UK: A One-pot Cannabinoid Analysis

Puffin13 · Post by **Puffin13** » Tue 5th Jan 2010 06:27 am

A One-pot Cannabinoid Analysis

UK - Cannabis is the most popular drug of abuse in Europe with an estimated 4 million adults using it daily. It has been the subject of official confusion in the UK where the government does not seem to be able to make up its mind on the classification grade. It was downgraded from class B to class C in 2004 but was reclassified to class B in January 2009, where it resides with amphetamines.

One reason given for the U-turn is the emergence of skunk, a stronger variety of cannabis that contains higher levels of the active ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). The constant evolution of street cannabis has put pressure on analytical labs to measure the content of the active cannabinoids in seized specimens.

Forensic organisations are not the only people interested in the chemical make up of Cannabis sativa plants. Clinical labs are also concerned about the cannabinoid composition, due to its medicinal uses.

The common procedure for measuring the cannabinoids in cannabis is GC but it has some disadvantages. The inherent heating process brings about decomposition of the acidic cannabinoids via decarboxylation. The fact that this degradation is only partial further complicates matters. The resultant neutral products require derivatisation before they can be analysed by GC.

A logical alternative would be HPLC because this does not generally require the input of heat. Several published HPLC procedures exist but they appear to be restricted by inefficient separation of the target cannabinoids or have not been validated. In an attempt to correct this, researchers from Belgium have developed and validated an HPLC-DAD method for the determination of the major cannabinoids in cannabis.

Benjamin De Backer and co-researchers from the universities of Liege and Ghent extracted cannabinoids from seized samples of drug-type cannabis. Their method was geared towards Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), THC acid, cannabidiol (CBD), cannabidiol acid, cannabigerol (CBG), cannabigerol acid, cannabinol and Delta8-tetrahydrocannabinol.

These compounds are either related in the cannabinoid synthetic pathway or are the principal decarboxylation or isomerisation products. They were selected because they are important for the classification of cannabis phenotypes or for monitoring the psychotropic potency.

The team used design of experiment protocols and predictive multilinear models to find the best chromatographic conditions for optimal separation of the target cannabinoids. With a C18 column and an aqueous methanol gradient, these were determined to be a starting level of 68% methanol in aqueous 50 mM ammonium formate (pH 5.19), rising linearly to 90.5% over 25 minutes at a flow rate of 0.3 ml/min.

Under these conditions, the predicted and real chromatograms were very similar for model compounds, producing good separation between the peaks. The only potential overlap occurred with CBD and CBG at relatively high concentrations of each of more than 10%. The excellent separation was confirmed for cannabinoids extracted from herbal cannabis and cannabis resin.

The procedure was optimised using accuracy profiles based on â-expectation tolerance intervals, as well as calculating values for trueness (expressed as relative bias %), precision and measurement uncertainty. All of the values were deemed to be acceptable.

The new optimised method brings about the separation of 8 key cannabinoids within 25 minutes and allows for their identification and measurement in cannabis samples. It was demonstrated for cannabis drug and fibre.

De Backer predicted that the method would be useful for the identification of plant phenotypes, quality control of medicinal specimens and the estimation of the psychoactive potency.

Source

ZBeebs · Post by **ZBeebs** » Tue 5th Jan 2010 01:26 pm

What does this have to do with coffeeshops?

Puffin13 · Post by **Puffin13** » Wed 6th Jan 2010 05:01 am

ZBeebs wrote:What does this have to do with coffeeshops?

Nothing at all! It has something to do with cannabis though. Why? Are you the moderator for this forum or something?

Sir Niall of Essex-sire · Wed 6th Jan 2010 01:01 pm

Does this increase of interest in research equal a possible movement towards medical usage i wonder??

Puffin13 · Post by **Puffin13** » Wed 6th Jan 2010 03:18 pm

Sir Niall of Essex-sire wrote:Does this increase of interest in research equal a possible movement towards medical usage i wonder??

The US is beginning to utilize the medical value of cannabis. Hopefully other countries will see that & realize it is a healing plant, that comes in various forms. The sooner the better, for many suffering people.

ZBeebs · Post by **ZBeebs** » Wed 6th Jan 2010 04:28 pm

Can't we try to keep the forums on-topic?

I'm not trying to shoot you down, but I come here to read about cannabis and coffeeshops in Amsterdam. I'm not trying to think about legalization, medical uses, and any of the positive or negative propaganda surrounding cannabis.

We have a category for medical / legalization / world MJ news, don't we?

Bob2 · Post by **Bob2** » Wed 6th Jan 2010 04:49 pm

what you want is here, plus thanks to puffin we get extra i like to stay informed on all latest news and i do thanks to puffin and he did name the subject UK: A One-pot Cannabinoid Analysis

geoffk · Post by **geoffk** » Wed 6th Jan 2010 04:57 pm

Thanks for posting Puff.

Sir Niall of Essex-sire · Wed 6th Jan 2010 05:56 pm

ZBeebs wrote:Can't we try to keep the forums on-topic?

I'm not trying to shoot you down, but I come here to read about cannabis and coffeeshops in Amsterdam. I'm not trying to think about legalization, medical uses, and any of the positive or negative propaganda surrounding cannabis.

We have a category for medical / legalization / world MJ news, don't we?

Probably not man, we're stoners, we go off track. However, this is a story on cannabis, its in the cannabis and coffeeshops section is it that misplaced? How much of your life did you waste reading this really? If you've seen Indiana Jones, its not that bad in comparsion to your life wasted doing that...off topic again

ZBeebs · Post by **ZBeebs** » Wed 6th Jan 2010 08:06 pm

Sir Niall of Essex-sire wrote:
ZBeebs wrote:Can't we try to keep the forums on-topic?

I'm not trying to shoot you down, but I come here to read about cannabis and coffeeshops in Amsterdam. I'm not trying to think about legalization, medical uses, and any of the positive or negative propaganda surrounding cannabis.

We have a category for medical / legalization / world MJ news, don't we?
Probably not man, we're stoners, we go off track. However, this is a story on cannabis, its in the cannabis and coffeeshops section is it that misplaced? How much of your life did you waste reading this really? If you've seen Indiana Jones, its not that bad in comparsion to your life wasted doing that...off topic again

The original Indiana Jones movies were awesome, I'm assuming you're talking about a remake or something?

My real issue is I expect in a forum like this for people to be REAL, and not throwing propaganda around (either pro or con). First of all, you're preaching to the choir, second of all, just because it's posted on the internet or some dude says so DOES NOT MAKE IT TRUE. We have a responsibility to disseminate legitimate information, and if it's not 100% factual we are actually doing a disservice to the legalization movement. The recent posts haven't been unbiased factual information. Medical studies are not automatically legit. Many times, information can be presented to show both sides, depending on how you look at it. Medical studies are many times wrong, or when looking at the facts you see that the "double blind large scale study" was actually a study of a very small sample with no control. It's easy to get excited when we see encouraging news, but we need to THINK and not just spread info for the sake of spreading info.

geoffk · Post by **geoffk** » Wed 6th Jan 2010 08:08 pm

ZBeebs wrote:First of all, you're preaching to the choir, second of all, just because it's posted on the internet or some dude says so DOES NOT MAKE IT TRUE. We have a responsibility to disseminate legitimate information, and if it's not 100% factual we are actually doing a disservice to the legalization movement. The recent posts haven't been unbiased factual information. Medical studies are not automatically legit. Many times, information can be presented to show both sides, depending on how you look at it. Medical studies are many times wrong, or when looking at the facts you see that the "double blind large scale study" was actually a study of a very small sample with no control. It's easy to get excited when we see encouraging news, but we need to THINK and not just spread info for the sake of spreading info.

Yes, that's why it's up to the reader to fact check. Puffin posts the source at the bottom for us to read and check it's source.

ZBeebs · Post by **ZBeebs** » Wed 6th Jan 2010 08:19 pm

And that's what I'm saying. I've looked at the sources, and I am far from convinced that any of it is legitimate information for informations sake. Instead it is info compiled for the pro-legalization movement and takes liberties with the "facts".

Marijuana is not a magical cure-all.

doobydave · Post by **doobydave** » Thu 7th Jan 2010 01:43 am

@ZBeebs

Marijuana is not a magical cure-all.

No. But it is provably very useful for a fairly large number of medical conditions. If you were to choose one substance to call a panacea, do you have any better suggestions?

I'm not trying to shoot you down, but I come here to read about cannabis and coffeeshops in Amsterdam.

You could always ask Lemming to alter the forum heading to fit in with your desires.

I understand your points about propaganda and the lack of credibility surrounding many claims made by people about marijuana, but this thread was never about cannabis as a panacea, just cannabis, cannabinoids and science.

Cal X · Post by **Cal X** » Thu 7th Jan 2010 04:37 am

ZBeebs wrote:What does this have to do with coffeeshops?

Sometimes members like to post material that pertains to a wide variety of cannabis issues. Some of these post's can be very informative. They can widen our understanding of the laws and opinions that shape the future of our favorite plant.They can also be funny or entertaining. I say, keep them coming.

Puffin13 · Post by **Puffin13** » Thu 7th Jan 2010 05:45 am

stuart1976 wrote:what you want is here, plus thanks to puffin we get extra i like to stay informed on all latest news and i do thanks to puffin and he did name the subject UK: A One-pot Cannabinoid Analysis

geoffk wrote:Thanks for posting Puff.

Most welcome as always guys! My pleasure bringing the relevant news here.

ZBeebs wrote:I'm not trying to shoot you down, but I come here to read about cannabis and coffeeshops in Amsterdam.

Then why click on a subject that is titled UK: A One-pot Cannabinoid Analysis? Just skip over it. Simple, huh?

ZBeebs wrote:I'm not trying to think about legalization, medical uses, and any of the positive or negative propaganda surrounding cannabis.

Maybe other people think about these things and not just their own agenda. Legalization and medical cannabis affect & interest many people.
If you're not interested in all this "propaganda", dont read my posts! Peace.