By Troy Ivan
ibc@ichibancrafter.com

I’ve been experimenting with citrus peel extraction for joint pain and inflammation for a few years and I’m so excited for the relief it’s brought so many people.  It’s my pleasure to share this with everyone who would like to give it a try.  It’s very easy to make, very fast-acting, all-natural, and quite frankly, too good to be true.  The first time that I really woke up to what I had was when I tried it on my elderly mother, who was having trouble walking and really struggled to walk up the stairs to go to bed when visiting.  Her ankles were so painful she was nearly incapacitated, so she became my first volunteer.  I had a batch of orange and lemon peel extract I’d recently made and already combined with coconut oil to be used as a topical, so we put that on her pained ankles to see what would happen, and I went back downstairs.  After about 5 minutes, she was calling my name from upstairs, so I went up expecting that she was going to ask for ice, ibuprofen, or something else for the pain, but she was sitting on the bed with a confused look on her face and said, “You aren’t going to believe this, but the pain is gone.”  I made the stuff and put it on her ankle, hoping for the best, but even I thought it was too fast and effective to be believed.  We kept experimenting with it, and every time, without fail, it eradicated the arthritic pain in her ankle.  Most interesting was the cumulative effect it appeared to have.  In the beginning, she would apply the topical every day but soon realized she didn’t need it so often, so it became once a week, once every two weeks, and finally only periodically when the pain came back. She was so happy to be pain-free but still said, “If it wasn’t me using it and experiencing the results, I wouldn’t believe it.”  She had tried everything, and this was the only thing that helped, and it helped miraculously.  Since then, I’ve given it to many people and taught many how to make it, and it hasn’t failed yet.  My hope is sharing this discovery and how to make it will help you with joint pain and inflation troubles.

MAKING THE CITRUS PEEL CONCENTRATE

I use food-grade ethanol extraction to make the full spectrum of orange and lemon peel concentrated oils known as ‘absolute oils.’  To perform the extraction and recover the ethanol safely at low temperatures, I use the DIY Vacuum Still system I put together. If you are unfamiliar with the process of ethanol extraction, go to my main page, www.ichibancrafter.com, and check out some of the extraction how-to posts for some great knowledge.

For the concentrate, I use equal amounts of orange and lemon peels for the extraction, but I encourage you to experiment using just one of them or different ratios if you think it might work better for you.  Dried peels can either be purchased or prepared yourself.  It takes a lot more time and effort to prepare your own, but the color you get from the extraction is incredible compared to the oil you get from processed dried peel.  Ideally, peels used for extraction should include only the outermost skin, not including any pith, and be dried completely, preferably with a food dehydrator.  You can use cut or ground-up peels for your ethanol extraction. 

Ground peels have proven to provide a higher yield of oil but provide two difficulties over diced peels that require attention.  First, a good filtration plan is necessary as the powdery material will be difficult to filter well.  To keep your final extraction clean and sediment free you will most likely need something like a Buchner funnel to do the job.  Second, while the peels are soaking in ethanol, they will settle in a compacted sediment layer, so you will have to remember to shake it up once in a while for the ethanol to circulate through the material.  Working with the material in a chopped form will result in less yield but require less effort to process. 

The extraction can be performed with the orange and lemon peels together or separately, either way works equally as well.  I crafted 120 ml of concentrate oil using 2 lbs. of purchased peel soaked for 2 days with periodic agitation.  You can use smaller amounts for smaller personal sized batches, a little of this oil goes a long way.  My first couple of runs used just a couple of ounces of peels and got plenty of oil for personal use formulation size.

WINTERIZATION

Winterization is a simple process to eliminate lipids and wax from an ethanol extraction.  After soaking the peels in ethanol and filtering out the solids from the solution, we have the “wash” containing all components mentioned earlier, as well as lipids and wax.  The lipids and wax are not necessarily undesirable for topicals because we will normally add in some form into the final formulation.  The problem is they can be a little messy with the extraction, and if a really pure oil is preferred, removing the fats and lipids makes quite a bit of difference.  Once they are removed, they can be saved to incorporate later or used in another project. 

The concept is simple: when the wash is subjected to freezing temperatures, the lipids and fats coagulate and precipitate out of the solution in a semi-solid state, then you just rough filter to separate.  Here are the simple steps:

1. Put a well-filtered wash in the freezer for 48 hours or with dry ice for 3 hours.
2. Don’t touch it or move it while it sets up.
3. Remove it from the cold and run it through a medium/fast flow filter around 12-25 microns. An unbleached coffee filter is around 20-25 microns and can work fine, but a Buchner funnel can be used for better filtration and ethanol recovery.
4. The resulting wash is ready for the ethanol recovery stage of extraction, and the separated lipids and fats can be used as desired.

RESIDUAL ETHANOL

With ethanol extraction, people often ask, “How do you know if all the ethanol is out of the oil?”  I get the feeling that most people ask this question without really understanding what the question actually means or what if any, problem is caused by minute amounts of residual ethanol.  The truth is there will always be some residual ethanol, but it’s food-grade and a very minor amount.  Then, once that very minute amount of residual ethanol in the oil is incorporated into the larger formulation volume it will be diluted even further, so I’m not concerned and add it directly into my mix.

INCORPORATING CONCENTRATE WITH FORMULATION

You can use complex formulations or something as simple as solid-form coconut oil alone. 

WARNINGS AND CAUTIONS

Now that you know how to make the amazing citrus peel extraction for joint pain and inflammation, there are a few warnings and cautions to keep in mind:

• Citrus peel concentrates are extremely strong and the components of the citrus peel concentrate can cause skin irritation, especially if used at full potency, so test just a small amount of your formulation before jumping in fully. 
• Citrus peel extractions, with or without ethanol, are flammable, so they must be kept away from an ignition source.
• The citrus peel extraction is very photosensitive and can cause sunburn if applied to the skin and exposed to sunlight. It is not recommended to use this kind of formulation on skin that will be outside in direct sunlight.
• The pigments from the citrus peels contained in formulation can stain fabric so use caution with what it comes into contact with before it is fully absorbed.
• I am not a medical professional, so before using any information in this post, you should consult your medical professional to make sure this type of product is safe for you to use.

I HOPE YOU ENJOY THIS GREAT PAIN RELIEVER. STAY LIFTED MY FRIENDS !!!!!

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