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Apr 13, 2021 | Blogs, Environmental / Industrial | 0 comments
Read time: 4 minutes
Introduction to cannabis: analysis
Cannabis is a broad umbrella of classification that includes both hemp and marijuana. Check out a recent blog that lays out the definitions. This blog will focus on the common criteria we look at when conducting cannabis testing, including potency, pesticides and mycotoxins.
Potency: how do you test for it?
Based on individual state regulatory requirements in the US, the potency of commercial cannabis products must be reported. The percentage of THC is printed on cannabis product labels after being certified by a licensed cannabis testing facility. The methodology for obtaining cannabis potency values can vary based on the analytical technique and instrumentation used, which gives testing facilities options for customizing or streamlining their workflows. While marijuana potency testing can vary, hemp analysis has to be accurate, or the crop is considered cannabis and subject to federal confiscation and fines. The US, however, lacks standardized methods to assess products for potency and safety. That’s a big problem for the labs that are tasked with doing the testing. There have been many challenges in the uniformity of potency results across testing sites. Some manufacturers will go to the lab that gives them the highest potency results. Pesticides, mycotoxins and terpenes, oh my!
As states in the US struggle to set standards for testing, both consumers and retailers are becoming increasingly discerning. Because of the variability and diversity of the matrix composition of samples—which can include cannabinoids, terpenes, sugars, fatty acids and more—analyzing cannabis and hemp for pesticides can be daunting. This is especially true for high-throughput cannabis and hemp residue testing. If you want to learn more about this topic, check out our tips and tricks for pesticide residue analysis in cannabis. Stay tuned for more blogs and information on the analysis of cannabis and hemp.
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The Echo® MS+ system is a novel platform for Acoustic Ejection Mass Spectrometry (AEMS) and combines the speed of acoustic sampling with the selectivity of mass spectrometry. This platform has been designed for high throughput analysis of small and large molecules. The technology combines Acoustic Droplet Ejection (ADE), an Open Port Interface (OPI) and could be coupled with the SCIEX Triple Quad 6500+ system or the ZenoTOF 7600 system.
The Echo® MS+ system comprises of an open-port interface (OPI) and acoustic droplet ejection (ADE) module which could be coupled with a mass spectrometer. The mass spectrometer could either be a SCIEX Triple Quad 6500+ system or the ZenoTOF 7600 system. This non-liquid chromatography based; high-throughput screening platform enables rapid analysis of compounds at speeds of up to 1 sample/second.
The ability to consistently achieve reproducible results on many complex samples across multiple days is critical to a routine clinical laboratory. Laboratories relying on analytical instrumentation require stability and robustness to perform a variety of screening and confirmatory assays with confidence. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) has become the preferred analytical method in the clinical laboratory to reliably perform clinical testing as it provides best-in-class performance and reliability for the most challenging assays. LC-MS/MS offers the required levels of sensitivity and specificity for the detection and quantitation of molecules from complex biological samples, helping laboratories deliver highly accurate data for a variety of clinically relevant analytes across a wide range of assays.
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