crystal Posted January 16, 2015 Hi there I'm new here, which will be very clear as I go along, I have been searching for information on what ethanol to use and where to get it. Hoping someone can steer me in the right direction. Thanks for the great site and excellent information on here. Cheers crystal Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gimli Posted January 16, 2015 Ethanol for what use? Got some for your car if you'd like 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Alice Posted January 16, 2015 I guess you don't know anyone who distills their own vodka. So be aware that commercial ethanol may not be just ethanol. Often people assume that absolute (i.e. very close to 100%) ethanol is the best for extracts because it is the "purest". However, the cheapest (and most common) way to produce absolute ethanol is through azeotropic distillation with a cosolvent such as benzene. You can never get all of the benzene out, and benzene is not so good for you if you want to live a long and disease-free life. So wherever you get it from, make sure that it's no more than 96% pure, unless you are certain that it has been purified using RO, sieves or dessicant only. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Slocombe Posted January 16, 2015 You can purchase spiritus(?) in some bottle shops, but it's certainly not the cheapest option. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
crystal Posted January 16, 2015 Thank you for all of the constructive comments, especially from Alice whose reply was most helpful. Cheers Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mu! Posted January 20, 2015 There are many factors that determine which solvent will be suitable for a given extraction. If a solvent is very selective for certain things, such as a particular alkaloid, then it might not carry over other desirables. On the other hand, if a solvent is very non-selective but still quite powerful it may end up extracting more undesirables. This is when dual-solvent systems can be handy; a mixture of water and alcohol, water and acetone, or even just water and an acid, make for good, clean, safe extractions around the home on most plants.100% pure alcohol can also be achieved through drying with zeolite. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
watertrade Posted January 21, 2015 please be mindful of the illegality of extracting some alkaloids in Australia and the rules here of not discussing the specifics of doing so. thanks Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Erewin Posted February 1, 2015 As Gimli said, for what use? It all depends on what you are trying to extract. For general use, brandy is a good solvent. It is about 35% alcohol, which is the proportion of ethanol to water herbalists use for most tincture making. For extracting more difficult constituents such as resins you need to raise the ethanol fraction of the solvent, sometimes up to 95%. To get ethanol you need an ethanol license & to get an ethanol license you have to have a darned good reason i.e. be a registered herbalist & then you have to keep a log of your use. So no recreational use there. Anything else I might recommend would be illegal, so let's leave it at that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
