I have been having a discussion on another forum, on how it is possible for water to pickup chlorophyll in an extraction, when chlorophyll is basically a hydrocarbon, which is mostly insoluble in water.
I did enough research to know that I was in over my head with chemistry that I took on the late fifties and early sixties, so I asked Joe, our budding biochemist, to take a run at it.
In quick summary, before Joe’s response, “define soluble?” The word soluble means different things in biochemistry, than it does in inorganic chemistry, because of the behavior of the molecules of life.
The chlorophyll molecule has a magnesium (Mg) at its rings
center, which makes it ionic and water-loving (hydrophilic) and a ring that is water fearing (hydrophobic) with carbonyl groups near a tail that make it polar (also hydrophilic).
For the rest of this article see: http://skunkpharmresearch.com/chlorophyll-pickup-in-extractions/
Posted by Tyler on March 26, 2013 at 9:07 AM
I slowly heated my extracted matter until it was soft and whip-able. Question: will prolonged heat ruin my extraction? It was over a low heat for a few hours while i waited for it to stop bubbling. Bubbling I understood was the butane evaporating. Am I misunderstanding? I was worried about the effects of prolonged heat so I removed it.
Posted by Skunk Pharm Research,LLC on March 27, 2013 at 6:23 AM
Prolonged heat will decarboxylate the oil and change THC into CBN. Check out the thread at http://skunkpharmresearch.com/decarboxylation/.
Take a look at the decarboxylation chart posted there, which will give you an idea of what to expect at different temperatures.