Understanding Cannabis Tinctures

A tincture is an alcohol extract of plant material. As such, understanding the concentration of ingredients is different for a tincture than it is for the plant material. One difference is that alcohol tinctures are rarely heated above the boiling point for ethanol (~60° C = 140° F). At that temperature, it would take quite a long time to convert all of the THC-A (the most prevalent cannabinoid in the plant) into THC (thought to be the most prevalent active ingredient after exposure to high heat, such as in a pipe or vaporizer). Some tincture recipes call for heating the plant material in an oven before making the tincture. Thus, the cannabinoid profile in a tincture depends heavily on the details of how it was made. Steep Hill Halent testing reports show you the whole cannabinoid profile so you know what is there.

Another difference is in the percent (%) of ingredients in tinctures vs the raw material. For example: If a patient consumes 1⁄2 gram (g) of dried plant material with 10% of a particular ingredient in the plant, then the amount of that ingredient consumed would be 50 milligrams (mg):

Mass of dried plant material consumed:

0.5 g = 500 mg

10% of that mass is active ingredient:

500 mg x 10/100 = 50 mg

A tincture made from that plant material would probably not have a concentration as high as 10%, however. That’s because liquids are much more dense (heavier per unit volume) than dried plant material. Let’s assume that the consumer wants to ingest the same amount of the active ingredient as above: 50 mg, by drinking 3 milliliters (mL) of tincture – about one medium dropper full. Well, 3 mL of ethanol tincture has a mass of ~2.4 g. If 2.4 g (3 mL) of tincture contains 50 mg of active ingredient, then that concentration is 2%.

Volume of tincture = 3 mL

Density of ethanol = 0.789 g/mL

Mass of 3 mL of tincture:

 3 mL x 0.789 g/mL 2.4 g = 2,400 mg

 

Percent of tincture that is active ingredient:

(50 mg / 2,400 mg) x 100% = 2.08%

Thus, 3 mL of a 2.08% tincture delivers the same dose of active ingredient as 0.5 g of dried plant material that is 10% in the active ingredient. Another way that this information is presented is in terms of “mg/mL” – that is, if a tincture is reported to contain 16 mg per mL, it is about 2% in active ingredient.

This post was brought to you by steephilllab.com