Hemp 101: Your Guide To Extraction Methods & Testing

If you’re looking to buy a CBD-infused product, you might wonder how, exactly, the CBD gets in there. Understandable! This part of the process is called extraction—AKA, how the cannabinoids are separated from the raw plant material.

Extraction Methods 101
There are quite a few ways to safely and effectively do this, including using ethanol as a solvent or using oil extraction with olive oil. There’s also a method called CO2 extraction, which exposes the plant material to high-pressure, low-temperature CO2 gas that isolates the cannabinoids and preserves them in the oil. Each extraction method will produce a unique product with a specific smell and taste.

There are also some extraction methods you’ll want to avoid completely, including those that utilize butane or hexane as solvents. These solvents do a good job extracting the cannabinoids but can leave a residue behind that’s not healthy to digest or put on your skin.

Lab Testing 101
Solvent residue is one good reason to look for a product that’s been lab tested by a third-party, ISO-certified lab. This sounds fancy but just means the final product has been evaluated by an independent lab that’s following specific procedures. They’ll test for potency and purity to make sure your product contains the amount of CBD that’s stated on the label.

Even more importantly, they’ll test for the presence of contaminants such as heavy metals, pesticides, microbes, and solvent residue. This is important because hemp is a “bioaccumulator,” which means it absorbs chemical waste and heavy metals from the soil. In fact, it does this so well that it’s sometimes planted to detox plots of land that have been contaminated. In other words, it’s very important that the quality of the soil where your hemp is grown is monitored and that the final product is tested.

- GRETCHEN LIDICKER