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Harvesting extract?

mrz1988

mrz1988

Wondering if anyone's ever tried extracting their own extract or anything of the sort. More of a curiosity thing than anything else, I don't think I'd ever actually try it... my superhots are enough for me :onfire:

Theres something about the idea of taking a knife, slowly scraping up the oils inside a superhot, and then placing the drops delicately in a vial. Seems painstaking I know... but sounds awesome haha. Think it would taste any better/be any hotter than commercially separated extracts?
 
Yes i have done it. Both with alcohol and with butane.
With the butane my device popped and i wore extract over my arm and chest. Lucky for me it didn't enter my eyeballs.
Would i recommend it? Nope but i'm an idiot so do stupid things. :D
 
queequeg152 said:
ive done two oleoresin extractions using a soxhlet apparatus.
thats actually whats in my avatar.
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That is very interesting Queequeg152. I've never heard of a soxhlet apparatus before.

Could you briefly explain the principle behind it.

I think i'd read before that oleoresin extracts were created with the use of ketones, but i don't know if that is entirely true or not.

dvg
 
I think they use Ketones because it's cheaper than alcohol.
They really should spend the extra dollars on alcohol though ketones are poisonous as far as i know. So is alcohol but not like ketones :lol:
 
a soxhlet is just a device that holds material usually plant matter... underneath a condenser usually a reflux type... when the vapors condense they fall into the soxhlet and fill untill the solvent level reaches the top of the siphon tube... then it all gets sucked out back into the flask! thats the short version of it anyway. the soxhlet will cycle forever basically, but i let mine go untill the distillate runs clear out of the soxhlet.

after you finish the extraction you just distill out the solvent(i use n hexane, which works wonderfully) with a typical distillation apparatus.

they make these things to hold up to like 5L of w/e you want. id suggest you look into a lab manual , they are sometimes called lab survival guides or something similar if you want to get into running glassware like that tho.
 
Novacastrian said:
I think they use Ketones because it's cheaper than alcohol.
They really should spend the extra dollars on alcohol though ketones are poisonous as far as i know. So is alcohol but not like ketones :lol:
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theres actually an industrial manual called 'capsacium, the genus capsacium' that covers the industrial scale oleoresin extraction processes, i cant remember exactly but i dont recall them useing any ketone solvents, i dont see why they would either, as acetone and MEK are super polar arent they? i would imagine they want a non polar solvent, but w/e im no chemist.
 
With lipid extraction (as in oils, fats) a volatile solvent is preferred. These include (but not limited to) alcohol, acetone, butane, hexane, and ether. I would imagine ether works the best and acetone/alcohol the worst as far as concentration of the final product with the fewest amount of solvent. I have done this with other *achem* herbs and things but never peppers. You want something that will dissolve a lot of oils and evaporate very quickly, unless you are using an apparatus that refeeds the solvent back through the pepper mixture. Remember that the limiting factor here is the amount of solvent, and more solvent will give you more oil, not more peppers or more times running through the peppers. Lipids are very pesky dissolving into any solvent, especially polar ones like water. However, anything that doesn't work well with pressure may burst in the process if you are using something extra-volatile like ether or butane. This can be extra scary with capsaicinoid oils as you are worried about two things burning you. Something relatively nontoxic is preferred for obvious reasons, but if the solvent is distilled off properly then you shouldn't be left with much. Beware as most volatile solvents are extremely combustible. If you don't have a distillation apparatus, after extraction you should let it sit for a few hours and stir occasionally, and if you know what you are doing you can probably further refine it by applying LOW heat to evaporate any excess. More volatile solvents like ether and butane should avoid heat altogether until all vapors have subsided. Of course this method will leave a bit more solvent left in the extract. The higher quality the solvent the better the final product.

Edited for more info
 
mrz1988 said:
I have done this with other *achem* herbs and things but never peppers.
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I'm not sure if this is an extraction, concentration, reduction or what. I took a couple pounds of fresh bhut jolokias, dried them, smashed into flakes, put into a quart jar and covered with 80 to 100 proof. Let them soak for a few days and then strained the mix into a pyrex pie plate and evaporated it down to a sticky mess with the consistency of cold molasses. It looked like blood, flavor was nice, heat was insanely high, but only ended up with about 1 to 2 fluid ounces. The amount of peppers and the cost of the alcohol made it not worth repeating.
 
I love superhot vodka in a Bloody Mary. I just toss a couple in a bottle for Sunday morning breakfast.

If you do a quick wash with Everclear or Golden Grain, you get a very clean and concentrated oil when you evaporate. The long soaks end up getting waxes and tannins that taint the final product, even though you get more spice out of the peppers.
 
Tonly said:
I'm not sure if this is an extraction, concentration, reduction or what. I took a couple pounds of fresh bhut jolokias, dried them, smashed into flakes, put into a quart jar and covered with 80 to 100 proof. Let them soak for a few days and then strained the mix into a pyrex pie plate and evaporated it down to a sticky mess with the consistency of cold molasses. It looked like blood, flavor was nice, heat was insanely high, but only ended up with about 1 to 2 fluid ounces. The amount of peppers and the cost of the alcohol made it not worth repeating.
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I would say this is most worth doing with less flakes and enough GRAIN alcohol at over 150 proof to completely cover the flakes. Then add three or four times more alcohol. I would say more stuff would get absorbed this way. I'd put good money that your flakes were still WICKED hot after the alcohol bath meaning you didn't extract as much as you could have out of them. I bet the slow evaporation method you used with the alcohol though is the safest and makes the best tasting extract so great idea there. How long did it take to evaporate?
 
Guys there is a much easier way to do the separation. Melt a few sticks of butter in boiling water and add your chili pieces. Mix well for a few hours making sure you never run out of hot water. Let the mixture cool in a tray. The capsaicin will move into the lipid phase and as the mixture cools, the butter solidifies you can separate the solid butter from the water.

Then spread your butter on some toast and burn your mouth off. :onfire:

Ethanol is expensive and inefficient. It can be proven but I spare you the math. Capsaicin will dissolve more readily in a fatty phase over ethanol....
 
TheLonelyHab said:
Guys there is a much easier way to do the separation. Melt a few sticks of butter in boiling water and add your chili pieces. Mix well for a few hours making sure you never run out of hot water. Let the mixture cool in a tray. The capsaicin will move into the lipid phase and as the mixture cools, the butter solidifies you can separate the solid butter from the water.

Then spread your butter on some toast and burn your mouth off. :onfire:

Ethanol is expensive and inefficient. It can be proven but I spare you the math. Capsaicin will dissolve more readily in a fatty phase over ethanol....
Click to expand...


Yes but if you are trying to extract for purity and want your extract to be several million SHU you're going to have to use a volatile solvent. You can't evaporate off fats, which is why you can still spread it on toast. We're talking enough so a single drop placed in melted butter would make the toast practically inedible :hell:


Yes, more oils can be dissolved per liter in a butter or oil but some still dissolves in alcohol and other volatile solvents. The benefit of using alcohol is you can dissolve the oils from only a couple superhots in a couple liters of alcohol, then evaporate that off and be left with nothing but the oil. No extra fat, water, or anything really except a few other oraganic molecules that also got dissolved in the alcohol.
 
extracting with butter would be fine i guess, if you wanted hot butter. but i think most people are interested in tinkering with hot sauces. for that you are going to want to use oleoresin

IMG_1361s.jpg


this is what i came up with using one lb of store bought orange habs dried completely. you can see some pepper flesh made it into the recieving flask! the big chunks are boiling stones, this should have been washed out and filtered, but i think i just tossed the product. :oops:
 
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