Neptune Technologies & Bioressources : is leading the charge in cannabis processing and extraction

With its unparalleled scientific and technological expertise and large scale capacity to extract, process, and formulate quality products, Neptune is fast emerging as one of Canada's leading cannabis processors.

Decades of experience with health and wellness

For close to 20 years, Neptune revolutionized the krill oil industry with their expertise in extraction of natural products, and by subsequently adapting its Sherbrooke facility to make it ready and compliant for the extraction of cannabis oil, the Quebec-based company has become a natural fit to deliver high-grade cannabis extracts and formulations. The company extends their extraction capabilities to purification, concentration, and isolation technologies, as well as innovative delivery forms for national and international legal cannabis markets.

Neptune is set to leverage the overlap that exists in the market between medical, recreational, and wellness cannabis products to emerge as an industry leader in the cannabis market.

Extraction, processing, and formulation explained

Simply put, extraction is used to remove the desired components of cannabis, such as cannabinoids and terpenes, from the plant matrix. The process of extraction is intricate, requiring skill, expertise and a technologically sound set-up.

Enter Neptune, with its 50,000 ft² facility in Sherbrooke, QC, with state-of-the-art and fully automated operations, including monitoring, control and instrumentation and their own fully equipped analytical laboratory capable of analyzing cannabinoid and terpene content.

Neptune also has a separate laboratory in their facility that is dedicated solely for research and development activities. Along with their highly skilled team of scientists, they are able to utilize this space to explore new product formulations and delivery forms for Neptune and its partners.

Within this facility, both supercritical CO₂ and ethanol processing methods will be employed for cannabis extraction. An advantage of supercritical CO₂ extraction is that it is modifiable by adjusting the temperature and pressure settings, which allows control on what is extracted from the raw material. An advantage of ethanol extraction is that it can yield an extract that does not require additional refinement or purification steps if processed under the appropriate conditions.

Neptune has the capabilities to conduct multiple pre- and post-extraction processes, including:

• Pre-processing raw material, if required (grinding):

- Due to the large volumes of raw materials they can process in their extraction system, Neptune can accept flower trimmings, which have low cannabinoid and terpene content, in addition to dried flower.

• Extraction (separation of desired components) from the plant matrix.

• Post-processing:

- Winterization (purification of crude extract by removing waxes and lipids)

- Molecular distillation (separation of cannabinoids and terpenes, concentration of cannabinoids and terpenes)

- Isolation (separation of individual cannabinoids such as cannabidiol (CBD), tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabigerol (CBG), and cannabinol (CBN)) and

- Formulation (transforming the products generated by the above processes into final products).

Through a licensing partnership with Lonza, we also offer Licaps^®, a liquid-filled, best-in-class hard capsule. Licaps provide fast absorption technology, using a variety of delivery systems.

As the cannabis industry and the regulations governing it evolve and mature, a greater number and variety of formulations is expected to be permitted, a development Neptune is poised to take on and implement with its unique post-processing techniques. What's more, Neptune is one of a small number of processing-only licence holders in Canada that has the capability to create cannabinoid isolates.

Certified Excellence

Employment of best practices for quality control and safety are Neptune's top priorities. Neptune is one of the very few companies in the current cannabis industry with a facility that is certified to current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMPs). Critical to the nutrition products industry, cGMPs ensure proper design, monitoring, and control of manufacturing processes and facilities, which translate to upholding quality standards for a product's identity, strength, and purity. Neptune is now ramping up their production capacities to manufacture top-of-the-line cannabis extracts.

Neptune's facility at Sherbrooke is open for tours for businesses interested in assessing their superior extraction capabilities. With their mandate to provide premium products and formulations for optimal health and wellness, Neptune is firmly positioned to be a leader in the cannabis-processing industry.