Extraction and purification of cannabinoids
AssigneeM-For, LLC
InventorZachary White
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An improved method for making cannabinoids from plant material utilizes the following steps. Plant material is contacted with an aqueous alkaline solution containing a hydroxide base and essentially no organic solvents, thereby extracting cannabinoids including carboxylic acids and salts and producing an alkaline extract. Non-soluble plant material is removed from the alkaline extract to produce a clarified alkaline extract. The extracted cannabinoids are decarboxylated and the decarboxylated cannabinoids are crystallized/precipitated from the clarified alkaline extract at a pH greater than 7.
Claims13
A method for purifying cannabidiol from cannabis, the method comprising:
- a. contacting cannabis with an aqueous alkaline solution of a strong inorganic base selected from the group consisting of NaOH, KOH, NH4OH, and combinations thereof, to extract cannabidiolic acid from the cannabis and produce an aqueous alkaline extract of cannabis, wherein no organic solvents are used;
- b. purging the aqueous alkaline extract of cannabis with an inert gas selected from the group consisting of nitrogen, argon, helium, and combinations thereof to produce a purged aqueous alkaline extract of cannabis;
- c. removing non-soluble material from the purged aqueous alkaline extract of cannabis via filtration, centrifugation or both to produce a clarified extract of cannabis;
- d. decarboxylating the clarified extract of cannabis at a temperature sufficient to convert the cannabidiolic acid to cannabidiol;
- e. crystallizing and precipitating the cannabidiol from the clarified extract at a pH greater than 7 to produce crystallized and precipitated cannabidiol;
- f. filtering the crystallized and precipitated cannabidiol to produce 85% to 100% cannabidiol and a barren aqueous solution of the strong inorganic base;
- and
- g. recycling and reusing the barren aqueous solution of the strong inorganic base from step (f) and then extracting new cannabis with the barren aqueous solution of a strong inorganic base selected from the group consisting of NaOH, KOH, NH4OH, and combinations thereof.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.