Glas-Col® is one of the industry-leading suppliers of laboratory heating mantles and instrumentation for analytical and preparative chemistry. When the company was established over eighty years ago, our main goal was to improve lab heating processes through the implementation of quality glassware and proprietary thermal mantles. Our core range of heating systems still serves a wide range of markets today, including key growth sectors like the cannabis and hemp industry.
Lab Products in CBD Extractions
In a short timeframe, cannabis has turned from an illicit substance into a high-value commodity. Canada and many states in the US have decriminalised possession and distribution of cannabis with regional variations in how it can be used. Some regional markets have opted for full recreational legalisation of the plant, while others place restrictions on recreational use and allow only medicinal use of the drug.
Both the medicinal and recreational markets utilise an array of lab products to produce the commodities that modern consumers desire; namely extractions. Cannabis comprises hundreds of distinct cannabinoids, most of which are present only at the trace and ultra-trace levels.
Recreational users who desire a psychoactive effect are primarily concerned with THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), which is the main psychotropic compound of the drug. The effects of THC are moderated by CBD (cannabidiol), which is the primary medicinal compound.
Industrial hemp has never been criminalised to the extent of cannabis – despite the fact that it stems from the same plant genus – because it contains negligible amounts of THC and has greater CBD potency. Although demand for THC and recreational cannabis remains high, the CBD market has grown exponentially in recent years due to reported health and wellness benefits. Today, it is valued in excess of $4.6 billion globally. This has caused many manufacturers of lab products to group together a series of lab products to meet the growing demand for high purity fractionation processes such as rotary evaporation, short-path distillation, and size exclusion chromatography (SEC). Typical lab products involved in these processes include:
- Heating mantles
- Condenser and evaporation flasks
- Evaporators
- Vacuum tubes
The list goes on. At Glas-Col, these flexible lab products have formed part of our catalogue for years. We offer a suite of lab products suitable for modular evaporation systems, enabling process engineers to setup tailored processes for analytical or preparative extractions. Our equipment is ideal for researchers and legislators looking to establish safe cannabinoid concentrations in products intended for both the medicinal and recreational market.
If you would like more information about the lab products that we provide for cannabis and hemp extractions, simply contact a member of the Glas-Col team today.