Quantitative Determination of Cannabinoids in Cannabis and Cannabis Products Using Ultra-High-Performance Supercritical Fluid Chromatography and Diode Array/Mass Spectrometric Detection

• Autores: Mei Wang, Yan-Hong Wang, Bharathi Avula, Mohamed M Radwan, Amira S Wanas, Zlatko Mehmedic, John van Antwerp, Mahmoud A ElSohly, Ikhlas A Khan
• Localización: Journal of forensic sciences, ISSN-e 1556-4029, ISSN 0022-1198, Vol. 62, Nº. 3, 2017, págs. 602-611
• Idioma: inglés
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  • Ultra-high-performance supercritical fluid chromatography (UHPSFC) is an efficient analytical technique and has not been fully employed for the analysis of cannabis. Here, a novel method was developed for the analysis of 30 cannabis plant extracts and preparations using UHPSFC/PDA-MS. Nine of the most abundant cannabinoids, viz. CBD, ∆8-THC, THCV, ∆9-THC, CBN, CBG, THCA-A, CBDA, and CBGA, were quantitatively determined (RSDs < 6.9%). Unlike GC methods, no derivatization or decarboxylation was required prior to UHPSFC analysis. The UHPSFC chromatographic separation of cannabinoids displayed an inverse elution order compared to UHPLC. Combining with PDA-MS, this orthogonality is valuable for discrimination of cannabinoids in complex matrices. The developed method was validated, and the quantification results were compared with a standard UHPLC method. The RSDs of these two methods were within +-13.0%. Finally, chemometric analysis including principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) were used to differentiate between cannabis samples.