Analytical Methods for Cannabis Characterization

Cannabis plants are complex and are composed of hundreds of chemical compounds that lead to unique physiological effects, mainly caused by cannabinoids. Human use of cannabis, as food, oil, fiber, medicine, as a psychedelic agent and for other purposes, spans many thousands of years. Cannabis derived products are becoming more and more popular in the last few years. In fact, there are thousands of different strains of cannabis circulating in the market today. However, the understanding of cannabis chemistry is more recent, and it is informative to consider the modern discovery of phytocannabinoids (cannabinoids naturally occurring in cannabis). With the massive existence of products on the market (oils, lotions, edibles, dietary supplements, etc.) it is highly important to develop instrumental analytical methods for the chemical characterization of these products. This includes analysis of solvents, trace metals, pesticides, mycotoxins, cannabinoids and terpenes, to name a few. There are no official standard methods for these types of analyses at this time. Each individual lab usually develops its own analytical methodologies. For these reasons, this will be a very useful session for those scientists working in the field of cannabis chemical analysis.