Ethanol

Ethanol is the alcohol found in beverages, used in hemp manufacturing as an extraction solvent and in some liquid products as a carrier or preservative.

As a solvent, ethanol dissolves cannabinoids and terpenes efficiently and is generally recognized as safe in food production, which makes it one of the two main extraction methods alongside carbon dioxide. Most of it is removed by evaporation after extraction, and what remains is measured on the residual solvent panel of a certificate of analysis against a class-three limit, the least restrictive solvent class. Alcohol-based tinctures in the traditional sense use ethanol rather than oil as the carrier, giving a thinner liquid with a sharper taste.

Ethanol in products matters for people avoiding alcohol for religious, health or recovery reasons, for children, and for pets, since dogs and cats are sensitive to even small amounts and any pet product should be alcohol-free by design. The word also appears in the glossary because alcohol use disorder is one of the conditions in which cannabinoids have been studied, in early research.