Cannabidiol is extracted from the hemp plant. It is also called CBD oil. It is one of the compounds found in Cannabis. People still consider this oil to be used in drugs. This stigma has been associated with the CBD oil. It has numerous benefits, but it is not psychoactive. It means that it cannot make you high.
Among various health benefits, CBD oil is a natural pain reliever and have anti-inflammatory properties. It is also being used in the US in treating epilepsy.
You must have thought of how to extract CBD oil from hemp that is sold in the CBD online store. There are various methods to do so.
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Whole Plant Extraction
In this process, the hemp plants are cultivated and then they are sent for extraction. In this method, the whole plant is used to extract CBD oil. There are other processes also, which use different parts of the hemp plant in extracting oil. But that oil has different properties than the oil extracted from the whole plant. They are various ways to do so. You have to dry the whole plant before extracting oil.
You have to soak the plant in grain alcohol. When it has completely soaked in the alcohol, the liquid which has remained behind contains CBD from the plant. It may contain some of the left-over alcohol as well. You need to evaporate the solvent, to get pure CBD oil. Ethanol is mostly used in this process.
Do not stress over how to extract CBD oil from hemp, because alcohol extraction is the easiest and can be done at home.
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Carbon Dioxide Extraction
Another way to extract oil is the carbon dioxide extraction process. In this method, you have to force carbon dioxide into the plant. In this way, you can extract the oil. This is a fairly complex process, and cannot be done at home, because you need proper tools.
In this process, there are different chambers of carbon dioxide which control the pressure and temperature. In the chambers, the carbon dioxide and cannabinoid solution react with one another. When they separate, the chambers collect them separately.
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Using Liquid Solvents
Different liquid solvents can be used to extract cannabinoids from the hemp plant. Usually, butane and hexane are used in this process. But ethanol is also used in the alcohol extraction method. This process is similar to the alcohol extraction method. It uses other liquid solvents, in place of ethanol. The oil extracted from the plant is edible. It is used in beauty products as well.
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Oil Extraction
Different oils can be used in extracting CBD oil from hemp. Olive oil is specially used to extract cannabinoids from the hemp plant. This is an ancient practice which is still being followed. In this process, the plant is heated to activate the chemicals present in it. The plant material is then added in olive oil and again heated for a long period of time. The cannabinoids are separated. The oil extracted in this process is mixed with olive oil because unlike other processes, olive oil cannot evaporate.
