Every industry has what is known as nomenclature or terms and definitions that apply to the various aspects of manufacturing, products and services. We wanted to give you a guide of basic terms and definitions that you might find helpful in building your CBD business. Let’s start at the beginning, the seed:

Industrial Seeds

Hemp, or industrial hemp is a strain of the Cannabis Sativa plant species. Industrial hemp is grown for its various derived products including, biomass, seeds used for food products, oils, and for fiber for woven products as well as many other fiber applications.

CBD Seeds (Non-Feminized)

Naturally pollinated hemp plants or those using traditional breeding techniques usually produce a relatively even split between male and female seeds. These are known as regular or non-feminized seeds. 

CBD Seeds (Feminized)

Feminized CBD seeds are seeds that have been either genetically modified (by removing the X chromosome) or naturally by non-genetic practices to produce almost all female plants. Non-genetic techniques include spraying female plants with a colloidal silver or silver thiosulphate solution.

Clones

Clones are exact reproductions of an original ‘mother plant’, by taking a stem cutting or tissue culture and placing it in a media to take root. Once the clone has rooted it can be transplanted into a cultivation facility or field.

Biomass VS Dried Flower

Biomass is the dried hemp plant materials that include stalks, leaves, flower/buds, and/or seeds that have been harvested. Dry flower is the dried flower and bud of the hemp plant that has been removed from the stalk. It usually contains a minimum amount of stems and it can be used for smoking or used to make pre-rolled joints.

Kief

Kief is also known as cannabis crystals. It refers to the resinous trichomes of cannabis sativa that accumulates from sifted dry flower. It can be sifted through a mesh screen from the flower grinding process. 

Crude Hemp Oil

Crude Hemp Oil is the extracted oil from the hemp biomass that contains all of the cannabinoids, terpenes and other plant compounds. There are a number of extraction methods used by processors to extract the crude hemp oil. The two most common are CO2 extraction: using pressurized carbon dioxide (CO2) to pull the CBD and other phytocannabinoids and compounds from the plant and Solvent Extraction: using ethanol, by far the most common solvent, to pull all of the compounds from the plant.

The crude oil then usually goes through a process known as ‘winterization’ or decarboxylation to remove the organic plant compounds such as waxes, lipids and chlorophyll. This process creates a more transparent, potent distillate.

Full- Spectrum CBD Oil

Full Spectrum CBD Oil is the oil extracted from the flowers and leaves of the hemp plant.

The full spectrum extraction retains the entire spectrum of 110 plus cannabinoids, terpenes, flavonoids, essential vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, proteins, chlorophyll and fiber.

Hemp is high in the cannabinoid CBD and low in THC (regulated not to exceed 0.03%): however, it does provide the full spectrum of the plant’s compounds and benefits without any psychoactive effect.

Broad Spectrum CBD

Broad Spectrum CBD is basically the same as full spectrum: however all of the THC is removed in the extraction process. This provides the benefits of a full spectrum CBD with the exception of the cannabinoid THC. This is beneficial for certain people that need to drug test, athletes and children.

CBD Isolate

Isolate is the purest form of CBD which is a product of removing all of the other compounds found in the plant. This results in a crystal or powder with 0% THC and 96% to 99% CBD.

Mother Liquor

Mother liquor is a part of a solution left over in chemical processes after crystallization such as in CBD isolate: it is the residual that contains all of the other compounds.

Our Laurelcrest team looks forward to assisting you with crafting your CBD brand from inception to distribution. Please contact us to learn more about our products and services.