Extracting desired organic compounds from plants with controlled microwave energy

A method of extracting organic compounds from plant material comprising the steps of placing the plant material in a container, applying continuous wave microwave energy to the plant material to cause the organic compounds in the plant material to change phase and extracting the compounds.

The method of extracting a selected organic compound from plant material comprising the steps of placing the plant material in a processing container, placing the container in a processing chamber, adjusting the water content in the container to a level necessary for the creation of a water hammer, applying pulsed microwave energy to the plant material at an energy level and frequency to create a water hammer to break open the body of the plant material, collecting any gases escaping from the plant material during application of the water hammer, transferring the gases to a cold trap gas collector through a gas line connected to a gas output of the container at a first end and to the cold trap at a second end, observing the spectral signature of the gas flowing through the line by a first spectrometer, determining whether the spectral signature is of a desired organic compound, applying an energy level of continuous wave microwave to the plant material causing the first desired compound to change phase, transferring the compound through a line from the processing container to a collector, observing the spectral signatures of the compound transferred from the container to the collector by a second spectrometer, holding the energy level at the level where the spectral signature of the first desired organic compound is observed by the second spectrometer.

The method of extracting organic compounds from plants comprising the steps of:

• providing the ability to extract individual organic compounds from plant material in a processing container by applying microwave energy to the plant material, monitoring the spectral signature of the compounds at the output of the container and providing a closed feedback loop responsive to the output of the monitoring device to control the energy level of the input microwaves needed to extract the desired compounds.

A system for extracting desired organic compounds from plant material comprising a source of microwave energy, a processing container for holding the plant material in the microwave field from the source, the container having an output port for compounds in a gaseous state and an output port for compounds in a liquid state, a processing chamber encasing the container, a first controller of the environment in the chamber, a first spectrometer for monitoring the spectral signature of the compounds in a gaseous state from the gas output from the container, the first spectrometer providing an output signal representative of the spectral signatures of the output gas, a second spectrometer for monitoring the spectral signature of the compounds in a liquid state from the liquid output of the container, the second spectrometer providing an output signal representative of the spectral signatures of the output liquids.