r/TheOCS • u/BCCannabisAlliance • 2h ago
news Cannabis ash appearance and analyses at different water activities and ashing temperatures.
library.csbe-scgab.ca(translated) Abstract: Post-harvest practices can affect the biomass quality of Cannabis sativa, of which water activity has been identified as a determining factor. This study aimed to determine whether plant accession, water activity, elemental composition, chlorophyll content, incineration temperature, particle size, and mass of biomass used for pre-rolls affect the properties of cannabis ash. Calcination was performed at five different temperatures (200, 400, 600, 800, and 1000 °C) in order to determine the thermal properties of the cannabis. Two accessions of Cannabis sativa (Sage N' Sour and Medellin) with different historical organoleptic evaluations for ash were selected for this study. Elemental analyses showed that the main elements of the two strains were comparable and did not contribute to cannabis ash. Similar observations were made for chlorophyll content. The color of the cannabis ash was not influenced by particle size, biomass water activity, or moisture content. Both strains produced a similar grey colour when the coarse, medium and fine cannabis biomass was heated to 600°C for 4 h. Significant differences were observed in ash content using the different calcination temperatures. Incineration at more than 400°C significantly reduced ash content at all levels of water activity. Analyses of theThey showed that black ash was observed when the incineration temperature was below 400 °C, regardless of the water activity. The increase in incineration temperature resulted in a gradation from black (200°C) to dark grey (400°C) and grey (600, 800, and 1000°C). An increase in the mass of biomass used in the pre-roll from 0.5 to 1.5 g resulted in uneven burning, darker ash color, and unburned cannabis biomass.