How is the medicinal cannabis oil extractor designed in the UBA?

The use of

medicinal cannabis

in who
suffering from refractory epilepsy involves a breakthrough in the treatment of the disease. For people who have to deal with different types of cancer, relief from the alleviation of pain. For patients with arthritis, Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis and other ailments, hope to achieve a quality of life that traditional medicine could not bring them. For one reason or another, scientists, doctors, and family members continue to become increasingly interested in the therapeutic properties of cannabis oil. In Argentina, this interest was reinforced after the promulgation of Law 27,350, in March 2017,
which allows the use of drugs and creates a national program to promote research and its public production.

However, one of the main problems to be solved is that for each case, accurate specifications are needed when preparing the oil and the appropriate treatment. This is difficult to achieve because, although the medical use of Cannabis sativa dates back to a distant time, so does the halo of Prohibition that surrounds it. In addition, science is still studying its effects on health. Therefore, the devices used to extract the oil from the plant are usually homemade artifacts sometimes not guaranteeing optimal formulation of the preparation.

In an attempt to solve this problem, a group of industrial designers created Nectar, a cannabis oil extractor. The idea was born two years ago, as part of a final career project in Industrial Design at the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Urban Planning of the United States. University of Buenos Aires (FADU-UBA). "We had to present a working prototype and we wanted to do something that could go beyond the field of study, something that was at the service of society." The law had been approved and we were excited to develop this device because we all knew someone who I was trying cannabis oil to relieve a disease, "said to TSS the industrial designer Franco Di Paolo, member of the team, completed by the designers Manuel Frontini, Ignacio Ruiz Johnson and Patricio Martinez, and the electronics engineer Ivan Isaack.

The device, which is still in the prototype phase, has a size that makes it portable and is coated with stainless steel. All over the world, these types of extractors are for industrial use, more expensive, bulky and complex, designed to handle large quantities of oil. Nectar being intended for personal consumption, the designers focused on developing a simple to use device providing a ready-to-use liquid. It is also a tool designed for the study of plant species with medicinal properties.

"In Argentina, there are no similar devices and we use very traditional artifacts, which consist of a mixture of pipes and parts, and to extract the oil, solvents such as butane and alcohol are applied. The control of the extraction parameters (such as brewing and temperature times) and there can be traces of solvent harmful to health, "says Di Paolo.

The first functional prototype was ready by the end of 2017 and later they started appearing in the contests to further their development. One of them was Emprende ConCiencia, organized by the INVAP Foundation and the Ministry of Production and Labor. They were selected with 15 other projects and obtained a trip to the state-owned INVAP Rio Negro in Bariloche, where they received technical advice and training for the development of a business plan. "This has opened many doors for us to forge links with public organizations and social organizations, such as Mama Cultiva," said the designer.

The method used to separate the active components of the plant (such as CBD, THC and CBN, in the case of cannabis) is the extraction by means of supercritical fluids. These are fluids that, under high pressures and temperatures, have the ability to dissolve solutes. In this case, the chosen fluid is carbon dioxide (CO2), which would replace toxic, flammable and non-selective solvents, such as alcohol.

The process is simple: you put the raw material, cannabis or any vegetable matrix containing an oil to extract, and CO2 in the form of dry ice, economical and easy to obtain. Then, the extraction settings are entered in the device. This depends on the processing to be performed and the data provided by a database that the designers aim to generate. Finally, after a lapse of time that can range from 15 minutes to about five hours depending on the process, the oil is ready for use.

"Until now, we have been able to verify that the machine is extracting perfectly different types of plant materials and we are now conducting tests with researchers from the Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry of the UBA in order to" optimize the process, "explained Di Paolo. They also work to reduce production costs, even though it says they are not very high because they contain very few imported components. An important detail is that the electronic control of the device is carried out by
the Open Industrial Computer Argentina (CIAA). "We have not encountered any major technical difficulties in building the device, which takes more time and effort to develop the business model to get more funding and further development," he adds. -he.

The potential market for Nectar is vast and ranges from personal use to public or private institutions conducting research or producing small scale essential oils. "Personally, I would like to be able to include the device in the national program of study of the medical use of cannabis. We have already had a few meetings with officials and it would be ideal to articulate with the existing network of public laboratories in the country to be able to use it, we think from the start: it is available to serve society, "concluded Di Paolo.

TSS Agency