Cilo Cybin Brings Forward Listing Date; Join Us on a Photo Walkabout Through Its Cannabis Facility

Gauteng-based Cilo Cybin intends listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange within the next three to six months. It also intends getting its Cilo Cybin cannabis-infused oils and vapes into the retail market by December 2021

Business Insider SA’s Ntando Thukwane visited the company’s high-tech cannabis facility outside Pretoria and met CEO Gabriel Theron who’s confidence in the cannabis space is soaring high. Should the listing go ahead Cilo Cybin will be the first cannabis company to list on the JSE; the two other major cannabis players – Labat and Nutritional Holdings – were listed entities that were turned into cannabis businesses.

Theron has also applied for a psychedelics research license from SAHPRA, saying that medical psychedelics could be bigger than medical cannabis in the future.

Thukwane published his interview and picture gallery in Business Insider SA on 12 October 2021 – go to the original article here.

Cannabiz Africa republishes his detailed visual walk-through of Cilo Cybin’s Pretoria facility.

Ntando’s Tour of Theronland

Where everything begins; growing the cannabis

First comes the vegetative stage, where cannabis seeds, which Cilo Cybin imports from the Netherlands, are planted in big planters.

The mother plant can survive for about 6 months before, then after, its produces less useful marijuana leaves. (Image: Business Insider South Africa/Ntando Thukwana)

The cannabis flowers from the initial seed planting become the mother plant.The marijuana leaves that grow from the mother plant will then be clipped off and cloned in smaller tanks with water in a process called aeroponics.Aeroponics encourages root growth by way of an airy or misty environment rather than soil.

Rooting: Day 5. (Image: Business Insider South Africa/Ntando Thukwana)

After rooting, the leaves are transplanted into smaller buckets where they will be fed nutrients and watered for about four weeks.

After rooting, the leaves are transplanted into smaller buckets. (Image: Business Insider South Africa/Ntando Thukwana)

The flowering stage

Once the cloned leaves have bloomed into whole plants, they get taken into a separate room, in the flowering room, where they’ll develop into marijuana buds.

Once the buds have fully matured, they are harvested.

The flowering room undergoes stringent lighting, hydro and temperature controlling. (Image: Business Insider South Africa/Ntando Thukwana)

Then the cloned plants are left to grow in the flowering room. (Image: Business Insider South Africa/Ntando Thukwana)

The flowering stage happens between the vegetative stage and the harvest. (Image: Business Insider South Africa/Ntando Thukwana)

After harvesting, the buds get dried, and then after, the leaves and stalks get trimmed off.

The buds, once trimmed, are stored separately. (Image: Business Insider South Africa/Ntando Thukwana)

After trimming. (Image: Business Insider South Africa/Ntando Thukwana)

Then the processing stage

Following the flowering process, the buds are kept in bags before extraction.

The buds get weighed and put in bags. (Image: Business Insider South Africa/Ntando Thukwana)

The buds get weighed and put in bags. (Image: Business Insider South Africa/Ntando Thukwana)

“What happens is; it pulls out all the air and pushes in nitrogen and sucks it out again, so whatever is remaining is nitrogen in between your buds. That preserves your product,” Theron said.Before extraction, the bags are locked in cold storage regulated at -70 °C.The processing begins after at least three hours of freezing.

The bags are locked in cold storage regulated at -70 °C. (Image: Business Insider South Africa/Ntando Thukwana)

In the extraction room, the buds are then briefly thrown in a chopping machine.

Once shredded, it gets soaked in ethanol and then filtered out by a pump that sucks it out into a different vessel.

The extraction room. (Image: Business Insider South Africa/Ntando Thukwana)

The result is a mixture of bulk ethanol and cannabinoids, then poured down a tube to a spherical vessel spun in a bucket with heated water.During this process, the ethanol evaporates and separates from the oil, essentially the product.

The cannabinoids are further processed. (Image: Business Insider South Africa/Ntando Thukwana)

Then the oil is further processed.

Packing room: The bottles and vape cartridges are filled at this point. (Image: Business Insider South Africa/Ntando Thukwana)

The packing room. (Image: Business Insider South Africa/Ntando Thukwana)

The company hopes to have its products on shelves before the end of the year. (Image: Business Insider South Africa/Ntando Thukwana)