Medusa Diamond Syndrome

[Fadedawg]

What is Medusa Diamond and fast crash Syndrome and what is being done about it?

Medusa Diamond syndrome is when gorgeous perfectly formed crystals turn to chalk over night or the "sauce" fast crashes into gravel while trying to initially precipitate out and grow the crystal. Techniques that formerly worked perfectly, no longer work.

Lots of effort trying to discover what was happening, as well as finger pointing, but it was narrowed down to something in the LPG, either present in virgin product, or a buildup of mono and sesquiterpenes from recycle.

Analysis of a chromatography column used to clean up the LPG revealed that the oxgenate and nitrogen layers in the column were enriched, and an analysis of the media suggested that the culprits were the Methanol and Diethanolamine used to remove CO2 and sulfur compounds from the sour crude now being released from national reserves.

Two methods have been investigated to remediate the problem, the first column chromatography and the second Liquid Liquid Extraction (LLE). While the debate as to exact cause remains active, both methods take out whatever it is creating the problem.

The following link outlines those systems and our current remediation status:

8.16 Medusa Diamond & Fast Crash Syndrome

 

[MATTYMATT726]

Hi Fadedawg, hope all is well. I have seen you post and saw your site on RSO and had some questions if you didn't mind. I decided to make RSO/FECO(they seem the exact same aside from the solvent/Alcohol being used) and not sure how i did. So i made 2 seperate batches. A cold wash and a warm. So the 1st batch was cold wash on 2 Sunday's ago or 11 days. I decarbed 1 oz at 250f for 30 min in my air fryer(i love that thing). I had the flower in a ball jar in the freezer overnight with the bottle of 190 EC. So i added 2 cups and shook it for 1 min and let sit for 1 min in the freezer. Did this total 3x. 3x 1 min shakes and 3x 1 minute sit. Strained it and after 8 days of sitting out under the fan it evaporated to picture 1. I warmed it up at 200f for 3 to 5 min in the fryer and scooped it out and than divided it into 2 balls after cooling in the freezer. Than i melted them down again to picture 2. Is it supposed to look this way? It absolutely reminded me of presses flower/hash rosin to a t. Someone else said to add oil to it, but that seems to defeat the purpose. Is it just because quick wash doesn't take all the fats and lipids that it's not oil like? The way that it is can i just use it like rosin? Top off in the middle of some flowers in a bowl/bing? Can it be vaped in this form? Now the warm batch. Did 35 grams to 2 cups EC since it was the last of a batch and figured might as well. Used my Magical Butter Machine 2 and did 4 hours at 130f. This was 2 Monday's ago. Same dry method. Pic 3 is what it lools like now. It's definitely syrup like. There is no liquid running on the top when i tip the container(silicone decarb box from MB). My question with the warm batch was i forgot to decarb -_- im sure there is some amount of Everclear in there, but did it evap good enough i can decarb at 250f for 30 min in the air fryer? I know no open flames, but i have zero other heat source and no money for even the cheapest hot plates. Things are not great right now. The box has a lid and i keep it on for flowers so was just going to do the same. Sorry this was so long. Thank you for reading.

 

[MATTYMATT726]

Pic 1/2


Pic 3

 

[Fadedawg]

View attachment 5218238
Pic 1/2

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Pic 3

Picture 2 looks reasonable.

I suspect it is stiff because it is only partially decarboxylated. You can tell by putting some on a hot nail (knife?) and watching for fizzy bubbles.

With regard to waxes, if you set the solution back in the freezer for 24 hours before reduction, most of the plant waxes present will precipitate out of ethanol. Ethanol is polar, so doesn't extract a lot of non-polar plant waxes like non-polar LPG, but does some.

If you read the paper that goes with the decarboxylation graph that is most commonly seen, the method used was not flower, but concentrate on hot glass. Other methods differ in time and at best it is an average approximation because cannabis decarboxylates naturally and you can't tell how much natural decarboxylation has already occurred.

No problem decarboxylating after extraction and how I prefer to do it so I can tell precisely where I'm at. Here is how I precisely decarb post extraction and another article on decarboxylating in situ.

https://graywolfslair.com/index.php/10-the-alchemist-resource/10-1-decarboxylation/10-1-4-decarboxylation-101

https://graywolfslair.com/index.php/10-the-alchemist-resource/10-1-decarboxylation/10-1-2-decarboxylating-ethanol-tinctures-in-situ

The way I prefer to use concentrate, is vaporization, not combustion. Put some on a dabber, light it with a lighter, and watch the black smoke it puts off when it burns.

Besides that black soot, partial combustion turns wholesome terpenes into insalubrious things like benzene, et al.

The good news is that if you are vaporizing the concentrate, there is no need to decarboxylate it, as it decarboxylates from the heat of vaporization. You only need to decarboxylate it up front if you are going to eat it or use it in a suppository.