I was curious if anyone has taken the time to put together a list of labs producing pharmaceutical grade nicotine and which resellers use them. I can start the list with the two companies I know of that kindly volunteer this useful information, Chemnovatic and NicSelect. This list has been compiled through my own efforts and with the help of the following reddit users: Finadil, cjinct
Lab List:
1. Chemnovatic
Information:
"Chemnovatic is the manufacturer of all products you can find on this website and our B2B platform. We take the full responsibility for our products’ quality and for their certification." Source
Resellers:
- Vapers Tek
- Molinshop
- 4Vapor
2. Alchem International (NicSelect)
Information:
"NicSelect® comes from Alchem International and is consistent, batch after batch. Every batch carries its own certificate of analysis ." Source
Resellers:
- Nicotine River
- Vapor World
- Vermillion River
- Liquid Barn
- ECX
- More
Information:
"In recent years CNT has also emerged as a significant supplier of pharmaceutical grade Nicotine to the expanding e-Cigarette industry. The processing is done in Switzerland by CNT's exclusive contract manufacturer Siegfried AG under full pharmaceutical cGMP." Source
Resellers:
- Unknown
Information:
"A long established manufacturer of nicotine active pharmaceutical ingredients, Nicobrand has been audited by the US FDA since 1991 and by the UK MHRA since 2005." Source
Resellers:
- Unknown
5. CXTC
Information:
"Technically, CXTC makes only one nicotine product, and offers that product in various Concentration Levels. Our Supercritical Fluid Extraction and cold pufication system/methods are geared toward only producing 999.9K MG AVG/1KG nicotine. In order to offer lower purity levels, CXTC would have to switch to more dangerous and less environmental methods such as soxhlet, liquid/liquid, or purified kerosene/hexane extractions." Source
Resellers:
- Unknown
6. Equinox Chemicals (USA Liquid Nicotine)
Information:
"USA Liquid Nicotine is the premier US based liquid nicotine supplier. We proudly use only the best tobacco, grown right here in the USA, and extract our nicotine domestically in our Albany, Georgia laboratory." Source
Resellers:
- USA-Laboratories (sales arm of Liquid Nicotine)
- Liquid Barn
Resellers with unknown source labs:
- Vape Clarity
- WizardLabs
- Nude Nicotine
I'll update this list as users provide information.
I thought nude was a lab. /u/nudenicotine care to clarify?
A lot of companies would like us to think that and market accordingly (personally, I think the practice is deceptive). Nude claims to have access to gas chromatography and mass spectrometry equipment to test their bulk batches which is sourced from other suppliers. I think any major reseller should perform and publish the same information and Nude should be commended for being at the start of a great trend.
The truth is all of this stuff comes out of only a handful of labs. That said, resellers are a necessary part of the supply chain as few labs (that I know of) are going to sell to small time operations that can't buy in bulk. Resellers also have a role in the quality process by their choice in PG/VG suppliers, accuracy of the dilutions, quality of the facility and materials used for repackaging, additional testing, storage of product, etc.
A good analogy would be a car manufacturer: none of them are going to actually manufacture their own steel, they're going to buy it from either a metals supplier or directly from the foundry itself. If a structural piece of metal on your car breaks, you're not going to track down the steel foundry and complain, you're going to take it back to the dealership or mechanic to fix.
The chain of supply for any industry can be surprisingly complex, that's just how manufacturing works. That's also why larger companies generally employee someone specifically to deal with it!
Thanks for asking! Absolutely yes, we have 600 sq ft of ISO 6 TSS-validated cleanroom space for our production environment, and 800 sq ft of iso 7 USP whiteroom R&D space. Our Agilent 6890 GC with 5793 MS unit is housed in our R&D facility, with our warehousing space attached to both :) We are located here in San Diego, CA and perform all of our GC/MS testing in-house.
Nicotine is sourced from 6 major maufacturers and a few minor ones around the globe. Temperature and humidity varies throughout the year resulting in varied tobacco source material - we change our sourcing consistently throughout the year based on quality. Our sources send samples of all production lots to our lab here in San Diego, CA for GC/MS approval before material is bought, and is verified upon landing here in SD to confirm the CoA is representative of the material as landed. In the summer months, sourcing from the southern hemisphere is preferable, while sourcing in the northern hemisphere is preferable during the winter :)
What else can I clarify - really try to be an open book on this whole process. Proud to be vertically integrated from raw material sourcing to the end contract manufacturing of some of your favorite eLiquids on the shelves of your local vape shop.
Liquid Barn also sells Alchems NicSelect: https://www.liquidbarn.com/collections/nicselect-unflavored-nicotine but they also sell USA Liquid Nicotine... made by a company called USA Liquid Nicotine (http://www.usaliquidnicotine.com).
This is great information, man. Thank you! With NicSelect being some great nicotine, the best bang for your buck would be going with ECX priced at $44.99 for 1L of 100mg.
Happy to help. I was surprised when I couldn't find a list elsewhere; hopefully, we can continue to expand this list for users wanting to know the source of their nicotine. ECX as a source for NicSelect is currently unconfirmed. If anyone has a reference, let me know and I'll update the list.