Ok, this is my first post, so Hello everyone

I must say, congrats this is the most useful site I have found when searching to an answer to this question (although I didnt find the answer, I learned a lot I was not expecting)

Ill get to the point.
I have been extracting the way most of you do (into ghee) for a year or so now with good results.
I do however do a cold water extraction first on the powder (It is much easier to work with if there is no plant matter in the finished product.) then into a sealed 250ml pyrex container double boil with steam at (101-102deg) for an hour.

However, at a mates place I was a bit short on time, so skipped the cold water extraction.
When done, It really looked like crappy sludge, so on a whim I decided to water wash it.
Into the oil I added 100ml water, capped and shook for a minuite. Put container in freezer.
20 mins later, uncapped, tipped out solid mass, broke off water.
No use, all plant matter was still covered in oil and stuck to the ghee. Waste of time.

UNTIL, I noticed when the ice thawed, it was a honey colour, and smells like great bud. The ghee and plant material had no smell really when cold.
As far as I know, THC is not soluble in water. (Why the cold water extraction works). So what is in the water?

At first I thought it might be a bit of left over oil, or something.
But when I looked at it under a black light, it glowed bright green. when I look at the ghee with no THC, it is a dull yellow, and the cakes of ghee/plant matter glowed a bright red!

And no, I was not tripping.

Any Ideas what the water separated out?
Ill work it out soon enough, just thought someone might have had the same experience and could fill me in.

Thanks for any suggestions,
John.

Answering my own question (hope it helps someone else out there?)

It is obviously the active components glowing the bright red.
I cut the ghee into quaters, and ate one. (I made the thing with 2g bud in 14g ghee)

I ate the GLOWING RED one and I can feel it creeping up on me (t+110min). I know I am in for a good ride.

So, something was removed, and I am guessing tar. Bong water glows the same milky green as the wash water and the smell is similar (minus the burnt tar smell).

So now you can all use a black light to check when the THC is extracted (ie it will keep getting a brighter and brighter red untill the plant matter no longer glows and your done.)

John.

Man... i never had heard about using the flourescence for analysing the fractions of the weed extracts... anyway, its nice to know it. Thanks for the info!

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this seems a bit more complicated than 99.9% of the questions here, grats. however, for that reason, I have no idea.

Wow I will post some photos, I was having the most fun touching the hash butter, then writing on plates with my finger in it. It is the most amazing red/orange glow. Looks like an orange highlighter under the UV.

Who knows, after enough experimenting I might post up a comprehensive guide on using a black light to maximize the efficiency of your extraction process.

I already find it invaluable in the cold water extraction, as I know when all the trichomes have separated from the plant matter, and I can move onto the next phase.
Saves alot of time as I can start it resting as soon as its done, without an extra 5 or 10 min wasted time on the stirrer.

VERY cool thread.
Do a test. Take some lettuce and grind it up (lettuce is used as the only 'standard' iin chlorophyll determination, although even THAT is kinda shaky lol). Treat it the same way. You are testing to see whether the green glow is from a non-drug component commonly found in plants, such as a pigment.
Chlorophyll is commonly extracted in a mixture of acetone and water in lab analyses, just FYI.

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