U.S. Patent No. 10,406,453 B2 (‘453) issued on September 10, 2019, for “Cannabinoid Extraction Process Using Brine.” It was issued to inventors Ryan Delmoral Ko and Brock Hughes of Coquitlam, Canada, Krupal Pal of Burnaby, Canada, and Alexzander Samuelsson of Vancouver, Canada. The applicant/assignee is Nextleaf Solutions Ltd. of Coquitlam, Canada. The specification discloses a process to extract cannabis plant material through an ethanol-based method which includes washing the extracted material in a brine. The claims are directed to the method of extraction of the raw Canabis material through the steps of adding ethanol, centrifuging the mexiture to separate the oil and ethanol from the original mixture, treating the oil/ethanol mixture with charcoal, evaporating the ethanol, washing the oil in brine, and heating the oil to convert to tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA).
The Cooperative Patent Classifications are B01D (separation, namely, solvent extraction through application of solvents (11/0288), distillation or related exchange processes in which liquids are contacted with gaseous media, e.g., stripping, using a rotary evaporator (3/085) and with one or more auxiliary substances, namely, extractive distillation (3/40), treatment of the solvent (11/0292), and separating processes involving the treatment of liquids with solid sorbents (15/00)); and C07C (acyclic or carbocyclic compounds, namely, preparation of compounds having hydroxy or O-metal groups bound to a carbon atom of a six-membered aromatic ring by obtaining phenols from plant material or from animal material (37/004), by reactions decreating the number of carbon atoms (37/50) by distillation (37/74), and by treatment giving rise to a chemical modification (37/86), and compounds having at least one hydroxy or O-metal group bound to a carbon atom of a six-membered aromatic ring containing carbon-to-carbon double bonds but no carbon-to-carbon triple bonds (39/19)).
Cannabis patents still represent a huge growth area for patent procurement and development, as the legallized industry is still in its infancy throughout much of the country. Patents can be applied for and issued for new products, and by extension, the methods of use and/or production, extraction, cultivation, as well as compounds and compositions of derived cannabinoids for therapeutic or other uses. The ‘453 patent represents just one of these new inventions. Please contact Yonaxis for more information or if you have any questions.