Coldfinger Herbal Extractor Product in Australia

[-bijanto-]

I've found this extractor products on the Web:

Coldfinger Herbal Extractors

I wonder if anyone here knows anything about Coldfinger herbal extractor? I badly want to have one these products, but still need any opinion from you guys. Where in Australia (especially in Melbourne) to find a herbal extractor unit at a relatively low cost, just for small-scale purposes that can be done at home? I'm going to Melbourne next month and would love to search for this kind of product.

[ 02. August 2005, 07:57: Message edited by: -bijanto- ]

[Torsten]

I think you can get them from glassware suppliers like 'crown' or 'lab supply'. I am pretty sure I've seen one in a catalog. No idea on price though.

[-bijanto-]

Great, I'll search for those maufacturers.

Thank's a lot, T.

[dracos6]

i was told by a mate that used to grow weed that he used an "enviro extractor" on his leaf to get oil, dont know if thats manuf. or just prod name tho

[-bijanto-]

Thanks dracos, that name leads me to their website. They actually are located in NSW and offer discrete services. Enviro extractor is a kind of steam distilator which is especially good for extracting volatile oil I think.

Eden Labs (the patent owner of Coldfinger extractor) said they doen't have distributor in Aussie yet, but they can deliver the unit directly for additional $US 130 international charge.

Most of home-scale medicinal herbalists in my area still offers traditional forms of herbal medicines, like dried, powdered herbs or bottled herb juice, and those extractor equipments are mostly owned by giant pharmaceutical companies only.

I'm looking for a small medicinal herb extractor that can be used to produce broad-spectrum extracts, i.e. those closely resembling the herb in it's whole form, considering there are lipophilic (oil soluble compounds) and lipophobic (water soluble compounds) isolates etc that must be treated differently.

Here I have dried yohimbe bark chips and want to make capsules containing bark extract instead of bark powder. What extraction method(s) or extractors best used?

[ 02. August 2005, 07:44: Message edited by: -bijanto- ]

[-bijanto-]

I've read on the Web, that there are at least three extraction methods:

 

• Distillation/Extraction (soxhlet extractors)
• Cold percolation
  
• Agitation/Distillation
  
• Supercritical CO2 Extraction
  

They write that Coldfinger is a 'modified soxhlet extractor', in that it makes possible to distill at much lower temperatures and to recycle the solvent.

[ 02. August 2005, 08:13: Message edited by: -bijanto- ]

[Fenris]

I am interested to know at what temperature a coldfinger extraction setup can work.

The soxhlet extraction needs the solvent to be boiled to get it up to the condenser but once the goodness is extracted it is boiled along with the solvent which might not be the greatest for some final products, which ones I am not sure though.

So does anyone know what is the lowest temperature the coldfinger will recycle at? I am guessing you could leave it out on a hot summers day and it would work albiet slowly.

Has anyone used one before?

[-bijanto-]

Their web site says that we can heat the solvent in the Coldfinger at 140 degrees F(60°C).

The ethanol (alone) boils at 78.5°C, which I guess is lower than boiling points of many active phytochemicals, but there are some constituents that are soluble in alcohol, and others that are not. We should have a reference.

[Benzedrine]

They work on the exact same princple that american housewives used to liberate essential oils in the nineteenth century. Except housewives used two cooking pots, a small bowl and a wok. And thats my point these things are sooo easy make. Chances are you already have in your kitchen what you need. Also a homemade model really can be as good as what they sell. The princples are exactly the same. I really have to make up a guide for this one day. Don't spend 400 USD on something this easy.

I'd recommend this extractor for those who want work at low pressure since in comparison to other stills there is little chance of anything going wrong. I'd also guess this is how alcoholic spirits are made in arabic countries since you wouldn't have to own an incriminating pot still.

[-bijanto-]

Yeah, it's a good idea. There are a lot of people (like me) who are more willing to buy less expensive ideas than pricey equipments. You can put your ideas in simply a pdf file e-book and distribute it over the internet, I know many people who do that.

Of course, there are a lot of great ideas but sometimes practical things that actually works will value more. But if you're already in chemistry study/work for years, I'm sure you have a lot of references to start with.

[Guest d0tb0y]

Uh, just a reminder, don't approach companies like crown scientific or sigma-aldrich unless you have an account with them, they are very scrutinizing people and such happened that one individual had 2 law enforcement agents come to his door for asking about non-scheduled simple glassware (steam still for making lavender oil!)

big companies hate little peoples.

*nudge* torsten, maybe there's a market there for you, selling simple steam stills for people wishing to do thier own extractions. i know i'd buy one.

[Torsten]

I've been considering getting into some glassware that is unlikely to be abused. Obviously a still kit is the most popular item, but the abuse potential is also there and hence the attention by authorities. I don't really want them subpoenaing customer records just because someone made drugs with glassware sold by us.

[Guest d0tb0y]

Excellent choice, well respected.

However i thought EUD's covered the supplier from such abuse?

[Torsten]

For EUD's I need to sight ID. So it would not be a webstore thing anyway. The last thing I want is every meth cook in the state crawling up to wandjina to pick up glassware

[ 04. August 2005, 04:02: Message edited by: Torsten ]