Cannabis characterization is not only important for determining its legality in the United States, but also for determining the effectiveness and safety of its many products. Regrettably, reported test results are often incomplete or inaccurate. In this study, Gas Chromatography – Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) and comprehensive GCxGC-MS technology was used for untargeted analysis of cannabis botanicals. The methodology included pesticide analysis, potency determination, and terpene profiling. Data collection was comprehensive; however, both targeted and untargeted processing methods were utilized for the quantitative and qualitative analysis of samples. The analytical methodology provided data with superior chromatographic resolution and increased peak signal to noise values, which dramatically improved compound detection and identification. This is a direct result of improvements in S/N and production of rich, high-quality mass spectral data. Data processing was fast, reproducible and provided excellent results for database comparisons. Deconvoluted mass spectra were searched against large, well-established spectral libraries (e.g., Wiley 11, NIST 17) and user TOFMS libraries. Pesticide, terpene and cannabinoid standards were used to develop the internal libraries and for quantitative analysis. In addition, mass spectral delta values were used to support spectral similarity search results. The shift from GC- to GCxGC-TOFMS resulted in removal of background interferences (e.g., column bleed), functional group clustering for easy data visualization, and over a two-fold increase in compounds identified.

Comprehensive analysis of cannabis using one and two-dimensional gas chromatography with high performance time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC & GCxGC-TOFMS)

ACS Fall 2020 Virtual Meeting

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