The Definitive Green Dragon (Cannabis Tincture)

Hello Friends,

1. How much is in an Eyedropper
An eyedropper holds about one milliliter of liquid, depending on how hard you squeeze the little bulb. For water based solutions one milliliter weighs about one gram. Thus each full eyedropper contains about one gram of liquid. Since there are about 29 grams in one ounce, you get about 29 full eyedroppers in every ounce. The eyedropper I initially used measured 34 full droppers in an ounce.

Also I use the nice blue two-ounce dropper bottles from the health food store that are used for essential oils, tinctures, and/or other extracts.

2. Leaf vs. Bud
I have not tried the extraction with leaf. But you would obviously need loads more. The problem is you will also need much more alcohol. My guess is you should use somewhere on the order of 10 parts alcohol to 1 part leaf. Then once you are finished you will want to remove the spent leaf, and then concentrate the alcohol by boiling off most of it (using the water bath of course) until you have one ounce of GD remaining.

3. When is it Ready
Right away. That is one of the nice things about this extraction process.

4. Taste
I find that after a week in the fridge (that's where I store mine) the flavor seems to mature into a heady, slightly floral elixer with bud overtones. I find it rather pleasant.

Master Wu

master Wu
thanks for your information re: leaf versus head (bud as you gus call it)
now! i would like to know when heating the dope in the oven,to turn the thca into thc. should the dope be dry as its ready to smoke or can it be wet? when i used the leaf most of it was wet. i cooked the leaf in the oven for 5-8 minutes at 150c. degrees
i did end up useing more rum than your recipe i can not tell you what the end mixture was as i kept adding until the leaf was just covered. the length of cooking time was the same as yours. but i did not reduce the liquard
when i reduceing the liquard i wonder if it will thicken?
master wu, were are you from? this "1 ounce" thing! ha ha i am gussing in my language thats around 30mil!
one more question. when reduceing the liquard iam i loseing thc along with the alcohol? i dont mind loseing the alcohol but the thc is another thing

this is a really good thread recipe thing... i think it should be stickyatized

sounds like a plan once i have more room to make such concotions (rents)

This sounds great. What a good idea.

I'm assuming heating 7 grams in the oven for 20 minutes smells up the entire house? Anyone have information about the smell when making this? I'm talking extent of smell, time it stays in the air, how bad, etc.

I haven't tried this yet, but I plan to do so. This is one of the best-formatted, most concise and clear recipes of any kind that I have seen anywhere, by the way. Thank you very much, Master Wu, for sharing this with us!

One question: if I want to use a whole ounce of good pot on this, can I just increase the alcohol amount correspondingly? E.g., one ounce of good pot, 16 ounces of strong alcohol? Seems like it would work okay. I'd rather just make a bunch at once, because I'm a lazy sumbitch. ;)

Great thread Master Wu!

One question, could this be done using Isopropanol alcohol? It must be nearly 100% proof and probbaly more likely to combust/ignite.

Anyone have any experience with Iso alcohol?

peace
Knotter

I have drank rum and everclear components of Green Dragon.
But I would never drink Isopropyl alcohol. So why would you make green dragon with it? It is a drink.

Isopropyl alcohol

Safety
Isopropyl alcohol vapour is heavier than air and is highly flammable with a very wide combustible range. It should be kept away from heat and open flame. When mixed with air or other oxidisers it can detonate[citation needed].

Isopropyl alcohol is oxidized by the liver into acetone. Symptoms of isopropyl alcohol poisoning include flushing, headache, dizziness, CNS depression, nausea, vomiting, anesthesia, and coma. Use in well-ventilated areas and use protective gloves while using. Poisoning can occur from ingestion, inhalation, or absorption.

Long term application to the skin can cause defatting.

Medicine/Toxicology
Isopropyl alcohol is about twice as toxic as ethanol. Isopropyl alcohol does not cause an anion gap acidosis (like ethanol or methanol). It produces an elevated osmolal gap, but generally no abnormal anion gap (though this may be seen as a result of hypotension and lactic acidosis). Overdoses may cause a fruity, acetone-like odor on the breath.

Yeah dude, don't use rubbing alcohol. That shit will blind you. (Even with throat-application, ;))

Hello Friends,

I have made a few more batches since I last wrote. Here are some answers to questions as well as a few more tips.

1. Isopropyl Alcohol
DON'T USE IT!

2. Using an Ounce
The recipe should scale nicely from 1/8 to whole ounce. But, unless you have experience with smaller batches I'd recommend sticking with the recipe as written. It would be a shame to have something go wrong with a large batch. I strongly recommend making the GD a couple of times before trying to scale up.

3. Pre-Baking the Pot - Color Changes and Vapors
Bake the pot at 325 degrees fahrenheit for 5 minutes. I chop mine in a mini-prep (or chop by hand) until it is quite fine. Then I spread it out on a piece of aluminum foil which is placed directly on the oven rack. If you place the foil on a baking pan you will need to account for the additional mass of the pan which will increase your baking time. Pre-baking should stink up the house. I turn on the stove vent fan. I also do all my cooking at night after neighbors are in bed.

I look for two indicators that the pot is properly pre-baked. First, I look for the pot to change color from it's initial shade of green to a much darker greenish-brown (or brownish-green). I assume this represents not browning (burning) of the leaf but rather the denaturation of the chlorophyll in the leaves.

Second, I look for a slight amount of vapors to rise off the pot. Since the temperature is well below the vaporization temperature of THC, these vapors probably consist of compounds that vaporize at lower temperatures (like water).

4. Extraction Temperature (revised)
I've had good success with extractions at 170 degrees fahrenheit. You'll note that my initial recipe called for maintaining temperature between 150 and 165. At 170 the alcohol mixture will be slightly boiling. Note that this is alcohol boiling not water boiling. Alcohol boils with very fine bubbles as opposed to the rolling boil of water. After 20 minutes the alcohol should be reduced by about half.

5. Green Dragon Final Color and Smell
The green dragon should be a greenish-brown color (more brown than green). If it is emerald green and smells like grass (from the cholorphyll), it will be weak. Emerald green indicates that the pre-baking was not sufficient. The GD should smell like bud, somewhat floral.

6. How To Recover The Green Dragon
When you are done extracting you will have one ounce (or so) of GD. But it is mixed up with the 1/8 oz of spent plant material. Here is how I recover the maximum amount of my extract.

First, I strain it through a regular kitchen mesh strainer. I use the back of a spoon to force out as much GD as possible.

Next (this is the cool part) I use a garlic press to squeeze the remaining leaves. My preference is a Zylis Garlic Press because it has a plunger mechanism, but any press should do. I then put the squeezings into the plunger in batches, and squeeze the holy GD out of it. This trick has increased my overall recovery by about 15%.

Master Wu