GC/FID method of quantification ofD^9 -THC, CBD, and CBN in 54 seized
cannabis products (52 marijuana samples and 2 hashish samples) in Brazil was
validated by Lopes de Oliveira et al. Chromatographic separation was achieved
with an HP-5 fused-silica GC column (30 m0.32 mm i.d., 0.25lm film
thicknesses, Agilent). The temperature of the injection port and detector were 270
and 280 °C respectively. The oven temperature was maintained at 150 °C for
1 min; programmed at 15 °C/min to 250 °C followed by a hold for 13 min. The
relative retention time of each cannabinoid was compared to the internal standard
(diazepam). The method is rapid (13 min), simple and able to distinguish between
different cannabis phenotypes (de Oliveira et al. 2008 ).
Quantification of three major cannabinoids (Δ^9 -THC, CBD, and CBN) in dif-
ferent hemp food products such as beer, pastilles, liqueur, seeds, scented grass and
oil using GC equipped with EI Mass Detector (GC/MS) was performed. Analysis
was achieved on a fused silica capillary column (HP-5MS, 30 m0.25 mm i.d.,
film thickness 0.25lm). The oven temperature was programmed at 120 °C for
2 min, increased to 290 °C at 20 °C/min and held for 10 min. Split injection mode
(15:1) was used. The injection port, ion source, quadrupole, and interface tem-
peratures were: 260, 230, 150 and 280 °C, respectively. The electron-impact
(EI) mass spectra of the analytes were recorded by total ion monitoring mode (scan
range 40–550 M),Δ^8 -THC was used as an internal standard. The samples were
silylated by MSTFA-2%TMCS. The LOQ for THC and CBN was 1.0 and 2 ng/g
for CBD (Pellegrini et al. 2005 ).
A validated GC/MS analysis of THC, CBN and CBD in Colombian illicit crops
of Cannabis was made. The content of THC content against the THC/CBN content
was used as a mean to distinguish the geographical origin of the studied samples
(Florian-Ramirez et al. 2012 ).
GC/MS analysis of 9 major cannabinoids in cannabis plant was described by
Hazekamp et al., these cannabinoids areD^9 -THC,D^9 -THC-C 4 ,D^8 -THC, THCV,
CBD, CBN, CBG, CBC, and CBL. The analyses were carried out using two GC
columns (DB-1 and HP-50+). The oven temperature was programmed from 100 to
280 °C (10 °C/min), and then the temperature was kept at 280 °C for a total run
time of 30 min. The injector and detector port temperatures were maintained at 280
and 290 °C respectively.D^9 -THC was used as internal standard to determine the
relative retention times of all cannabinoids. No cannabinoid acid levels were
reported since no derivatization was carried out prior to sample injection
(Hazekamp et al. 2005 ).
D^9 -THC, CBD, CBC and CBN content in a Japanese Cannabis plant material
were determined by GC/FID using 5a-cholestane as an internal standard. The
analysis was performed on an HP-5MS column (30 m0.25 mm0.25μ).
Oven temperature was programmed from 50 to 250 °C, and injection volume was
1 μL (split ratio 1/50). The run time was 30 min and the CBC peak may overlap
with the CBD peak (Watanabe 2005 ).
176 M.M. Radwan et al.