Does each bulb catch a slightly different fraction of THC?
The bulbs are stacked for convenience so I can remove one at a time as I collect fractions. Generally each bulb will represent a different composition of the compound. This sort of short path device is not a fractioning distillation apparatus. The shorter the path the less fractioning capability you have.
The protocol therefor is to fraction the product by multiple passes through the rig. A fractioning device when it comes down to it simply adds theoretical "plates" to any given distillation which emulates (sort of) in one run the effect of multiple runs through a distillation. Like anything else in seperations like this it is not an on or off thing. A little bit of everything in a boiling flask is likely to distill over so with a rig like this keeping the temperature as low as possible is crucial to decent seperation. Since the large percent of each fraction is cannabinoid along with a tiny amount of contamination, multiple runs progressively fraction the compound toward purity. So far with my current protocol it takes at least three passes through the rig to produce a pale yellow jelly like product that is remarkably clear and pristine.
The real test and frankly my HUGE advantage over a commercial lab is my method of testing. I vape directly from the product and judge flavor, respiratory irritation, smell (I sneeze a lot when I vape terp heavy extract), time to onset of effect, intensity of effect, and pain relief on a scale of "it works" to "it does not work'". I endure severe nerve damage known as symetrical axonal sensorimotor polyneuropathy with severe restleg leg component. I therefor have immediate feedback regarding effectiveness.
A commercial lab can tell me none of this. A commercial lab can only use machines to attempt to paint a mathematical portrait of the drug in a way that a person can guess at the answers that I do not have to guess at. In other words, a commercial lab cannot do what is at the core of scientific discovery - they cannot test the product through direct observation/experience. I can. The numbers as a percentage on the dispensary packets I obtain tell me almost nothing of real value unless bragging rights about a number is useful. Maybe it is, but consider that I also perform a litany of chromatography seperations as well. This means that I can see the sheer number of compounds contianed in a packet of dispensary extract. I have heard as many as 40 cannabinoids in various amounts could be present, and the number of other compounds is generally unknown.
When I see during a chromatography run the myriad number of differently colored fractions move through the column it becomes obvious that the three or four numbers shown on a packet of extract is fairly well meaningless to me. It just means that somebody convinced lawmakers to hogtie the industry to professional labs in order to remain legal. This has zero to do wih actual human safety and has but limited usefulness to the consumer. Marijuanna and its extracts are documented to have been used since Erik The Healer of Rome (Father of modern medical protocol). In all that time history has not documented a single case of death or damage to human flesh from exposure of any intensity to marijuanna or its products. The labs being mandated now as we creep out of a horrific prohibition period for mankind are put into place by the government as a means to track and tax. Billions of humans consume untold tonnes of marijuanna that has never been tested by a lab and humanity seems just fine without them lolz, but for now we are stuck wih paying big dollars for a machine to try to tell us a fraction of what we will learn just by taking a hit.
