How to make CBD oil with CBD crystals
List of contents
The use of cannabinoids for the treatment of various ailments or symptoms has exploded in recent years, with dozens of CBD-rich products now freely available in many countries. What only a few years ago seemed to be the domain of an "enlightened" few has now become an emerging industry in which even leading brands of, for example, cosmetic products, are riding the wave of CBD's therapeutic benefits and enriching some of their products with this already popular cannabinoid.
In many cases, CBD oil can be prepared with a few cannabinoid-rich cannabis flowers, some vegetable oil and a little patience. However, it is frankly difficult to establish an exact CBD content in these types of home extractions unless you analyse the resulting oil, and you may not have CBD-rich buds on hand. Today we will explain a simple method to prepare it at home that solves both issues and provides us with a high-purity product with a precise CBD content, which will significantly facilitate dosing.
The benefits of CBD
Despite having a very similar molecular structure to THC, the main psychoactive cannabinoid in some cannabis strains, CBD does not share the psychoactive effects of THC, which is a great advantage for many patients who want to treat their ailments without getting "high". In this way, they can take advantage of the many medicinal properties of CBD without having to worry about the intoxicating sensation that THC can cause.
However, unless you can get a pre-prepared CBD oil ready for use, getting a reliable product with a known CBD concentration may not be so easy, especially if you want to make it at home. Usually, homemade CBD oil recipes use CBD-rich flowers but beware: if you haven't tested the flowers beforehand, you won't know the exact CBD and THC content of the flowers, which can result in unpleasant surprises if the flowers used also contain enough THC to cause an effect.
There are many cannabis varieties with a high CBD content and hardly any THC, but there are also others that only produce THC and then others that produce different amounts of both. The latter type can be an advantage in terms of making better use of the properties of both cannabinoids thanks to the so-called entourage or ensemble effect, but may not be of interest to the patient due to the psychoactivity of THC. In short, when we make a home extraction with vegetable oil and CBD flowers, we are never sure of the exact cannabinoids that our oil contains, which may not be desirable.
For this reason, today we will show you how to prepare a CBD-rich oil, with a known concentration (in fact, you will decide when preparing it) and free of contaminants or impurities that may come from the plant matter. Moreover, as you will see, it is much easier and faster than the classic preparation of CBD oil from buds, and cheaper than buying a commercial CBD-rich oil (if you can afford it).
The Entourage Effect: Synergy between cannabinoids and terpenes
Cannabinoids, terpenes, flavonoids and other compounds act together to modulate the effects of the cannabis plant in a synergy called "Entourage Effect". In this article we tell you more about this interesting phenomenon.
CBD crystals: pure CBD ready to use
Cannabis produces a large number of compounds in its glandular trichomes (commonly known as resin), including cannabinoids, terpenes (responsible for aroma and flavour) and a long etcetera of substances, many of them with medicinal properties. Thus, when extracting resin from a CBD-rich strain, we are not only extracting this compound but also the rest of the cannabinoids, terpenes, flavonoids, etc. contained in the trichomes.
The case of CBD crystals is a further step in this process, in which the resulting extraction is purified until the CBD is almost completely isolated (99%) from the rest of the compounds contained in the resin (the remaining 1% would be terpenes). This process is not easy and usually requires advanced laboratory equipment, making it virtually impossible to carry out at home. However, it is ideal when it comes to both ensuring the content of our oil and dosing it correctly to achieve the best results; after all, this is how the pharmaceutical industry works, with isolated active ingredients to which excipients are added (in our case, vegetable oil).
CBD crystals are a milky-coloured crystalline substance and are the ideal way to add CBD to any recipe or product you want to prepare. They do not need to be diluted or infused with any other substance and can offer a more potent and immediate effect than other preparations. Today we are going to see how to prepare it diluted in vegetable oil for the sake of convenience when it comes to dosing and administration (and because CBD is highly soluble in lipids such as vegetable oils), although as we say, if you feel like it, you can sprinkle it directly on a salad or smoothie, the possibilities are almost endless!
CBD oil recipe
As we already mentioned, using CBD crystals to make our oil will save us a lot of time, as we simply need to dilute them according to the dosage we want. CBD oils with different concentrations can be found on the market, from 2% to approximately 20%, so each user can find the product that is most convenient for them to dose. This is why preparing our own oil can be a great advantage, as we can decide on the amount of CBD we want to ingest in each dose.
To prepare the CBD-enriched vegetable oil we will need the following materials:
- Glass bottle (with a dropper if possible), between 10 & 30ml for ease of use
- Vegetable oil. This can be olive oil, coconut oil, or hemp seed oil... it is interesting to combine the properties of CBD with those of vegetable oil.
- CBD crystals (Endoca 99% CBD Crystals, Harmony 99% CBD Crystals, etc)
- Syringe or pipette
- Small funnel and a spoon
The first thing to decide is the CBD concentration we want in our oil. For these examples, we will take a 10ml dropper bottle. Let's look at some examples of how to prepare different concentrations:
- 5% CBD: 10ml vegetable oil y 500mg (half a gram) of CBD crystals
- 10% CBD: 10ml vegetable oil y 1000mg (1 gram) of CBD crystals
- 20% CBD: 10ml vegetable oil y 2000mg (2 grams) of CBD crystals
Once you've decided on the desired concentration of CBD in your oil, just follow these simple steps and it will be ready to use:
- With the help of the funnel and the teaspoon, pour the required amount of CBD crystals into the bottle.
- Next, using the syringe or pipette, add the vegetable oil to the bottle
- Close the bottle and shake it vigorously for about 1 minute (or until the crystals are completely dissolved). If necessary, a very gentle warm water bath can be used to facilitate dissolution, although normally this can be done correctly at room temperature.
Of course, you can do some of your own research into the beneficial properties of various plant oils to decide which one to use, but the most commonly used ones are those we discussed. We hope that thanks to this simple recipe you will be able to make your own CBD oil, with the concentration and oil of your choice and in a much more economical way. We look forward to hearing from you!
All the best!
