Not All CBD Is Created Equal
There are a variety of steps and procedures that we put in place at Mile High Labs to assist in delivering some of the best CBD crystals in the marketplace. It starts with a tightly controlled process. It is pretty amazing to think that the majority of CBD crystals are produced from the controlled stepdown in solution temperature of only five degrees. Even more surprising is the slow rate of cooling. We painstakingly monitor these five degrees of cooling to last over an hour to encourage crystal growth on a seed bed while avoiding unwanted secondary nucleation. This results in maximum crystal size and shape uniformity, affording high purity isolate.
Why do we do this? It is incredibly important to have well-grown crystals, if you don’t, you will end up with spontaneous nucleation (super-fast generation of new fine crystals). While from an efficiency perspective fast-cooling may generate lots of crystal mass quickly, the unintended consequence is that crystals occur so quickly you create vacuoles that trap uncrystallized solution (known as mother liquor) in the crystals. We refer to these entrapped solutions or impurities as occlusions in the crystals. Common unintended impurities that could be observed in less controlled processes include impurities like waxes, terpenes, other related cannabinoids, and residual solvents used in the process.
“You are trying to avoid both inclusions and occlusions when you crystallize thus the reason for the tightly controlled cooling. Occlusions are impurities from the mother liquor entrapped by the quickly growing crystal, whereas an inclusion incorporates itself into the crystal lattice structure. Both are to be avoided.”
Seeing Is Believing
We’ve taken our competitors to task to see how our material measures up. Look at the materials below collected and analyzed with microscopic imaging of CBD Isolate Crystals at a 40x magnification. Samples below include Mile High Labs and two major brands’ CBD Isolate crystals.
Mile High Labs CBD Isolate Crystals: The Key to Consistency and Quality
The data demonstrates major differences in crystal presentation. Mile High Labs CBD Isolate exhibits uniform needle like units because of sophisticated in-house production processes to ensure consistent crystal growth behavior.
Competitor 1 and 2 CBD Isolates exhibit conglomerates of small crystals or fines. From the lack of uniformity in both competitors’ CBD Isolate crystals it is evident that neither competitor utilizes a tightly controlled crystallization process.
In addition to lower purity, the lack of uniform crystal growth can impact flow-ability of the CBD Isolate, which can negatively affect formulation processes and consistency in finished goods.
*Samples collected March 2022 to May 2022
Mile High Labs CBN Isolate Crystals
Want to learn more about the quality and things to look for when buying with CBD and CBN, we’d love to help. Make sure you check out our post: 3 Questions to Ask Your CBD Ingredient Supplier.
