Including Plant Matter in the Capsules

Hey Mick. Not only will they be more potent, they will be more consistent in strength if you strain it.

Depending on volume of material in each ml, that will affect potency as the thc is infused into the oil and displacing it with void material will change the doses.

I found using flower and straining it I couldn't get capsules stronger than 20mg due to the amount needed to submerge the material.

If you need to dose higher, 30mg+/ then consider making RSO and you can make them as strong or weak as possible and you don't have to consume too much oil.

Using RSO, math and .5ml capsules I'm able to make myself 3 different strengths of capsules from the same batch.

Cheers!

 

The best lab tested strained oil I've seen gets 80% of the original thc into the final product, but most decarb/straining batches don't do that well.
Ardent Cannabis, maker of Nova/Lift decarboxylators claims 90% when infusing 1 g herb into 1 oz oil, but that's too small a concentration for capsules.
I'd expect less thc to make it into the final product if using less oil.

My thc estimate for your strained oil capsules is 70%, and 100% for the unstrained ones, assuming accurate decarb.

The plant matter contained within the capsules still contains some thc, and that helps make the unstrained ones contain more total thc collectively.
It's also impossible to separate all the oil from the sludge, which misses getting more of the thc.
Many people run the strained out sludge a second time to get more thc out of the sludge.

You can play around with amounts that are convenient for capsules, and here's what I do to make small batches, often using half or less of the following. Simplest is to set a heatable container on a scale, and add ingredients by the gram.
(5 g DecarbedHerbPowder) + (5 g Lecithin) + (26 g AnyOil) = 40*(Size00Caps) + (2 g Waste)
Each capsule holds 0.85 g mixture.

The nutella or nut butter version is
(5 g DecarbedHerbPowder) + (5 g Lecithin) + (72 g Nutella) = 20*(4 g Servings of 40 mg thc) + (2 g Waste)
I make 4 g cracker sandwiches out of this, often times making only 9 sandwiches out of 2.25 g herb for small batch testing.
When wrapped in foil these can be reheated and refrozen to see how additional BrassNwood Heat/Freeze cycles affect things. Nut butter is 3/4 oil, which makes it suitable for infusions, and it keeps the herb powder well dispersed. I suspect that additional room temperature infusion happens, because they are always better several days later. The same might be true for pills.

 

You are correct.
Strained oil capsules can be made more concentrated.
But they will miss out on a significant fraction of the thc that the greater number of weaker unstrained capsule will capture, assuming the same amounts of original herb.

For those who have lots of herb, that's probably ok, but for many users, herb is scarce, and it goes further by not straining.

 

Agreed! Before my first harvest I used every leaf i could and tried to keep as much material as possible.

I always found though, the capsules with material to be less potent and had to take more than usual.

We all have our ways though!

Cheers

 

If you don't include the strained material into your capsules, don't discard it - there is still plenty of thc in that material. Make cookies with it or cook with it. Don't waste it

 

Experiment is the best way and remember I use dry ice Kief for all my capsules so I've already left most of the plant material out.

I do a second end stage with the post shaken bud scraps and wash with alcohol for tincture.

Your mileage may vary. Your using this grade material, I'm using that, Your using Coconut oil, I chose Bacon grease. My oven runs a little hot so I run a few minutes less.
Small changes are expected but in general it is a good recipe. Strain or not as local conditions require. Some don't mine the taste and want to get every scrap of material used. Others can afford some waste in the process.

The Dry Ice Capsules taste more like a roasted nut butter. They very much carry the flavor of the original plant but it's nothing like the raw plant material oils are. I make straight bud based oil on request if the patient thinks that form is giving better results. It not that bad but very green and gritty. It's the RSO that is really ummmmmmmm. Intense tasting. Like roofing tar.

BNW
Edit:: Really high so forgive any screw-ups as the keyboard is getting fuzzy.
Quoted then posted before I commented then back for all the spelling then back for more mistakes then back .........

 

You've made 145 unstrained capsules, and 90 unstrained capsules from the same amount of original herb.
1 strained capsule contains 145/90 = 1.6 times as much medicine as one unstrained capsule, assuming no losses from straining, which certainly happened.
Yours wasn't a fair test because you should have taken 3*1.6= 4.8 unstrained capsules to make sure both contained thc from the same amount of original herb.

Strained capsules are certainly more pleasant, and easier to fill than unstrained capsules, but they miss out on significant amounts of medicine.

Putting it differently, your 145 unstrained capsules contain significantly more total medicine than your 90 strained capsules.

 

Also, some of the medicine from the early unstrained caps stayed in the system, and made the strained caps work a little better.

 

That's very understandable.

The point is that the unstrained capsules will contain more total medicine than the strained ones.
I'd guess the total medicine in the 145 capsules is 20% more than the total medicine in the 90 capsules.
And that 5 unstrained caps will contain noticeably more medicine than 3 strained caps.
For growers, that's not a big deal, but most non-growers want to conserve herb, and taking 5 caps instead of 3 is a small price to pay.

I'm not trying to get you to change anything, but I do want those who have trouble getting ahold of herb to understand how to make it go further.

 

As many on the internet have pointed out, especially on the MagicalButterMachine website, the strained out sludge contains a significant fraction of the original medicine.
Some people run the sludge with the next batch of herb to try to get at the otherwise wasted medicine.

I believe my estimate that the unstrained capsules contain about 20% more total medicine than the strained caps is correct, because some of it's still in the plant matter and the oil mixed with the plant matter. It's impossible for something to NOT be wasted.
There's no need to take 4.8 of the unstrained caps, because that will be more total medicine than 3 of the strained caps.
Using my 20% loss estimate, the needed number of unstrained caps to equal the medicine in 3 strained caps is
StrainedCaps = 0.8*(4.8 caps) = 3.8 caps ~ 4

I believe 4 unstrained capsules will have a slightly stronger effect than 3 strained caps.
If that's true, then the strained caps will have
UnstrainedLongevity = 145 caps / 4 caps per day = 36 days
The strained capsules will last 30 days, and be slightly weaker.

 

Good luck!
I too might use strained oil when I have a surplus of good herb.

 

If you did leave the plant matter in the mix - how do you fill your caps?
I have a batch that was not ground super fine and it keeps plugging my filling device.
I am using a injector for meat for filling and it has a needle with an opening about the size of a pencil lead.
I am thinking I will strain what is left

 

I use these after cutting off part of the narrow opening.
Keep the mixture warm and well mixed.