Atmospheric Triphasic Chromatography (ATC) method
Atmospheric Triphasic Chromatography (ATC) method comprising the steps introducing a raw plant material containing cannabinoids into a non-polar solvent, dissolving the cannabinoids extracted from the raw plant material in the non-polar solvent and removing the raw plant material to obtain a target solution, performing potency analysis and cannabinoid extract profile analysis of the target solution. The method further includes the steps of preparing an aqueous caustic solution and mixing the target solution with the aqueous caustic solution to obtain a mixture followed by separating the mixture into a first phase solution and a second phase solution, and removing the first phase solution to obtain a caustic target solution and acidifying the caustic target solution to produce precipitation of an undesirable compound in the caustic target solution.
1 . An Atmospheric Triphasic Chromatography (ATC) method comprising the steps of:
introducing a raw plant material containing cannabinoids into a non-polar solvent at a ratio of 5-20 ml of the non-polar solvent to 1 gram of the raw plant material;
extracting the cannabinoids from the raw plant material and removing the raw plant material;
dissolving the extracted cannabinoids in the non-polar solvent to obtain a target solution;
performing a potency analysis and a cannabinoid extract profile analysis of the target solution, wherein the potency analysis includes determining a total count of the extracted cannabinoids;
preparing an aqueous caustic solution by combining distilled water with a strong base including sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide, wherein the aqueous caustic solution is made by multiplying the total count of the extracted cannabinoids by a constant factor to establish a weight of the strong base relative to distilled water;
mixing the target solution with the aqueous caustic solution to obtain a mixture;
separating the mixture having the strong base into a first phase solution containing the non-polar solvent with fats, oils, pigments and other impurities and a second phase solution containing the aqueous caustic solution with cannabinoids;
removing the first phase solution to obtain a caustic target solution having a pH between 12.8 and 14;
acidifying the caustic target solution to bring the pH of the caustic target solution to a range of 10.5 and 12 thereby producing precipitation of an undesirable compound in the caustic target solution;
introducing the non-polar solvent to the caustic target solution to dissolve the undesirable compound thereby obtaining a blend;
separating the blend into a third phase solution having no trace of the undesirable compound and a fourth phase solution having the undesirable compound dissolved in the non-polar solvent;
removing the fourth phase solution to obtain a resulting caustic target solution that has no trace of the undesirable compound;
acidifying the resulting caustic target solution to a pH ranging from 1 to 3 to separate the resulting caustic target solution into a fifth phase solution and a sixth phase solution, the sixth phase solution having a layer of oil containing a target compound;
mixing the non-polar solvent with the target sixth phase solution thereby dissolving the sixth phase solution to produce a final mixture;
separating the final mixture into a non-polar target phase solution containing the target compound and an acidic aqueous phase solution, and removing the acidic aqueous phase solution; and
removing the non-polar solvent from the non-polar target phase solution containing the target compound to obtain the target compound.
2 . The ATC method of claim 1 , wherein the performing a cannabinoid extract profile analysis comprises determining an amount of each of the extracted cannabinoids in proportion to one another.
3 . The ATC method of claim 2 , wherein the step of preparing the caustic solution comprises (a) converting or scaling up or down the total count of all of the extracted cannabinoids according to a batch size that is being used to make the aqueous caustic solution, and (b) multiplying the converted total count of all of the extracted cannabinoids by the constant factor to determine weight of the caustic solution to be mixed with the distilled water.
4 . The ATC method of claim 1 , wherein the first phase solution of the mixture comprises a non-polar solvent solution containing decarboxylated cannabinoids, fats, oils and pigments.
5 . The ATC method of claim 4 , wherein the decarboxylated cannabinoids comprise tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabinol (CBN), cannabichromene (CBC) and cannabidiol (CBD).
6 . The ATC method of claim 1 , wherein the second phase solution of the mixture comprises an aqueous caustic solution containing tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA), cannabidiolic acid (CBDA) and cannabigerolic acid (CBGA).
7 . The ATC method of claim 6 , wherein the undesirable compound is THCA.
8 . The ATC method of claim 1 , wherein the target compound is CBDA.
9 . The ATC method of claim 1 further comprising treating, after the step of removing the acidic aqueous phase solution, the non-polar target phase solution containing the target compound with brine, diatomaceous earth, alumina, or activated charcoal to further dehydrate the non-polar target phase solution containing the target compound.
10 . The ATC method of claim 1 , wherein the step of removing the non-polar solvent from the non-polar target phase solution containing the target compound comprises using a rotary evaporation technique to remove the non-polar solvent.
11 . The ATC method of claim 1 , wherein the target compound is obtained in a form of a CBDA oil.