Abstract
The focus of this critical insight article is a brief overview of analytical challenges the cannabis industry faces and how analytical chemists have new opportunities to demonstrate the merits of employing mass spectrometry for the chemical analysis of cannabis and its products. The current range of cannabis products extends from recreational use to medicines, edibles, beverages, and beyond. The standards employed to assure product quality, integrity, and safety are lacking compared to those currently used by the pharmaceutical, food, and beverage industries. This manuscript overviews some of the important analytical issues that exist for the growth and harvest of the cannabis plant to the production of a wide variety of its products. Currently, the topics of interest for safety in cannabis testing where mass spectrometry can play an important role include what are currently referred to as potency, pesticides, terpenes, heavy metals, and mycotoxins from bacteria. Since each state in the USA as well as several countries has their own regulations, the analytical opportunities and challenges vary depending upon which jurisdiction a laboratory is supporting. This Critical Insight report will suggest where mass spectrometry can play an important role and provide valuable input on these topics.Graphical
Highlights
The cannabis industry is in its infancy, it is forecast to be a $22 billion industry by 2022 [1]
There is a recent report employing LC/MS/MS techniques with atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) [24]. This approach may not have the optimal chromatographic separation efficiency compared to capillary GC columns, but when combined with the mixture analysis capabilities of tandem mass spectrometry may produce the results needed while being amenable to some of the other important cannabis compounds in the same sample
There is an urgent need for accurate and precise chemical analysis of large sample numbers ranging from cannabis plant materials to final products including medicinal products, foods, and biological fluids
Summary
The cannabis industry is in its infancy, it is forecast to be a $22 billion industry by 2022 [1]. In contrast to HPLC/PDA, if either LC/MS or LC/MS/MS analysis of the same sample is performed, the considerably higher selectivity of either of these techniques could facilitate qualitative identification of unknown compounds as well as mitigate the potential for unexpected chemical interferences for the quantitative determination of the targeted compound [19].
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