Atmospheric Triphasic Chromatography (ATC) method

An Atmospheric Triphasic Chromatography (ATC) method comprising the steps of:

• introducing a raw plant material containing cannabinoids into a non-polar solvent at a ratio of 5-20 ml of the non-polar solvent to 1 gram of the raw plant material;
• extracting the cannabinoids from the raw plant material and removing the raw plant material;
• dissolving the extracted cannabinoids in the non-polar solvent to obtain a target solution;
• performing a potency analysis and a cannabinoid extract profile analysis of the target solution, wherein the potency analysis includes determining a total count of the extracted cannabinoids;
• preparing an aqueous caustic solution by combining distilled water with a strong base including sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide, wherein the aqueous caustic solution is made by multiplying the total count of the extracted cannabinoids by a constant factor to establish a weight of the strong base relative to distilled water;
• mixing the target solution with the aqueous caustic solution to obtain a mixture;
• separating the mixture having the strong base into a first phase solution containing the non-polar solvent with fats, oils, pigments and other impurities and a second phase solution containing the aqueous caustic solution with cannabinoids;
• removing the first phase solution to obtain a caustic target solution having a pH between 12.8 and 14;
• acidifying the caustic target solution to bring the pH of the caustic target solution to a range of 10.5 and 12 thereby producing precipitation of an undesirable compound in the caustic target solution;
• introducing the non-polar solvent to the caustic target solution to dissolve the undesirable compound thereby obtaining a blend;
• separating the blend into a third phase solution having no trace of the undesirable compound and a fourth phase solution having the undesirable compound dissolved in the non-polar solvent;
• removing the fourth phase solution to obtain a resulting caustic target solution that has no trace of the undesirable compound;
• acidifying the resulting caustic target solution to a pH ranging from 1 to 3 to separate the resulting caustic target solution into a fifth phase solution and a sixth phase solution, the sixth phase solution having a layer of oil containing a target compound;
• mixing the non-polar solvent with the target sixth phase solution thereby dissolving the sixth phase solution to produce a final mixture;
• separating the final mixture into a non-polar target phase solution containing the target compound and an acidic aqueous phase solution, and removing the acidic aqueous phase solution;
• and
• removing the non-polar solvent from the non-polar target phase solution containing the target compound to obtain the target compound.