important the extraction method is, we will be discussing all the methods used in extracting CBD in this article.
Contents
Extraction Method 1 – Vapor Distilled
This method is relatively new when it comes to CBD oil extraction. The process involves driving slightly hot air into the plant. This process often produces CBD oil with a less bitter taste when compared to the final result of other methods.
Other methods of extracting phytochemicals and cannabinoids take a lot of time. After the cannabinoids are extracted, they still have to get activated. This is achieved with very high heat levels. In the end, due to the heat applied often over a significant period, the useful compounds may get broken down. Thus, the product’s efficacy may be affected.
However, this isn’t the case with vapor distillation since flash extraction is used. Flash extraction makes it possible to activate the cannabinoids while they are being extracted. It also doesn’t take a lot of time (often gets done in mere seconds), therefore, the cannabinoids’ beneficial compounds aren’t often tampered with.
A lot of manufacturers now opt for this method since it preserves the product’s purity. Another plus to this method is that it is solvent-free. Therefore, if you are lucky to find CBD oil extracted like this, you would be getting the product in its cleanest form.
Extraction Method 2 – Supercritical C02
For this procedure, high pressures and very low temperatures of C02 are used to extract CBD (in high volumes) from batches of oil.
When the supercritical C02 separates and breaks the plant’s materials down, the C02 gas evaporates. In the end, a consumable and safe hemp extract will be all that is left.
This procedure requires expensive equipment, thorough training, and time (a lot) if the end product is going to be safe yet potent. This method is used by many manufacturers; however, some others say that the procedure is not exactly organic since it’s a solvent.
Still, according to studies, although C02 is a solvent, it is quite safe and pure. You can read this to learn more about C02. Aside from being safe and pure, it also has some very appealing characteristics.
Below are these appealing characteristics:
- It is cost-effective
- It is nonflammable
- It is non-toxic
- It is odorless
- And it is considered recyclable
Another way this procedure is helpful to manufacturers is that it allows them to adjust their extracts’ concentration. To do this, they simply need to modify the solvent and pressure ratios.
So, the method is a common way of yielding well-concentrated yet pure cannabidiol oil for pets’ consumption.
Extraction Method 3 – Ethanol
This is perhaps the cheapest way of extracting cannabidiols. Despite ethanol being a solvent, the FDA has approved it to be a safe one. However, a 3rd party testing is necessary to certify that there isn’t any remnant solvent at the end of the day.
It has been said that the old method of using this solvent to extract cannabinoids is flawed. This is because the procedure is done at room temperature. Therefore, almost everything beneficial in the plant is removed.
However, with the new procedure, new equipment is used to selectively remove just the wanted parts from the plant. This is done with the use of negative pressure.
The new machines don’t require a motor, and this counts as yet another benefit. Since they are automated, an entry-level technician can easily operate them.
Why Extract In the First Place?
Now that you know all the extraction methods, you may be wondering why it is even necessary to start with. Well, the answer isn’t farfetched; extracting cannabidiol from hemp plants provides us with a more consumable and denser concentrate that is easily administered.
Imagine having to give your pet a complete hemp plant. Let’s assume they ignore the bitter taste, you sure won’t get the effect you were expecting. Why? The answer is that hemp’s popular cannabinoids begin as acids:
- Tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCa)
- Cannabidiolic acid (CBDa)
- Cannabigerolic acid (CBGa)
These cannabinoids acids offer some value and are the antecedents to the studied THC, CBD, and CBG. Yet, their effects which are what we are after aren’t activated unless the acids are decarboxylated.
Therefore, extraction is very important. This is also why when next you need to buy CBD for dogs, you need to consider how it was extracted. When you consider this as well as the other important factors like the company’s reputation and so on, you would get the purest form of CBD for your pet.
Conclusion
In this article, we have discussed the extraction methods used for CBD oil production.
