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. 2022 Oct 24:13:886993.
doi: 10.3389/fphar.2022.886993. eCollection 2022.

Total cannabidiol (CBD) concentrations and yields from traditional extraction methods: Percolation vs. maceration

Jason Wilson  1   2 , Travis Simpson  1 , Kevin Spelman  1   3
Affiliations

Total cannabidiol (CBD) concentrations and yields from traditional extraction methods: Percolation vs. maceration

Jason Wilson et al. Front Pharmacol. .

Abstract

Medicinal plants have been valued for many generations due to their biosynthetic advantages generating pharmacologically active molecules. This is especially the case when it comes to cannabinoids from Cannabis. In these experiments we mimicked typical herbal home extractions and measured the yield of total decarboxylated CBD ("total CBD") from percolations and macerations done at the common duration of 2 weeks in duplicate independent extractions. Analysis was performed by GC-FID on triplicate samples from each extraction. Results demonstrated a significant extraction superiority of percolation over maceration. Percolation extracted 80.1% of the total CBD in the hemp biomass as compared to the 2-week time point at 63.5% recovery. Our results demonstrate a significant increase in total CBD yield from percolation, as compared to maceration. Highest solvent recovery was also through percolation, but overall solvent recovery was fairly consistent with the maceration method, after pressing. Under these conditions of extracting lipophilic cannabidiol in 95% ethanol, these data demonstrate that percolation is significantly superior to maceration in total CBD yield. These observations will likely apply to the extraction of lipophilic constituents from other herbs and botanical medicines.

Keywords: Cannabis; cannabidiol; cannabinoids; extraction; maceration; medicinal plants; percolation; traditional medicine.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Calibration curves.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Sample chromatogram. A characteristic chromatogram obtained by gas chromatography–flame ionization detection of a C. sativa inflorescence extract, chemotype CBD. The chromatogram shows a peak chromatogram of CBD at 2.223 min with a minor peak for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) at 2.475.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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