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Potency Testing Alternatives






            SFC Analysis


            HPLC has long been considered the gold standard for the quantitative analysis of cannabinoids in cannabis and
            hemp growing for its robust methods, efficacy for both acid and neutral forms, and its simple sample preparation.
            A lesser known technique is supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) which uses supercritical CO  as the primary
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            mobile phase.

            SFC offers advantages over HPLC. First, the use of CO
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            allows for increased flow rates due to the lower viscosity
            and backpressure compared to aqueous solvents. In
            addition, SFC is generally regarded as a “green” technique
            due to the minimization of organic solvents and reduced
            generation of hazardous waste. This has the added
            advantage of reducing the operating cost of the instrument
            as far less hazardous waste is produced. For the full
            application, request Shimadzu’s Application News No.
            HPLC-034 for analysis of 9 cannabinoids.



                                                                   Analysis of 9 cannabinoids with Shimadzu’s Nexera
            GC or GCMS Analysis                                    UC Supercritical Fluid Chromatograph (SFC)


            Gas Chromatography with a Flame Ionization Detector (GC-FID) is a lower cost alternative for cannabinoid analysis;
            however, the acidic compounds, such as THCA, CBDA, and CBGA, are converted to the neutral forms of THC, CBD,
            and CBG, respectively. The result is Total delta-9-THC = delta-9 THC + delta-9-THCA, and similarly for Total CBD
            and Total CBG because of the hot injector port. The addition of an FID to any GCMS can offer a wider dynamic
            range.


            Using GC-MS(/MS) has advantages over the FID detector due to the same discussions from before about mass
            spectrometers over other detectors. As expected, the cost of MS increases the price of the instrumentation. Shown
            is an example of using Shimadzu’s 11-part cannabinoid mix (220-91239-21), but only 8 peaks appear because the
            acid to neutral conversion applies to GC-MS(/MS) as well. There are GC-based methods for measuring the acidic
            compounds using a chemical process called derivatization. 1



















                                                                                   Analysis of 11 Cannabinoids
                                                                                   with Shimadzu’s GCMS

            1 Journal of Food and Drug Analysis (2018) 1283 -1292, Vladimiro Cardenia et al.
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