Most people are convinced that marijuana leaves are useless waste that should be thrown away. But no! If you have discarded some leaves, recover them and if you have grower friends (of light cannabis hopefully) ask them to give you some leaves. There are many things that can be done with marijuana leaves, in this article we will see some of them, finally focusing on distillates. Here's what we'll see:
- How to use marijuana leaves
- Properties of leaves
- Extraction methods
- Recipe and preparation
- CBD distillate
How to use marijuana leaves
A cannabis plant, such as a light cannabis plant, is able to offer us a large amount of plant matter . We are used to thinking of buds as the only raw material worthy of consideration.
If you pay attention, however, marijuana leaves, albeit to a lesser extent, are also sprinkled with trichomes . This means that they contain a percentage of active ingredient , certainly lower than the buds, but still interesting from the point of view of extracts and distillates.
Furthermore, in addition to cannabis distillates, which we will deal with extensively in the next paragraphs, it is possible to make many things with marijuana leaves. Let's see some of them:
Marijuana leaf butter : in addition to being a flavored butter based on the active ingredient that we will choose, it can be an excellent base for other recipes. Simply use two saucepans to cook 100 grams of butter and 100 grams of dried and shredded leaves in a bain-marie for about forty minutes. Mix, filter the butter into a suitable mold and leave to cool.
Marijuana leaf herbal tea : a herbal tea that you really like and a teaspoon of marijuana butter. Or if you prefer, put the leaves, always dry and chopped, in a tea filter and immerse in boiling water for five minutes.
Biscuits : make the pastry with 50 grams of marijuana butter and prepare your favorite biscuits.
Blunt : if you usually roll your joints, try doing it with a nice large marijuana leaf instead of regular papers. It's much healthier and you'll taste it.
Properties of leaves
You will be pleased to know that, in addition to the beneficial properties of the active ingredient, which we can obtain through extraction or distillation, marijuana leaves are also excellent eaten fresh. Like hemp fiber, they are rich in iron, calcium, magnesium, antioxidants and vitamins, especially C and D.
They also contain fiber and mineral salts , excellent for restoring intestinal balance in a completely natural way, and amino acids, essential for the regeneration of our cells.
Fresh marijuana leaves can be considered a super food , like goji berries, cocoa beans or spirulina. Once washed, they can be eaten chopped in salads or blended together with the ingredients for a smoothie, for a juicer or for a vegetable broth.
Extraction methods
A distillate that contains only cannabinoids is odorless and tasteless, can be easily added to any type of drink or food and does not require any cooking or heating process.
A distillate that also contains terpenes , which as we know well are the carriers of the various aromas that we love so much in cannabis or cannabis light, will instead have a defined and intense scent. This is the case of essential oils , which are obtained through the classic distillation process.
Creating distillates means obtaining a high-performance final product also from the point of view of potency, in some cases reaching up to 95% of active ingredient . We are talking about a much higher percentage than that contained by the inflorescences alone and in some cases also by the extracts.
Furthermore, if cannabis and light cannabis extracts have a high standard of purity, distillates manage to exceed it, precisely because of the extraction process which does not involve the use of solvents. In fact, apart from the one with alcohol, which we will see and which can be experimented to prepare excellent digestives, liqueurs or grappas based on CBD, classic distillation is a process that only uses heat and cooling .
The heat evaporates the various components, the vapor is passed through a cooling system which allows the various cannabinoids and terpenes to be separated and isolated from the other components of the cannabis plant.
We can distinguish between two main distillation processes:
- simple distillation : takes place using an apparatus made up of two ampoules or containers connected by a tube. In the first ampoule the water with the plant matter is evaporated, the volatile substances passing through the refrigerated tube return to condense in the form of distillate. With this extraction process it is possible to separate two components.
- fractional distillation : with this extraction process it is possible to isolate more than two substances, the various components are separated based on their volatility via a glass column which is added to the traditional simple distillation apparatus. Inside the column the various components undergo different evaporation and condensation processes depending on their volatility. This allows for example to separate and then condense cannabinoids and terpenes together, or to isolate certain cannabinoids and create extracts, or rather distillates, with a very high and therefore very powerful active ingredient.
Cannabis and cannabis light distillates have already found a place in the gastronomic world. It is reasonable to think that they also find space in the cosmetic world and, due to their purity and potency, certainly in the world of therapeutic cannabis.
A CBD distillate, for example, can be a targeted and effective product for the treatment of certain pathologies. On the contrary, a highly concentrated THC distillate that is not well balanced with other cannabinoids can be too strong and cause unpleasant side effects.
It is important to be prepared both on the correct distillation steps and on the balance of the various cannabinoids. It's not something to improvise on , of course you can try to experiment at home, but first of all we will need to buy the equipment, then we will have to read up and study in order to acquire the right skills.
Let's not forget that distillation is the art of essential oils and perfumes, if you are interested in learning look for specialized courses, everything you learn will also be useful for the distillation of cannabis leaves or even better for light cannabis leaves.
What you can experiment with comfortably at home, however, is alcohol-based distillation, which can be a good choice for those who love preparing digestives, liqueurs and grappa.
CBD distillate
Before purchasing or thinking about preparing a distillate, make sure that the plant material at your disposal is top quality and comes from organic and certified crops, free of pesticides and heavy metals, just as you would do when buying weed online or in a shop .
We at Terre di Cannabis are thinking about the possibility of offering you the best of our crops also in the form of distillates, in the meantime you could try one of our CBD oils or one of our varieties of magnificent 100% made in Italy inflorescences . We can deliver our legal weed to your home in complete anonymity. Take a look at our products and don't forget that the site only uses cookies to improve your experience.
But let's get to the distillate, if we are not sufficiently informed and if we do not have the equipment for professional distillation available, a wise choice may be to prepare a CBD distillate in the form of a liqueur without any risk, in the tranquility of our kitchen. with light marijuana leaves obtained through maceration .
Recipe and preparation
Here is the recipe, which you can modify with one or two of your favorite spices:
Ingredients
- 1 liter of alcohol for food use;
- 250 grams of light marijuana leaves grown in an organic and certified way
- grated zest of organic lemons;
- a pinch of ginger
- a piece of cinnamon
- 1 liter of water;
- 500 grams of organic cane sugar.
Preparation:
First of all, know that the leaves must be dry , so if they are not already, let them dry for at least fifteen days . Then chop them as you would parsley, add the grated lemon zest, ginger and cinnamon, mix well and leave to rest in a jar for a couple of hours.
At this point, cover everything with the liter of alcohol , seal hermetically and leave to macerate for fifteen, twenty days . After closing the jar, cover it with silver paper or a kitchen towel so that it does not catch light and keep it in a dark, dry place .
After the indicated time, open the jar and filter the macerate using a narrow mesh strainer . Set the macerate aside and prepare the syrup with the water and brown sugar. Pour the liter of water into a saucepan and place it on a low heat , pour in the sugar and stir until just before boiling. Turn off and let cool .
Once the syrup is cold, all you have to do is add it to the macerate and, wonder, your marijuana leaf liqueur is ready (legal marijuana I recommend).
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