Could you expand on the jatropha?
Have there been issues with jatropha oil being used in VG?
Inquiring minds (-:
Inquiring minds are a VERY good thing!
Yes, apparently jatropha esters are present in
many commercial brands of VG as glycerin is a by-product of the biodiesel industry...
and jatropha is not something for which VG is commonly tested! However, not all glycerin sourced from the biodisel industry includes jatropha. An excerpt from this thread explains the issue in more depth:
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/ecf-library/455394-glycerine-vapor-acrolein-issues.html
Is acrolein the biggest issue anyway?
The acrolein question is probably not the main glycerine issue at this time, in any case - because it is very unlikely that an ecig user can inhale anything other than the most minute quantity of acrolein, and almost unmeasurably small quantities of anything are not toxic. The main issue currently is the biodiesel byproduct problem; specifically the jatropha plant issue. Biodiesel production involves the use of multiple plant sources and these include jatropha in the modern era. Glycerine is produced as a by-product, along with diesel fuel. The problem is that jatropha is toxic to humans: its esters are carcinogenic.
For this reason biodiesel by-product glycerine absolutely MUST NOT be used for vaping-use glycerine. However this is easier said than done: no one really knows if this condition has been met unless the finished retail product is tested for the carcinogenic phorbol esters of the jatropha plant. As hardly any e-liquid vendors either test properly [4], or know how to test for this contaminant in any case, it is a genuine and serious issue.
The FDA have warned about this and a web search reveals multiple resources, including:
Potential Toxicity Associated with Oils, Glycerin, and Proteins Derived from the Jatropha Plant
How to obtain jatropha-free glycerine
Because the supply chain in the e-liquid world is based on word of mouth ("My supplier told me this is the highest quality") and overseas certificates of dubious quality, it is impossible to eliminate the possibility of contaminated glycerine unless (a) a reliable test certificate is presented, or (b) the source is unimpeachable.
A 'reliable test certificate' is not one that originates overseas, it comes from a nationally-accredited testing laboratory in your country, and it states specifically on it that jatropha was one of the contaminants tested for. Alternatively a reliable source is needed, such as a pharmaceutical supplier who can provide (not tell you about) pharmaceutical licenses for inhalation duty; the safest at this time is probably Dow Chemical's Optim product, a synthetic glycerine of about 99.9% purity (nothing is 'pure'; the contaminant here is likely to be water). This has multiple licenses for inhalation and Dow advise its use for medical inhalation in preference to their pharma grade PG (which used to be the most popular for e.g. asthma inhalers, but is now losing out to glycerine as there is no drying-out of the throat and upper lung area that some experience with PG).
E-liquid manufacturers can obtain Dow Optim in 4-gallon containers in the USA. It is not cheap - but there is no good, cheap e-liquid since this is impossible (testing is expensive, good materials are expensive, and qualified chemists are expensive to employ).
A practical alternative, to be used until such time as manufacturers provide full test details or are regulated by government in order to prevent the inclusion of contaminants (very likely and probably desirable if the industry will not solve the problem themselves), is to obtain your glycerine-based e-liquid from a manufacturer with a multi-million turnover and a very good reputation. This is because (a) regular full testing is expensive and small-scale vendors simply cannot afford it unless they are members of a trade association that handles the testing for them at a discount, and (b) a large-scale vendor with a very good reputation that would be completely destroyed if they were exposed for selling contaminated materials is a good bet, since they will probably be taking steps to ensure such an incident does not occur as they have a lot to lose.
From the FDA
http://www.fda.gov/downloads/ForIndustry/IndustryNoticesandGuidanceDocuments/UCM310867.pdf
When vegetable oils and animal fats are used in
biodiesel fuel production, the co-products include oils,
glycerin and protein. Recently, the Jatropha plant
has become an attractive source material for biodiesel
fuel because of the high oil content
of its seed, availability of the plant
in certain parts of the world, and
relatively low cost. Jatropha is a drought-resistant
shrub that grows well in tropical and semi-tropic
climates throughout the world.
However, unlike other benign materials used to produce biodiesel fuel,
Jatropha plants may contain toxic compounds, including phorbol esters.
These compounds exhibit potential toxicity, both acute and chronic, to exposed humans and animals. ...
... Conventional impurity test methods may not detect the
presence of these toxins.
In my Googling, I keep seeing phrases similar to this:
the presence of these toxins might go undetected using conventional impurity test methods. When combined with a similar FDA statement, I'm forced to think that it's very possible that conventional testing (even at USP standards), does not detect jatropha!
This document is full of great information (and it appearts to have a chart on 'what is tested for' in USP testing - jatropha is not included)
http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=STELPRDC5104381 Interesting to note, if VG is properly certified to be 'Certified Organic', it cannot have been derived from jatropha. So Certified Organic VG would not contain jatropha - but it might contain other impurities if not also USP.
I'm waiting for a call back from Jake at NN to confirm the source material of NN's VG (which I think I remember being palm oil)... but what I'm absolutely sure of is that he confirmed his VG IS jatropha free (and what I'm almost positively-sure I recall clearly is that he runs a gas chromatography test ensure the same). He offered to send me a copy of the test results & a CoA.
