To deoxycarbolize or not to deoxycarbolize? That is the question.

When making edibles with ABV, obviously it isn't necessary. But what about making edibles with fresh cannabis? Should the ground up cannabis for making cannabutter be deoxycarbolized or not? I've heard both. I know that this is done to make tinctures. e.g. Green Dragon where the herb is ground and baked at 200 degrees for 20 minutes.

Yes, it should be decarbed, that's what makes it psycoactive. It should be decarbed some from the curing process, but a fuller decarb will yeild a stronger material. I've seen a few reports as to decarbing to 70% being the sweet spot,bbeyond that the degradation of thc delta 9 to delta 8 and 6 is greater than what is gained from decarboxilizing. Not sure the exact amount of time by heat is best for this, I would reccomend 20 mins at 190°f. I know a lot of places reccomend a higher temp, but ive been warned about dacarbing at a higher heat is bad for other more volatile cannabinoids

A lot depends on how you're cooking, if. Cookin g with heat into a butter, it should do some of the process for you, but if you're doing it without heat then you want more of a decarb before hand.

Edit- the recommendation of time and heat for decarbing is based on about a quarter to a half an ounce, maybe an extra 5 if a half.

Thanks for the tip! I've heard that 200F at 20 minutes is ideal for deoxy, but didn't know if it was necessary for making edibles from fresh cannabis.

Yeah, I origanlly heard the same temp and time, I just lowered it a bit recently on the advice of a chemist. I think if thc is your main concern than the higher temp should be perfect, its more other less heady cannibinoids that I was told about degrading at elongated exposure to low heat.

how fresh are you talking about? Fresh cut?

It is all about how dry it is.

I guess I wasn't very clear on that one. "Fresh" as in before vaping.

if it is not long cured or dry n brittle then cook out the water(decarboxilate,<spelling>)

212f = boiling point of water

I'm not an expert but after doing this a few times and self-reflecting, it is basically just cooking the water out. Technicalities aside of course.

There's this method I've been using for decarbing my herb, and when I find something that works i like to share it. Anyway, this seems to work best. It doesn't really matter what container you use, the concept is always the same. Take your buds, grind them fine, put them in a sandwich baggie or in the middle of plastic wrap. Close it up and twist it up in a ball. Take that ball and you put a rubberband around it, either put it in a sock, drawer, etc... I do mine in a small black film container, it seems to work best in small amounts. Anyways, put it somewhere light can't get to it. And every day, for the next two weeks. Take it out unwrap it, and let it breath for about two minutes. Wrap it back up and repeat, this method seems to be more effective, and safer than the oven.

Actually this is pretty solid advice unless you're cooking for lower temp actives to be present... not usually the case. I just googled active boiling points in mj and I got http://cannabisculture.com/articles/3037.html which states the boiling points of the psychoactives in MJ are between 260 and 392F. 212 takes it close enough to the range of the actives to convert any precursors but not high enough to burn off any desirable chemicals.

Alright, two things. First, I do agree with 212°f being a good temp for the main psychoactives (thc, cbn, cbd). But even at these temps you are degrading the components, regardless of not reaching the boiling point. Thc turns into cbn much faster than it would naturally occur at room temp in these elevated temps. Like wise other cannabinoids will to, but there is less raw data. At about 70% dacarbing, you lose more thc to cbn than you gain thc from THCA. If you go to skunk pharm research and look at the section on decarboxylation there is a nice graph that explains it, though it is about decarbing hash oil instead of bud.

Secondly, removing water has nothing to do with the decarboxylation, other than causing some variance in temps of the bud as it dries. I say this because both dry buds and dry hash oils like shatter have to be decarbed to be psychoactive. The buds do dacarb naturally as they are cured, so some is already decarbed by a proper cure, but to get the full effect you have to go further.

i dont understand why this would work.

can you or someone else explain this further?

Really embarrassed that I spelled that wrong Decarboxylation. Glad you guys knew what I meant and didn't rag on me for it

I've always had success decarbing for about 20-30 minutes at 185-195 depending on the herb. Another great tip is to freeze your oil / butter batch after initial heating, then tossing it in for an equal amount of time in four hours.

I've also heard, but I can't find which GC thread it was from, that a food dehydrator works great for this purpose, so if you have one laying around give it a try.