Glas-Col® is an industry-leading supplier where laboratory glassware and instrumentation for analytical and preparative chemistry is concerned. Established over eighty years ago, the company’s main objective was to enhance and progress existing lab heating processes through the application of high-quality glassware and proprietary thermal mantles. Glas-Col’s primary range of tubes, flasks, and heating systems provides a steady supply to an extensive range of markets today – including crucial growth sectors such as the cannabis and hemp industry.
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Lab Products in CBD Extractions
In just a short amount of time, the preconceptions surrounding cannabis have been transformed from it being an illicit substance into a precious commodity. Throughout Canada and several states in the US, the possession and distribution of cannabis have been decriminalized, with its use varying from region-to-region. Some local markets have elected full recreational legalization of the plant, while others restrict recreational use and only allow for the medicinal use of the drug.
Both the recreational and medicinal markets utilize a wide range of lab products to cultivate the products that today’s consumers know and desire: particularly extractions. Cannabis consists of hundreds of specific cannabinoids, which for the most part, are only present at trace and ultra-trace levels.
Recreational users who seek a psychoactive effect are mainly concerned with THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), which is the principal psychotropic compound of the drug. The effects of THC are mediated by CBD (cannabidiol), which is the dominant medicinal compound.
Unlike cannabis, industrial hemp has never been criminalized, even though it stems from the exact same plant genus. This is because the THC content is negligible has significantly higher levels of CBD. While the interest in THC and recreational cannabis is in high-demand, the CBD market has expanded at an exponential rate in recent years. This is due to the reported health and wellness benefits.
Today, this market is valued in excess of $4.6 billion worldwide. This has led to a large number of manufacturers of lab products to piece together a range of products to meet the growing demand for high-purity fractionation processes, including short-path distillation, rotary evaporation, and size exclusion chromatography (SEC).
Common lab products utilized in these processes include:
- Vacuum tubes
- Heating mantles
- Evaporators
- Condenser and evaporation flasks
This shortlist is non-exhaustive and at Glas-Col, these versatile lab products have been catalogued for years. Offering a suite of lab products appropriate for modular evaporation systems, Glas-Col allows process engineers to customize their processes for analytical or preparative extractions. Glas-Col’s equipment is optimal for researchers and legislators seeking to achieve safe cannabinoid concentrations in products intended for both recreational and medicinal markets.
For more information about the lab products provided by Glas-Col for cannabis and hemp extractions, contact a member of their team today.
This information has been sourced, reviewed and adapted from materials provided by Glas-Col.
For more information on this source, please visit Glas-Col.