The growing popularity of cannabis products and recent legalization of cannabis for recreational purposes have contributed to the increase of the demand for analytical methods able to give a detailed characterization of cannabis samples and derivatives. In this context, one of the aspects that is strongly emerging is about the hazardous potential of uncharacterized minor cannabinoids, including chiral ones, for which achiral potency testing methods currently employed do not give any information. For this reason, there is a growing interest towards the development of liquid chromatographic methods for the enantioseparation of cannabinoids. Therefore, the retention behavior of five main cannabinoids (CBD, CBDA, CBC, (−)-D9-THC and THCA) has been investigated on nine immobilised polysaccharide-based chiral stationary phases (CSPs) with different substituents, under reversed phase conditions. These nine columns are Chiralpak IA, IB-N, IC, ID, IE, IF, IG, IH and IJ. Results showed that chemo selectivity of CSPs is not affected by changes in mobile phase composition, in the range of mobile phase investigated. In addition, the presence of electron withdrawing groups on the CSPs systematically leads to shorter retention times compared to when electron donating groups are present [1]. These findings suggest that polysaccharide-based columns are suitable for the analytical separation and quantification of the main cannabinoids present in real samples. Indeed, they can be employed for the characterization of cannabis products and derivatives also from the point of view of chirality.
Investigation of retention behavior of natural cannabinoids on differently substituted polysaccharide-based chiral stationary phases under reversed-phase liquid chromatographic conditions
Greta Compagnin;Alessandro Buratti;Simona Felletti;Chiara De Luca;Alberto Cavazzini;Martina Catani
2022
Abstract
The growing popularity of cannabis products and recent legalization of cannabis for recreational purposes have contributed to the increase of the demand for analytical methods able to give a detailed characterization of cannabis samples and derivatives. In this context, one of the aspects that is strongly emerging is about the hazardous potential of uncharacterized minor cannabinoids, including chiral ones, for which achiral potency testing methods currently employed do not give any information. For this reason, there is a growing interest towards the development of liquid chromatographic methods for the enantioseparation of cannabinoids. Therefore, the retention behavior of five main cannabinoids (CBD, CBDA, CBC, (−)-D9-THC and THCA) has been investigated on nine immobilised polysaccharide-based chiral stationary phases (CSPs) with different substituents, under reversed phase conditions. These nine columns are Chiralpak IA, IB-N, IC, ID, IE, IF, IG, IH and IJ. Results showed that chemo selectivity of CSPs is not affected by changes in mobile phase composition, in the range of mobile phase investigated. In addition, the presence of electron withdrawing groups on the CSPs systematically leads to shorter retention times compared to when electron donating groups are present [1]. These findings suggest that polysaccharide-based columns are suitable for the analytical separation and quantification of the main cannabinoids present in real samples. Indeed, they can be employed for the characterization of cannabis products and derivatives also from the point of view of chirality.I documenti in SFERA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
