Over half of USA states have legalized use of cannabis for either recreational or medical purpose due to its therapeutic benefits for ailments such as cancer, multiple sclerosis and others. Like any other agricultural crop, pesticides are applied to cannabis plants to protect it from pests and improve growth yield. Chronic exposure to pesticides can lead to serious health risks and therefore pesticide analysis in cannabis products is important for consumer safety and quality control. Among all of states in USA, California has issued most stringent action limits for 66 pesticides residues in cannabis related matrices such as flower, cannabis infused edibles and cannabis concentrates. Normally pesticide analysis in cannabis and other food matrices is done by both GCMSMS and LCMSMS since some nonpolar and chlorinated pesticides such as pentachloronitrobenzene, chlordane and others are difficult to ionize with electrospray source used in LCMSMS systems. We would demonstrate how we measured these compounds at low levels using LCMSMS with APCI source. The ionization mechanism of chlorinated pesticides such as pentachloronitrobenzene and others using LCMSMS system with APCI source would be presented. We analyzed all of 66 pesticides (including very hydrophobic and chlorinated pesticides typically analyzed by GCMSMS) spiked in cannabis samples well below the action limits specified by California State. Cannabis matrix is challenging and therefore it causes ion suppression and matrix inference for response of some of pesticides. Also, cannabis products are available in different forms such as dried flower, extracts and cannabis infused edibles. We would demonstrate approaches to mitigate these ion suppression and matrix effects from different cannabis related products. Sample preparation is the main bottleneck for achieving the high throughput analysis of pesticides in cannabis testing labs. For sample preparation, we used solvent extraction since it is a quick, cheap and easy way to achieve high extraction recovery in comparison to other time-consuming sample preparation techniques like solid phase extraction (SPE) and QuEChERS. Also, the performance of LC-MS/MS method was checked by conducting blind emerald scientific’s proficiency test for 66 pesticides. The proficiency test report generated with LCMSMS method showed acceptable results for all of 66 pesticides with no false positives and negatives.

Overcoming challenges associated with analysis of all of pesticides regulated by California state in cannabis related matrices using a novel LCMSMS method with dual ESI and APCI source

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.