by Ed Rosenthal
The essential oils and other components of roots can also be extracted with the technique used for creating a cannabis-infused cooking oil. Just place the root in a slow cooker along with your oil of choice and leave it on low for many, many hours, then strain for use. Coconut oil is a good choice for making a root topical, as it will firm up to a paste at room temperature.
POULTICES
Poultices are the simplest topicals to make. They have been used for thousands of years. There are three methods of preparation: with fresh marijuana leaves, with leaves soaked in alcohol, or mixing dried powder with alcohol, glycerin, oil, or water.
Pain-relieving topicals range from alcohol-based sprays to relaxing bath salts.
Photo: Making You Better Brands
India’s Ayurvedic medical tradition uses hemp poultices made by boiling the leaves. Sometimes roots are used as well. Boiled poultices are used to treat bacterial skin infections and inflammation, including hemorrhoids. In India, marijuana poultices made from bruised fresh leaves were a common household remedy for conjunctivitis, swollen joints, inflammation of the testes, and other acute inflammatory conditions, sores, and open wounds. Hemp root has also been used traditionally to make poultices.
The most basic poultice method is to crush freshly harvested fan leaves using a mortar and pestle or blender, turning them into a juicy pulp. Spread the crushed leaf paste on the area to be treated. You can roll fresh leaves between your hands to bruise them, which releases the juice and oils. Carboxylated cannabinoids (THCA, CBDA, etc.), still in their acid form in unheated, untreated marijuana leaves, may have different therapeutic properties than the heated, decarboxylated leaves, and are superior for some uses. Use fresh leaf poultices immediately, as they have a very short shelf life unless refrigerated or frozen.
Adding alcohol to fresh marijuana poultices strips cannabinoids and essential oils from the marijuana leaves and opens the pores of the skin. Both increase the absorption of healing chemicals. Making this poultice simply entails soaking raw marijuana fan leaves in alcohol. A mortar and pestle or blender macerates the blend and increases the amount of medicine dissolved in the alcohol. The longer the leaves soak, the better. An alcohol-based marijuana poultice can be stored for weeks or months in the refrigerator. The alcohol helps preserve it. Isopropyl alcohol, which is a poison, can be used since the poultice is for external use. However, using ethyl alcohol or high-proof drinking alcohol prevents accidents.
Dried and cured trim or bud are excellent ingredients. They contain more decarboxylated THC and CBD. Grind to a fine powder, then mix thoroughly with either alcohol, glycerin, oil, or a mix of these ingredients. Alcohol, glycerin, and oil all combine with the oil-based cannabinoids and terpenes to penetrate the skin.
Glycerin or oil dissolve the active ingredients when they are warm. Heat the mixture keeping the temperature below 150°F (66°C) for 20 minutes. Olive and coconut oils and glycerin work well, but you can infuse your favorite massage oil. Don’t heat alcohol without taking precautions because its fumes are dangerous to breathe, and they can explode. Alcohol evaporates quickly with a very low heat. FOR SAFETY: Heat alcohol only over an enclosed electric heater, in a double boiler, or under very low heat in a well-ventilated space or outdoors.
Cannabinoids and essential oils do not mix with water, but you can make a paste of marijuana powder and water that can be applied to the skin. Add dry lecithin granules to help the oils and water mix.
SALVES AND OILS
You can enhance a salve or massage oil by adding tincture to it. Start with a ratio of about 1:10—that is, one ounce of marijuana extract to ten ounces of topical.
Cooking oils made with marijuana (chapter 11) can be used topically. Use skin-friendly oils such as almond, cocoa butter, coconut, or olive oil. You can make a balm by combining cannabis oil with aloe vera. Add melted beeswax to the mixture. As it cools it helps thicken the salve.
Use dried leaf trim and root to make an infusion by chopping them in a food processor or blender. Soak in a skin-friendly oil for a few weeks, then strain using a fine mesh or cheesecloth or both. To speed up the process, use a blender to mix the ingredients, then apply low heat for at least 20 minutes to an hour, then strain. If using heat, keep the temperature below 150°F (66°C); a double-boiler is a good stove top tool for managing temperature.
Strain the oil, then mix in softened beeswax, coconut oil, or cocoa butter to thicken the mixture to a salve or lotion consistency. Use mild heat to melt and mix the ingredients, but be careful not to overheat beyond 150°F (66°C). Add beeswax sparingly—too much over-hardens the balm. It can be difficult to judge the thickness while heated, so pull a teaspoon of the mixture and pop it in the freezer for two minutes. If it is still liquid or too soft, add more beeswax. Once you’ve achieved the desired consistency, remove from heat. Continue stirring the mixture as it cools until it gets to about 90°F–100°F (32°C –38°C). Pour into glass containers for storage before it cools completely.
You can make marijuana massage bars that melt as you rub them on your skin by adding beeswax so that it constitutes about 25% of the mix. Before it cools completely, pour it into a baking pan or molds. If you are using a pan, place it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. Once it’s chilled, cut into squares of the desired size. Store the bars in a cool, dark place.
TOPICAL TINCTURES
Tinctures can be used topically. When used for specific local pain or as part of a treatment for skin cancer, highly concentrated tincture is best. Once the tincture is made following the directions in chapter 9, it is ready for topical use. A noncolored and nonflavored alcohol (ethanol) is best for making a tincture for topical use. Glycerin can be used alone for topicals or mixed with aloe, beeswax, alcohol, and water. Place the topical on a bandage. Alcohol can dry the skin, and should not be used on cracked skin or open wounds as it will create an intense burning sensation.
Tinctures that have been reduced to pure, concentrated cannabis oil are used to treat tumors related to skin and other cancers, as popularized by Rick Simpson and others. Cannabinoids have been shown in many preclinical research studies to reduce cancer tumors by selectively cutting off the blood flow to tumors, reprogramming cancerous cells to die off naturally, and stopping the spread to other cells. The cannabis oil can be used as is by applying directly to the skin and massaging in to help it absorb, and then covering with a dressing. Pure cannabis oil can also be combined with other oils, salves, or butters for topical application, but for cancer treatment the advice is generally to use the strongest concentration possible so the cannabinoids can do their tumor-fighting work.
The differences between purified extracts of marijuana, whether tinctures, oils, or waxes, depend more on the marijuana you start with than the method for producing them. Some processes are easier and require less equipment than others, and care must be used with any method that involves combustible solvents. Alcohol is a preferred solvent because it is easy to obtain, relatively safe to work with, and any residual alcohol left in an extract does not pose health risks. Working with butane, naphtha, and other petroleum-based solvents requires more caution, and care must be exercised to ensure that none of the toxic chemicals used remain in the final product. Purging those solvents 100% requires some technical ability and experience.
Rick Simpson Oil
The most famous of the medicinal oil concentrate-making methods is the one popularized by Rick Simpson. This oil has been used to eliminate skin cancers and for other serious medical purposes that have been documented on the Internet. Known as Rick Simpson Oil or Phoenix Tears, the concentrated cannabis oil extract is made with ether, naphtha, or alcohol. His process is simply to wash high-potency cannabis in naphtha three times, filter, then boil off the naphtha in a rice cooker. That leaves an oil concentrate in the bottom of the rice cooker that can be drawn up in a basting syringe or similar device. Naphtha is close to butane in terms of being a highly dangerous petroleum-based solvent (though a little less explosive than b
utane). It’s also dangerous to ingest because it contains benzene and toluene, so oil made with it is only safe if it is 100% purged. Simpson recommends adding some water at the end of the process and boiling it off to help remove impurities, but that may not remove all of them.
Appendix 1.
Cannabinoids and Terpenes
So far, more than 750 distinct natural chemical components have been identified in the marijuana plant. Any given strain has about 80 bioactives. The most distinctive and important group is terpenophenolic compounds known as cannabinoids, found in cannabis and nearly nowhere else in the botanical world. Marijuana produces more than 100 unique cannabinoids, though most plants have high concentrations of only a few. The cannabinoid profile of any particular plant depends on many factors, including strain, growing environment, maturity of the plant at harvest, and curing and processing technique. Many cannabinoids act as precursors to others. They chemically change into a different cannabinoid as the plant matures or ages post-harvest. For instance, delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the cannabinoid with powerful psychotropic and therapeutic properties, results from the decarboxylation due to aging or heat of tetrahydrocannabinol acid (THCA), a cannabinoid found in live plants that produces little psychoactive effect.
THE ENDOCANNABINOID SYSTEM
One place we find cannabinoids very similar to those that marijuana produces is in our bodies. Most animals, including humans and other vertebrates, produce their own cannabinoids. These endogenous cannabinoids regulate nerve and immune function and many other critical metabolic processes. This is done in part through a unique process called retrograde signaling. The body’s endogenous cannabinoids regulate the nerves’ signaling output. In the early 1990s, scientists identified a natural human cannabinoid, or endocannabinoid. It was named anandamide, from the Sanskrit word for bliss, and is chemically described as N-arachidonoylethanolamide (AEA). Since then, four other endogenous cannabinoids have been identified: 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG), 2-arachidonyl glyceryl ether (noladin ether), N-arachidonoyl dopamine (NADA), and virodhamine (OAE).
There are two primary receptors that absorb cannabinoids, known as CB1, found mostly in parts of the brain, and CB2, which is distributed throughout the body but is concentrated in the organs and the gut. The location of those receptors, which have as much affinity for plant cannabinoids as the body’s own, has revealed much about how marijuana affects us. Three other probable endocannabinoid receptors have been identified—GPR55, GPR119, and GPR18—though much less is known about their function. A possible sixth endocannabinoid, lysophosphatidylinositol (LPI), has an affinity for the GPR55 receptor.
The location of cannabinoid receptors indicates why it is impossible to fatally overdose on marijuana, no matter how hard you try. Alcohol and drugs derived from the poppy plant attach to receptors in the brainstem, which controls your lungs and heart. These central nervous system depressants slow breathing and heartbeat and, with overdoses, can stop both. In contrast, there are no cannabinoid receptors in that part of the brain. Taking a big hit increases your heart rate and affects your blood pressure, but in a more complicated way, perhaps tied to the dilation of blood vessels, which also contributes to that most telltale sign that someone’s been toking—bloodshot eyes.
THE PHYTOCANNABINOIDS
Cannabinoids associated with the marijuana plant are now frequently referred to in scientific work as phytocannabinoids to distinguish them from the naturally occurring cannabinoids in humans and animals. The identification of the CB1 and CB2 cannabinoid receptors has led to the discovery that Echinacea and Cacao and possibly other plants contain organic compounds that also attach to these receptors, meaning those chemicals may also be called phytocannabinoids.
As a result of the tremendous genetic variability of the marijuana plant, the cannabinoid profile of different strains varies enormously. Plants classified as industrial hemp, for example, contain very little THC, usually less than 0.3%. At the other end of the spectrum, the selective breeding programs on the U.S. West Coast and in Holland and Spain have developed potent strains with 20% and more THC. Most psychoactive varieties contain high amounts of THC with very small amounts of cannabidiol (CBD) or other cannabinoids.
In terms of cannabinoid profile, there are three basic cultivars or chemotypes of marijuana—a THCA-dominant, a CBDA-dominant, and a heterozygous THCA/CBDA mix. Thanks to generations of selective breeding by growers seeking plants with mind-blowing highs, the vast majority of marijuana today is of the THCA-dominant type. In the past decade or so, however, breeders interested in the recently discovered medicinal effects of CBD have achieved more CBDA-rich varieties.
While CBD has little psychoactive effect, it has many therapeutic properties, and high-CBD extracts have been effective in alleviating seizures in children with intractable seizure disorders such as Dravet Syndrome. Since the interest in the therapeutic properties of CBD emerged, more varieties contain a small amount of it, as well as high THC numbers. Mainly CBD varieties are available, as well as varieties that contain higher concentrations of cannabigerol (CBG), which treats gastrointestinal disorders and glaucoma.
Cannabinoids are detected in all parts of marijuana plants, even the roots, with the highest concentrations in mature buds and the least in seeds. Most cannabinoids start out in the plant as carboxylic acids. Those acids typically convert to nonacid, neutral cannabinoids after harvest—either by exposure to light and heat in storage or by heating for consumption via cooking, burning, or vaporizing.
The primary cannabinoids are delta-9 THC, CBD, and CBG. Minor cannabinoids include delta-8 THC, CBC, CBE, CBL, CBN, and CBT. Each of these types has several subclasses. For instance, there are at least five CBC-type, eight CBD-type, and 16 CBG-type cannabinoids that differ in appearance and effect because of slightly different side-chain molecular structures. THC also has several subclasses with varying levels of psychoactivity. Nine THC-type cannabinoids have been identified, with the differences being side chains of 1, 3, 4, or 5 carbon atoms. They are THC, THCA-A, THCA-B, THCA-C4, THC-C4, THCVA, THCV, THCA-C1, and THC-C1. Other cannabinoids result from the degradation of these cannabinoids. CBN, for example, results from the degradation of THC, and CBND from the degradation of CBD.
Delta-9 THC (delta-9 tetrahydrocannibinol) is modern marijuana’s most common cannabinoid and is by far its most psychoactive component. It accounts for most of the high and much of the plant’s therapeutic properties, though phytochemicals in marijuana known as terpenes modify its effects. THC is primarily responsible for appetite stimulation and has been shown to have anti-inflammatory, anti-nausea, pain-relieving, tumor-fighting, and many other therapeutic effects. Actually, THC is found in nine variations with slight differences in their chemical structure. Four or five of these variants have similar effects to THC. For instance, THCV (tetrahydrocannabivarin) is a variant of THC found in some varieties of Asian and African strains that seems to be much faster in onset and quicker to dissipate than standard THC. Even though THCV’s psychoactivity appears to be somewhat less than that of THC, it is usually associated with extremely potent weed. THCV also has analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and anticonvulsant effects. Most marijuana has only small amounts of THCV, though varieties have been reported that are 16% THCV.
All THC starts out in fresh plant material as THC acid, or THCA, which is THC with a COOH molecule attached. THCA has no psychotropic effects, but it has many medical uses, and has demonstrated positive effects on the immune system. Applying heat to THCA by smoking or processing plant material removes the COOH molecule in a process called decarboxylation and transforms it into potently psychoactive THC.
THC occurs in all varieties of cannabis, from sinsemilla to industrial hemp, in concentrations that vary from trace amounts to almost all of the cannabinoids present.
Delta-8 THC (delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol) has some of the same effects as delta-9 THC, such as appetite stimulation, but it is considerably less psychoactive. It results from the decarboxylation of d
elta-8 THC acid and has no known subtypes.
CBD (cannabidiol) has at least eight subtypes and occurs in almost all cannabis varieties, in quantities that range from trace amounts to almost all of the cannabinoids present. Most THC-rich varieties have little CBD present, while CBD is the primary cannabinoid in most fiber hemp. CBD is not psychoactive in the same manner as THC, but it can be mood-altering and modulate the high produced by THC.
CBD appears to heighten marijuana’s sedative effects and to moderate the euphoric effects. It may also delay the onset of the high, but make it last longer. Terms such as “sleepy,” “dreamlike,” and “contemplative” are often used to describe the effect of marijuana with sizeable proportions of CBD.
CBD has many of the same therapeutic effects as THC, but it appears to achieve them through different biological mechanisms. CBD does not attach as readily to cannabinoid receptors as THC, but it interacts with both CB1 and CB2 receptors in ways that produce its own effects and alter how THC is absorbed. CBD has a marked affinity for serotonin receptors, which are associated with psychological well-being and may account for some of its antipsychotic, anti-anxiety, and hypnotic properties. CBD is also a powerful anti-inflammatory and analgesic, perhaps because it enhances the action of adenosine receptors, which have a role in the management of pain and inflammation. In addition, CBD has antioxidant and neuroprotective properties.
In 2001, GW Pharmaceuticals found that a balanced combination of equal parts CBD and THC offered the best analgesic effects for multiple sclerosis patients. Taken alone, neither CBD nor THC was as effective in treating chronic pain as they were in combination. CBD may also be effective in reducing intraocular pressure, the medical application for glaucoma patients.