A team of researchers from Brazil has developed a highly sensitive lab method that could help regulators and producers more accurately measure key cannabinoids in marijuana oils and dried flower.
They team from the Federal University of Espírito Santo reports their findings in a study published by ACS Omega.
The researchers focused on improving how six major cannabinoids are extracted and quantified in both marijuana oil and plant material, using ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with low-resolution mass spectrometry.
They report that ethyl acetate stood out as the best solvent for pulling cannabinoids out of oil and marijuana samples. For flower, the team paired ethyl acetate with a short sonication step and vortex agitation lasting under 20 minutes in total, keeping the process relatively fast and practical for routine testing.
From there, the group validated a method capable of detecting and measuring seven cannabinoids at very low concentrations. Limits of detection were as low as 0.3 to 1.5 ng/mL, with limits of quantification between 1 and 5 ng/mL. Recovery rates generally fell between about 80% and 108% in both oil and marijuana, with no meaningful matrix effect reported.
Precision also held up across different days, analysts and laboratories, with relative standard deviations mostly in the single digits to low teens. According to the authors, the final method is sensitive and selective enough to reliably quantify CBD, CBN, CBC, CBDA, Δ9-THC and Δ9-THCA.
For a market that depends on accurate potency labels and quality control, researchers this type of lab work is a quiet but important step toward more consistent testing of marijuana products.
The study concludes:
The authors proposed an effective method for the quantification of cannabinoids in plant and oily samples, with the potential to be reproduced in different laboratories and by different analysts. The extraction demonstrated a satisfactory yield for all of the cannabinoids evaluated, standing out for its speed and simplicity across the different matrices analyzed. Additionally, liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry proved to be an exceptional technique for quantitative cannabinoid analysis, offering high sensitivity and selectivity. These results not only contribute to the advancement of analytical methodologies for cannabinoid quantification but also establish a solid foundation for future research in the field.
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