Soxhlet Extraction - How to Make Herbal Tinctures Strong and Faster with a Soxhlet Extractor
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- čas přidán 12. 05. 2018
- This is a soxhlet extractor for soxhlet extrations. And what a Soxhlet Extractor allows you to do is make a tincture in one day. And allows you to make stronger more powerful tinctures than the traditional method.
For more info see our article at lostempireherbs.com/soxhlet-e...
So what is that traditional method for people that may not be familiar? You fill up some sort of glass vessel, such as this with roots or whatever you're working with. The herb and then you pour alcohol over it. Then you let that sit for at least two weeks and you can go much longer. You shake it up in order to allow the solvent of the alcohol to extract whatever you're working with. But here like I said this can be done in a single day because of the use of heat and the setup that we're working with here.
So what happens, let me explain each of the things that's going on here. We have a hot plate. This allows you to apply the heat, the bottom flask here, working with pure alcohol,see the alcohol moving. It moves a little bit different than water but it's just about coming to a boil now. It's getting there. You can see some bubbles tarting to form. The heat applied to the alcohol causes it to boil. It comes up and it's coming through this side. A little chamber here. You can probably see some of he alcohol running down. So just when the the gaseous alcohol hits the air. The colder temperature. Some of it's gonna turn back to liquid and drip back down. But much of it's gonna come into this chamber and it's probably hard to see. But there's an inner chamber here that then runs up in this spiral in the condenser here. Now what this is doing is this has cold water. You see these two tubes running off into this bowl here. Ihave ice packs along with a pump. And the water, it gets pumped up in one chamber. And comes out and down and just flows back into the bucket. So it's continually pumping cold water in here. And depending on how long this runs. I'll need to change those ice packs out. But it's really cold here and so that hot gaseous alcohol has all these spirals to go on. And it's actually opened up at the top here if it could escape but because of the cold water it turns the gas back into liquid and it drops down. This middle piece, is the actual Soxhlet Extractor. Here I'm working with Maral Root. So the Maral Root, the alcohol drips down and you can see it's starting to build up. It has this much alcohol in there and some of its running in this side tube. You can note that because of the yellow color, that's the alcohol. Drawing out the components from the Maral Root that make it something that we want to take. And eventually as this fills up because of pressure in this small tube it runs back down here and drips into the bottom flask. You can see that has already occurred because of the golden color that we have down here. So what this thing does is the alcohol is back here with the different components and it continually runs like this. Heat evaporates the alcohol, it condenses down into liquid, goes in here and ends up at the bottom. You keep running this until the Maral Root is spent. There's no more really any color coming off of it. All the colors staying at the bottom because that's all the components that aren't able to evaporate with the alcohol. What's evaporating off is just the pure alcohol so it's going to come through until there's nothing left of the Maral Root. What's really cool is that you, how you can make this a stronger tincture. Is, if we stop the system, pull out the spent Maral Root. We save that for later for our Spagyric work, although in a traditional tincture.
Even a traditional Soxhlet would just be discarded but we add more in. And then repeat the process using the same liquid so you can make it stronger and more concentrated tincture doing this. And that's one of the very cool things about a Soxhlet extraction. Of course we are applying heat here so depending on what you're working with. There may be some heat sensitive things that you don't want to destroy in this process. It's not going too high of a temperature but certainly that can happen. So benefits and drawbacks to doing it each way.
Many people have asked, my soxhlet extractor came from eBay.
came here for organic chem lab explanation and this makes sense for me. gives me a good foundation, also learned about tinctures lol so its a win!
Thank you soo much for saving my pharmaceutical analysis exam.
This method of extraction is perfect for hardier and woodier plant material but would not be recommended for leaves, flowers, etc. Heat can also destroy the chemical constitutes of some plants. Not to say this is a bad method, it is amazing, it just depends on the plants being used. Personally I like to use a mix of this method and perculation to make my tinctures.
Thank you for a great presentation!! I'll check out your site...good vibes
Just got my set-up. Yours is by far the best tutorial I've come across. Thanks!
Thank you! Glad to hear it. Maybe we will be watching your videos soon?
lol righto
I have one as well. Too bad I don’t know my chemistry!
Great video, thanks
You should add boiling marbles to your flask. It prevents hot spots building on the flask that can cause it to shatter. A bunch of alcohol on a hot plate is not a good scenario.
Can you describe like what please
Heating mantles are designed for soxhlet extractors.
Yeah that flask isnt gonna live too long
@@cameronpresley5771 this is not a reply that makes any sense.
@@infinitevoid5884 like boiling marbles.
This is the coolest thing!!!
Great concise explanation, thank you!
Thank you!!
Inefficient heating, MacGuyver some sort of heat conductor between your heating plate and the reservoir or get a proper mushroom heater.
Add some boiling stones to your reservoir.
If you don't want to use a (makeshift) filter bucket inside your soxhlet unit, at least stuff some cotton wool into the opening of the soxhlet siphon so the quick draining doesn't drag stuff into the siphon (which can get stuck in there blocking it) or contaminates your reservoir.
Thank you for the advice!
A saucepan filled with cooking oil works well for this purpose.
Or a sand bath?
A heating mantle is much better. It will apply more even heat and far less likely to bust the bottom.
Awesome! The video was well done and explained. Nice! Question? On the fractional distillation does it matter the size over the soxhlet? Example I have a 50 soxhlet and medium size fraction distillation?
Thankyou i am about to buy one very excited but nervous too, not alot of information and demostrations to soak in on the Soxhlet. will you post up a video of the water extraction for making a duel extraction pleeeeeeeese
I have seem many distilling explanation online, but your is really good.
Thank you!
Love hormone is very mysterious. After searching in more than a dozen languages, no one on the entire Internet has prepared it, and there is no preparation method. The more it is not available, the greater my curiosity. Teacher, what do you think of love hormone? Do you want to make it? Impulsive?@@LostEmpireHerbs
@@LostEmpireHerbsI'm very curious about this. How is oxytocin extracted from ergot fungus? Do you have any plans to extract it in this area?
@@LostEmpireHerbsI'm very curious about this. How is oxytocin extracted from ergot fungus? Do you have any plans to extract it in this area?
@@LostEmpireHerbsLove hormone is very mysterious. After searching in more than a dozen languages, no one on the entire Internet has prepared it, and there is no preparation method. The more it is not available, the greater my curiosity. Teacher, what do you think of love hormone? Do you want to make it? Impulsive?
That is COOL! 😎
Glad you enjoyed! Thanks Mosiah.
I’ve been using several different sized Soxhlet extractors for years eventually I got 3.5 ft.³ freezer, 12 V in-line water pump, copper tubing made into a coil got it down in that freezer piped up through the lid so I never have to worry about replacing the ice buying ice or even make ice.
Nice!!
Can I use propilene glycol as a solvent to make tinctures from dehydrated fruits, cofee and herbs?
May I know what type of alcohol was used as the solvent, is it hexane? Would love to hear from you because currently preparing an assignment on Pharmaceutical Compounding and Dispensing related to Soxhlet extraction, and would definitely citing your video as one of the source.
Hi, would you recommend a 250, 500 or bigger round bottom flask?
Hi are you familiar with petroleum extraction of herbs as well? Thank you
what is your operating temp . any worry about over heating
how does psi locinbna react to this process? possible to make strong tinctures?
I really want to get some for my medicinal mushrooms . Just need $200 first lol. Cool video. Can you do alcohol and water extract with this ?
It’s literally an answer to prayer that I found this video! I literally purchased a Soxhlet extractor after seeing someone use it to make tincture from Reishi mushroom. But since that point, I’ve been unable to find enough information to proceed. I am struggling to locate the correct sized thimble. And have other questions about what type of thimble is best. I’m going to the website you mentioned and saying more prayers. I’m really hoping someone will respond to me and answer these questions. Thank you so much. #MushroomFantasies.
You don't need expensive thimbles, just stuff a cotton ball down to the bottom and pack it down a little, most chemists do this, though they use glass wool as well for solvents or extraction mediums that can break cotton down.
To run a Soxhlet extractor, you'll start by filling your boiling flask with your preferred solvent, no more than 2/3 full, then drop in a half dozen to a dozen small pieces of broken glass boiling chips (just bust up a glass bottle and pick out pieces small enough to fit through the neck of the flask), these are known as boiling chips and will prevent the solvent from bumping, which can potentially break your boiling flask, and considering it's full of boiling hot flammable solvent, you don't want that. Bumping is when the solvent becomes superheated and violently expands into vapor at the bottom of the flask, which can cause numerous issues, so make sure not to skip the boiling chips, they provide a nucleation point for bubbles to form.
After you've filled the flask with solvent and boiling chips, and mounted it to your lab stand, apply a small amount of food grade vacuum grease (which is 100% necessary for all ground glassware or the fittings will get stuck together, which will break if you attempt to seperate them without the grease) to the male fitting on the soxhlet extractor, then insert it into the boiling flask. Once you've done that, fill the soxhlet extractor with your extraction medium, make sure not to chop it too fine or it will clog up, and only fill the extractor up to the vapor inlet near the middle of the flask, if you fill it any higher the condensed solvent will not cover it and reduce extraction efficiency. Lightly pack the extraction medium, and I mean _lightly,_ you don't want to pack it so much that solvent can't freely flow through it.
After adding your extraction medium, take your condenser and grease the male fitting again and install it into the top of the soxhlet extractor, then clamp it to your lab stand as well. Once secured, attach your water line from your pump (aquarium pumps work fine, but a hose from your sink faucet will work too if you don't have one) to the bottom inlet of the condenser, then attach the water outlet tube to the top outlet. Whenever a condenser is used you want the water flow to start from the lowest point and end at the highest or a bubble will form, reducing cooling efficiency.
Now that everything is assembled, you will start your water circulation (if using a sink faucet it doesn't need to run at full blast, just a slow steady stream will work) and begin heating the solvent. Start at low heat and work your way up until you've achieved a constant medium boil, don't let it boil too vigorously. Let it run for several hours undisturbed, if your extraction product has color to it it will be done extracting when the solvent in the extractor is perfectly clear. After you've determined the extraction is complete, wait until the extractor dumps itself one final time then immediately turn off the heat source and cooling water, then allow the entire apparatus to cool to room temperature, at which point you can disassemble the condenser and extractor, dump the contents in the extractor, and pour your extract into it's container.
If you want to reduce the volume of the extraction solvent to increase potency, you can set up a simple distillation or vacuum distillation (assuming you have or want to get the necessary glassware) and boil off a portion of the solvent to achieve a higher concentration of extract in the boiling flask.
You can also do a final filtration of the product if it appears murky or you see floating pieces inside, a funnel with a cotton ball stuffed inside will work in most applications.
how long does the extraction take time?
thanks...
hi !! nice video, one question where can i buy this electric machine that cools the condenser or can you said me the name ? thanks !!
Eco 100 submersible pump
Do you use alcohol or water first when dual extracting? THANK YOU FOR DOING THIS WORK!
Alcohol first.
Would you get a better result if you applied an air vaccum to the solvent to lower the boiling point of the ethanol or water and get a stronger product?
We havent tried that.
This will extract pretty much everything extractable (with alcohol or water) from the herb. Lowering the BP might mean you boil off less of the really low temperature volatiles, but what condenses back down the column is basically pure ethanol in either case. It's not going to appreciably change the (strength of) the (main) extract.
Are there any herbs including mushrooms that you wouldnt recommend using a Soxhlet for? or is it all around a better option than folk methods of tincturing? Ive been studying Spagerics and working a lot with mushrooms and am seriously considering buying one and using it for all of my herbs. Thoughts anyone?
Thank you for this video, its exactly what i was searching for
Depends on what you use for tinctures, just investigate those herbs/mushrooms and read up to see if any have thermolabile compounds. Note that you could still do a two part extraction with the traditional cold alcohol extraction followed by a sohxlet extraction - eg. some people do a second extraction by boiling reishi mushrooms in water after the cold alcohol extraction, so a sohxlet would only preserve more compounds than an crude heated water infusion.
I am definitely going to order a sohxlet kit for my personal use, since i can't keep using my work's lab one everytime I go in 😂
Apart from methanol and water what’s the best solvent for extracting flavonoids
Great question. I did ask Logan but he is not a chemist. I'd suggest you inquire with a biochemist. If I can get an answer for you ill share asap.
Hi! thanks for the Video. Is it possible to make an extract with the traditional method of blending alcohol and the herb, and after that, if you want to have a more concentrated product, to just let the product sit and evaporate away some alcohol so that the product becomes more dense?
You can. You can also distill it to extract the alcohol.
What alcohol did you use, vodka or pure ethanol and if so what was the alcohol percentage
He generally uses pure ethanol.
Congratulations on the video.
Using a 250ml flask, what is the ideal amount of solvent to use? and how many herbs to use?
Thank you Marcelo. Per Logan, He is unsure on the ideal and it depends on the ingredients and usage. Sorry we cannot help more here.
max 2/3 of the flask volume (for 250 ml flask - about 150 ml of solvent). You must use boiling chips ;)
Sir do you mind sharing a link with the exact water pump you use here?
Don't have a link available. It's just a common aquarium pump.
wolverine??
Can I use this process for extraction in cordyceps militaris also?
For our Cordyceps, we dual extracted in a ratio of 10:1 with alcohol and hot water and dried to form a powdered extract.. You could use a soxhlet if you like.
Are the temperatures suited for psilocybin extraction or too high? If so how can the temperature be monitored?
Take a look at Kysilka, R. and Wurst, M., Planta Med. Vol. 56 pp. 327-328 (1990). They discuss psilocybin extraction using the Soxhlet method with 70% ethanol as a solvent. For monitoring temperature, I would recommend using a Mophorn heating mantle rather than a hotplate. That being said, psilocybin alkaloid can survive boiling water temperatures, so temperature will usually not be an issue, but it's recommended to use a low and slow simmer rather than a rolling boil. Slower extraction of alkaloids is better as a general rule.
Great video - may I ask what kind of pump you are using?
Any simple aquarium pump will do.
Any aquarium pump.
How can I get some ticture
Hello!
Were you interested in purchasing our herbals tinctures?
They are located on our website at lostempireherbs.com
Could you link we’re you got the Soxhlet extractor
Unfortunately I cannot get ahold of Logan right now as he is away. You could just google them though. They go for between $40-$200 online
Any idea if you can use a non alcohol containing base to make a tincture with this machine?
You can extract with whatever solvent you like, water included. A tincture is by definition alcohol-based. What you will end up with is a tea. Different solvents extract different compounds.
What TAG said.
Honest question. How is this faster/superior to just soaking it in vodka? I know nothing and if i don’t need to wait 2 months to make my tinctures I’d like to do some research and maybe get one.
Hrs vs weeks
Does the pump connect to the tubing?
Yes
I truly admire you. However, I have a question: I like essential oil's e.g., lavender. Citrus like orange, tea tree , oregano, & other flowers. Their flash point temperatures for herb & flower are very low like 90°F - to - 130°F.
For example if I were soak these citrus skins or lavender plant(s) first separately inside a plant milk bag immersed in drinking liquor is this feasible?
For Example -- a drinking liquor of about 40 or 60 proof. Raw material -- Not exposed soaking already filtered in a plant milk bag sitting in the liquor in the plant milk bag? Is that feasible??
Could I then transfer it to a temperature controlled water distiller boiling temperature very low. Would this work? Also, it is awesome using a mug warmer, To finish alcohol evaporation - oil processing very nice. I just want to avoid self-injury.
I prefer distilling food grade Drinking alcohols because after distilling I could still drink it. Will my idea work?
Unfortunately, we don't have any knowledge to share regarding this topic. ): I can recommend seeing if there's an herbalist or naturopath in your area to ask!
What is the capacity of the Soxhlet that you are using, I most see them with Alihn condensers?
Checking with Logan on this. Will get back to you.
He said "If I remember correctly the soxhlet in the video is 250mL, but I also have a 750mL one available."
Where can you buy this Soxhlet
Soxhlets can be found on the web! Logan purchased his from Ebay :)
So, do you end up with 250 mL of alcohol and containing some herbal extraction? How do you remove the alcohol (evaporation or distillation?)
Checking with Logan on this. Will get back to you.
He said "Roughly, yes. I don't remove the alcohol as I use it as a tincture, but you could with those methods."
Very cool video and method. I'm going to try it, but I worry about cooking all of the good compounds and destroying them.
If you have a distiller then distill it to remove half the alcohol to double the strength. You can then reuse the alcohol again. Personally, I like to keep my tinctures 30-40%. The alcohol allows you to absorb the goodies easier
Will psilocybin be extracted from magic mushrooms?
Haven't done that but yes I believe alcohol can be used to extract those.
Too hot. Keep it cold.
I'm really curious to know, once the extraction is done, do you just use what is in the bottom flask, or do you have to do more steps once you use this method?
It depends a bit.
First off, yes what is left in the bottom flask can be the finished tinctured. That’s why you’re not seeing more information because its done at that point. That being said, there are some other options.
If you run two separate extractions, once with alcohol then once with water, you’d then want to combine those as your finished tincture (which also happens to make it more palatable if you’re using 95% proof alcohol).
Another possibility is then to move onto the spagyric salt preparation as covered in this article. lostempireherbs.com/what-is-a-spagyric-tincture/
@@LostEmpireHerbs One last question. Are you using a magnetic hot plate, or just a regular hot plate for this? Thanks a lot for the info and video by the way!
@@Stahe that looks like an electric cooking hob to me. It's not an induction hob, although you could use one if you place the glass flask in an oil or sand bath in a suitable pan. A 'magnetic' hotplate has a spinning magnet underneath for use with a Teflon-covered magnet stirring rod in the flask-something he's not using here.
You can distill the tincture to further concentrate but be careful not to burn it.
Intersting video mate. But do not load the flsk too much like in the video
Thank you for the advice.
@@LostEmpireHerbs 😁🙃
the "tincture" is now an alcoholic solution, how can i follow up this step and get rid of the alcohol?
Don't know as I keep things as alcohol solutions myself.
@@LostEmpireHerbs Well heating alcohol actually makes the alcohol inert so I'm not sure i using alcohol in a soxhlet is quite effective.
Do you use fresh or dried herb?
You can use either or!
Thank you! Do you have to use a lubricant on the joints of the soxlet extractor?
Isn't inconvenient to boil alcohol above 78ºC?
It's not needed to go higher
Pure ethanol wont boil above 78 with being put under pressure. Most people dont have access to 100-% ethanol so it going to boil at a higher temperature depending on the % alcohol. 78 is also at sealevel. It will be a lower the higher in elevation you are.
Very cool. Could you use an extractor like that with watter and apples to make a fruit concentrate without the sugar and fiber, so you're just left with concentrated fruit water distillate? I've been searching everywhere to see how to make an all natural fruit essence without the pulp and sugar to add to my meads. Herbs like vanilla and citrus fruits with peels like lemon, I've made alcohol extracts in the instant pot but apple and peach are a tough because no essential oils.
Possibly. I do not have any definitive answer on that. If you try it out let us know. Sounds like a delicious experiment!
What about using it to make a cup of coffee concentrate?
I don't see why you wouldn't be able to extract the aromatics out of any fruit, if you can figure out a suitable (and safe) solvent. Ethanol, acetone, hexane, dichloromethane, dihydrogen monoxide…
PS Look into fruit juice "flavour packs". It's what e.g. OJ manufacturers like Tropicana use to 'standardise' the scent and taste of their juices. Good luck getting hold of some though.
@@michaelh2931 I think you can buy jars of that at the supermarket.
Oh
Oh?
So what confuses me about this is why not just heat up the alchohol and herb together in one sealed tincture?
You could but they have different boiling points and it wouldn't necessarily extract quite the same doing so.
Every time the soxhlet cycles, you're immersing the herbs in _pure_ alcohol that you've just distilled, meanwhile also concentrating whatever extract there is in the flask. Your scenario is (roughly speaking) a single cycle of the above process, and will reach a equilibrium where the concentration of what you want out of the herb is the same as what's in the alcohol. You can repeat your process with fresh alcohol, but you'll just end up with a series of more and more dilute extracts.
Thanks that makes sense
1869 this process was made
What is the holder called?
Are you referring to the glass container? That is the soxhlet extractor.
@@LostEmpireHerbs No, I'm referring to the clamp that holds the soxhlet extractor
@@justthetruth4447 It's a retort stand, boss head, and a clamp. It's worth paying attention in your high-school chemistry classes. :)
@@LiyangHU thanks for the information, but I think you can reply to my question made A YEAR AGO without insulting me :DD. I guess there's nothing wrong with asking right?
Hello my brother, will 99% isopropyl solvent work for roots?
Anyone else come here from Mushroom Revival Podcast?
Yeah. So are you using soxhlet?
how much solvent was used?
Around 250mL
I think it’s technically illegal to be this hot.
That flask should be in a sand or oil bath.
Ideally yes, but all I had at this time was the hot plate.
@@LostEmpireHerbs You can pick up a used mantle with a stir option for fairly inexpensive off ebay if you keep an eye out. A lot of times somebody who doesn't know much about lab equipment will win an auction from a lab and put everything up on ebay without caring to research what it even is in order to make a quick sale. You can search "Lab equipment" or other generic terms. Once you find somebody with a bunch of unlabeled lab equipment that is taking best offer you can get some unbelievable deals. I have got some Ace glassware this way for a fraction of the price of the cheap stuff.
Will this work for dmt haha
nope
Lol add more in haha. Reduce is a real big word in some parts lol. Sorry man. Happy learning
Thank you Pan
Tuned out at "the solvent of the alcohol" TT
Bummer.
Anyone else cringe every time they hear _tincture_
Good lord I hate that term.
Cant say we do.