APPENDIX: Chlorophyll & Undesirables

There’s all kinds of confused misinformation on the topic of cannabis component importance. Many internet thumpers push the idea that “You must include the WHOLE plant in an extract to get the medicinal value.”  They’ve been using equipment like rice cookers and Magic Butter Makers for a number of years to make poor quality extractions and have brainwashed themselves and each other into believing chlorophyll in extractions is not only a good idea but essential.  This is complete nonsense. The goodness is comprised of the cannabinoids and terpenes contained in the trichomes with comparably little elsewhere in the plant.

People that have been making the black FECO/RSO will be up in arms about my view, declaring that they’ve cured everything from glaucoma to cancer with their personal extraction method and convinced it’s superior and unique.  It’s not.  It’s just cannabinoids, usually heated so heavily during processing and decarb that terpenes are mostly decimated and the end product tar black with plant matter.  There’s nothing special about what they are doing regardless of how loud they holler. It’s just a very rudimentary extraction method akin to bathtub gin.  Dispensaries LOVE it because everyone convinced they need the black stuff pays a large premium for an inferior, lower potency product.

Undesirable plant components like fats, waxes and chlorophyll don’t contribute to the ‘medicine’ of the plant.  People will argue that the chlorophyll is good for you. It’s true, chlorophyll is good for you but in the case of cannabis concentrates it’s misapplied logic.  There are only two kinds of chlorophyll on earth so the chlorophyll in cannabis is not unique.  If the health benefits of chlorophyll are desired, eating fresh greens like spinach is a much better choice than polluting a concentrate with it.  Fresh greens are the key.  Chlorophyll in decarbed cannabis has been dried, aged, heated, and degraded so much that there’s really no benefit to it.  There’s also the fact that the very tiny amount of concentrate contained in a typical edible serving is so small it’s even more meaningless.

In contrast, the problems caused by that garbage, even in very small amounts, are significant.

1. Causes GI problems for many people.
2. Lowers concentrate potency.
3. Makes products smell like swamp.
4. Makes products taste like swamp.
5. Makes you belch swamp.

The idea that FECO/RSO must be black and full of chlorophyll to be effective comes from a looooong line of misinformation shared throughout the internet by home cannabis processors making RSO/FECO without the a deeper understanding of extraction science.  The reality is they simply got stuck with the chlorophyll and plant material turning the concentrates black because they didn’t know how to avoid it. They argue, “you must get everything out of the plant to be beneficial.”  This is simply not correct and is a kind of reasoning we don’t apply to almost anything else we consume.  We intelligently treat every botanical in a way to target, harvest and isolate the desirable components for consumption and discard undesirables, non-performing components, and things that make us feel unpleasant.  Cannabis concentrates should be handled the same way.

The confusion stems from various inaccurate legacy “knowledge” and traditional cannabis product preparation practices.

1. Tradition was a long soak cannabis in alcohol because the plant wasn’t understood as it is today.
2. Less aggressive low-proof alcohol was used for making tinctures.
3. The long soak was necessary for the natural decarb process to activate the THC to make it psychoactive.  Now we know there are better ways to achieve this ‘activation.’
4. Traditional, long infusion techniques found their way into extraction methods.
5. Consumers using machines like the Magical Butter have been misled into believing they must chop the plant and have it pulverized in hot alcohol for hours to make a tincture.  This is an incredible disservice by that company to the cannabis community. It’s the opposite of what should be done to make a quality product.

The term “full-spectrum” refers to a cannabis product containing the cannabinoids and terpenes of a certain cannabis sample that represent it’s medicinal properties.  The term has been twisted, mainly due to the factors listed above, into people wanting to extract the “whole plant.” There are going to be arguments that there are nutrients in the roots, possibly flavins in the plant, and even fiber in the plant material. For extraction a line must be drawn somewhere and I argue that’s with the contents of the trichomes which are cannabinoids and terpenes. If someone holds the different opinion that all components of the plant are necessary then concentrates are not the appropriate choice for consumption.  To consume the whole plant it would be most appropriate to either juice or just grind up the plant and eat which is not pleasant.

Lastly, have you ever heard an extraction professional tout the benefits of fats, waxes, and chlorophyll in concentrates, or is it only heard in internet groups? Nothing credible indicates that including these undesirables does anything but lower potency, make concentrates taste and smell horrible, and cause gastric distress. 

Just say NO to BOROPHYLL!