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Extracting Capsaicin: Most cost efficient way?

JHR

JHR

Hey guys, new poster, but I have been a hot sauce fanatic for a few years now.

Been looking into making extract for a while now, but I don't have fancy lab equipment or anything to do so. I have heard tell of using moonshine and dried peppers, can someone give me a few tips on the best way to do this?

What are the most cost effective peppers to use? I already have access to the moonshine.

How would you recommend concentrating the solution? I have a downdraft installed, but I have heard that using a gas range is bad for business with the alcohol and whatnot.
 
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Hi JHR, :welcome:

This thread might be of interest to you.
http://thehotpepper.com/topic/26369-making-extract-with-a-soxhlet-apparatus/page__hl__soxhlet

beyond that, you can purchase 1-2 oz of capsaicin extract from various commercial sources for $10-$40, depending on what you are looking for.

It seems to me, that home extraction of capsaicin is like big game hunting....a whole lot of money for little reward if you actually cost it out per unit. I've never done it myself, so I don't know if the cost and effort are worth it with a better product. It would totally be a fun project to do, though!

Have Fun and post pics if you do an extraction process. It's an interesting subject.
Sl
 
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Cost effective is one facet to look at, safety is clearly another. Just buy the extract. I've been making it for years, and trust me when I say accidents are extremely painful. Blisters on my corneas was probably one of the worst.
 
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salsalady said:
It seems to me, that home extraction of capsaicin is like big game hunting....a whole lot of money for little reward if you actually cost it out per unit. I've never done it myself, so I don't know if the cost and effort are worth it with a better product. It would totally be a fun project to do, though!
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100% agree, you could buy over an lb with those numbers your quoted for the price of a complete soxhlet apparatus alone.


as far as moonshine extract, ive done it. you just get additional water solutes.

the hexane extract was like a goo/tar when dried.

DEFCON Creator said:
Cost effective is one facet to look at, safety is clearly another. Just buy the extract. I've been making it for years, and trust me when I say accidents are extremely painful. Blisters on my corneas was probably one of the worst.
Click to expand...

were you the guy i spoke with in the chatroom whom had a supercritical co2 setup?

if so, pics plz.
 
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We do use liquid CO2 during one of the procedure steps, to separate additional sugar from the final product. Even this step is slightly dangeous. We had a major o-ring rupture, at a rather inopportune moment, which poured a good amount of liquid CO2 on my lower right arm. I recived a sizeable cryo-burn, which was a little less than pleasurable. However, the procedure works magnificently when done correctly.
 
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Well. That scares me a little, haha.

In that case, where is the best place to buy high quality extract. Purely culinary, I don't care what the bottle looks like.
 
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Try various chemical warehouses. A quick google search will get you in the right direction. Let it be known that 99.999999%, if not 100% of the extracts you will be purchasing will be chemically extracted. I'm not aware of any manufacturers of 100% natural extract (besides ourselves, of course). Ours ain't cheap, but the price is justifiable, and here is a dash of my own pain/agony in every vessel.
 
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It was pretty funny though. The scab was about 2X3 inches. I left it open to the air, as suggested by the doctor. We were having chicken for dinner, and the scab literally fell off onto my plate. Maggie didn't see it fall off, so I picked it off my plate and asked her if she wanted another piece of chicken skin. She almost went for it. LOL, I love my sense of humor.
 
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First off, I had to laugh at the whole chicken skin story... damn, that'd go over really well at our home!

JHR,
As to your initial post, I pondered the same thing last winter.. I had grown several different types of peppers for several summers & always had a lot to dry out at the end of the season. Even after giving jars of crushed pepper away I had more than I could use. Or so I thought.! ;-)
My brief looking into ways of extracting led me to try the grain alcohol & evap method (i don't know what if any real name it has so sorry to offend anyone).
I wound up using Everclear. I now have a nice little bottle of extract... probably 3/4 cup worth...
I wish i knew exactly how hot it is. I know just the tip of a toothpick worth on the tongue is too much for most people... It's pretty thick. Not sludge thick but almost syrup like.. dark dark dark red, almost purple... The peppers used in it were thai, jalapeno, bird peppers, orangehabenero, serranos, slim jims, cherry bombs, trinidad scorpion butch t's & ghosts (both those store bought from jungle jims ring of fire event).
 
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ok how about you use butane to extract it all you have to do is make a extractton chamber which is a copper or pvc pipe with two end caps 1 has 1 hole the size of the butane nozzle and the other end has multiable holes smaller than the butane hole... then buy some butane grind up peppers fill pvc pipe attach end caps fill tube with butane over a glass dish and then wait for butane to boil off and then scrap oil off the glass and put into a bottle or some sort of container...
 
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the economics of cannabis extract and pepper extract couldnt be more different.

useing butane, then letting it simply boil off into the atmosphere is easily the most cost innefective method ive ever heard of for an extraction process. a can of butant costs like 5 bucks right? and you would need probably 10 cans for an lb of dried pepper flesh... at that cost you would be better off buying everclear and letting it evaporate. then shakeing it with some non polar solvent.
the only reason it makes sense with cannabis is that a gram of cannabis oleoresin costs> than the net of your consumables. thats not the case with pepper oleoresin.

in the case of the casual pepper head wanting to do something with his hoard of dried pepper flesh, it is still is not a good idea regardless of cost. venting butane is dangerous obiviously, but moreover its insanely suspecious to anyone that knows anything about anything. i would not do this in public unles my affaris were 100% legit.

the key to makeing any extract economical is to be able to recycle the solvent, or use a solvent so cheep its cost in the process is negligable like co2. id look to small scale lab distillation equipment if you genuinly want to extract decent quantities purely for the sake of manly self sufficiency. a 5l distillation apparatus is probably a good place to start
 
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queequeg152 said:
the economics of cannabis extract and pepper extract couldnt be more different.

useing butane, then letting it simply boil off into the atmosphere is easily the most cost innefective method ive ever heard of for an extraction process. a can of butant costs like 5 bucks right? and you would need probably 10 cans for an lb of dried pepper flesh... at that cost you would be better off buying everclear and letting it evaporate. then shakeing it with some non polar solvent.
the only reason it makes sense with cannabis is that a gram of cannabis oleoresin costs> than the net of your consumables. thats not the case with pepper oleoresin.

in the case of the casual pepper head wanting to do something with his hoard of dried pepper flesh, it is still is not a good idea regardless of cost. venting butane is dangerous obiviously, but moreover its insanely suspecious to anyone that knows anything about anything. i would not do this in public unles my affaris were 100% legit.

the key to makeing any extract economical is to be able to recycle the solvent, or use a solvent so cheep its cost in the process is negligable like co2. id look to small scale lab distillation equipment if you genuinly want to extract decent quantities purely for the sake of manly self sufficiency. a 5l distillation apparatus is probably a good place to start
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ok you have some good points there i just never got familiar with the everclear way i have never done the butane one eithier but i know alot about it and one good point is the cost will be more than the reward with pepper oil
 
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hexane is super super cheap. like 17 bucks a gallon.
this is why i used it.
 
with that said. there are better solvents obiviously. however ether cyclohexane and chlorinated solvents are much more spendy.  in the case of ether it is to dangerous to be worth messing with.
 
the thing about the soxhlet is it allows you to extract things like lipids fats etc. that are sparingly soluble. kinda like the continuous liquid liquid pieces....
the solvent is recycled and passed over the material over and over and over.... when the material stops giving the solvent a good color. you stop the extraction
 
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