Pressurized liquid extractions (PLE) are used to extract compounds from samples with solvent in a pressurized cell. It combines elevated temperature and pressure with liquid solvents to achieve fast and accurate extractions of compounds from a variety of matrices. In this application PLE is being used to extract the native quantities of cannabinoids in cannabis for quantitative analysis by HPLC. There are multiple parameters that can be adjusted when performing PLE. (i.e., solvent, sample mass, temperature, number of extraction cycles/solvent volume). This work is aimed for optimizing PLE parameters to efficiently recover native quantities of common cannabinoids in cannabis by an automated PLE method. Thus far sample mass for extraction in a 10 mL cell was optimized, with 0.5g resulting in significantly greater (ANOVA: p value 0.5 g vs. 0.1 g: 0.69, p value 0.5 g vs. 1.0 g: 0.65) total cannabinoid recovery (80.4 3.1 mg/g) than sample masses of 0.1 g, and 1.0g samples where 54.8 1.4 mg/g and 54.9 0.3 mg/g respectively. Further various polar organic solvents (methanol, ethanol, and acetonitrile) compatible with HPLC analysis were tested. Methanol resulted in the greatest total cannabinoid recovery (99.7 6.5 mg/g), which was significantly greater (ANOVA: p value methanol vs. ethanol 0.53, p value of methanol vs. acetonitrile 0.43) than recoveries using ethanol (56.7 3.1 mg/g), and acetonitrile (40.8 1.1mg/g). Additional parameters to be optimized include temperature while avoiding decarboxylation, and the number of extraction cycles/solvent volume. The efficiency and accuracy of the developed method will be benchmarked against other accepted method such as the method reported by the United Nations Office of Drug and Crime.

Development of an automated pressurized liquid extraction of common cannabinoids from cannabis for quantitative analysis

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