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Interested in Stable Cannabinoids Acids Standards?

23 May 2022

The significant growth of the global cannabis market over the last three years is an indicator of the expanded use of cannabis and its derived goods among the world population. In fact, the global legal cannabis market size was estimated at USD 12.81 billion in 2020, and it is projected to reach USD 43 billion by 20251,2. Undoubtedly, such substantial market size and predicted growth reflects the broad variety of cannabis and hemp products that are being commercialized currently, and confirms the continuous need for robust and cost effective testing methods. Although cannabis testing requirements vary significantly from region to region, quantitative analysis of cannabinoids in any type of cannabis or hemp product, also known as potency, has been widely adopted as a requirement in most regions where at least one form of cannabis use has been legalized.

At Restek, we are aware of the challenges associated with the analysis of cannabinoids in diverse matrices, and we are fully committed to help testing labs succeed in the implementation of reliable potency methods. We combined the voice of our customers with  our years of expertise developing high quality certified reference materials in order to develop and recently release our neutrals 9 and acids 7 mixes, which contain 9 and 7 cannabinoids at 1000 µg/mL, respectively. These unique standard solutions offer cannabis labs enhanced flexibility and simplicity when preparing calibration curves, minimize chances of introducing errors, and greatly facilitate the matrix spiking step when optimizing extraction conditions. In order to tackle the susceptibility to degradation of the acid forms of cannabinoids, we thoughtfully formulated our cannabinoids acids 7 mix with key additives such as DIPEA and ascorbic acid to enable maximum stability of acid cannabinoids in solution. Although our neutrals 9 and acids 7 standard mixes pair well to help analysts perform a thorough potency analysis of 16 major cannabinoids in any samples of interest using our Raptor ARC-18 column, we understand that customers’ needs vary, and that having access to single analyte standards is essential in method development and troubleshooting. For that reason, we are very excited to introduce our three new cannabinoids acid singles: cannabicyclolic acid (CBLA) (500 µg/mL, cannabichromenic acid (CBCA) (1000 µg/mL and cannabinolic acid (CBNA)(1000 µg/mL). These new single reference standards stand out from other similar products available in the market because they have been formulated using the same stabilizers added to our acids 7 mix for maximum reliability. In fact, Figure 1 presents some of the data we collected when studying the stability of these new standards (tetrahydrocannabivarinic acid (THCVA) will be coming soon). As can be seen, the use of stabilizers significantly diminished the degradation of all analytes when stored for seven days at 0, 10, and 25 ⁰C.

Undoubtedly, the addition of our cannabinoids mixes and these new acids singles to the Restek family of cannabinoids certified standards will help cannabis testing labs and other customers in achieving the best results.

 

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Figure 1. Degradation of CBLA (A), CBCA (B), CBNA (C), and THCVA (coming soon) (D) at different storage temperatures, with and without stabilizers (DIPEA and ascorbic acid, at 1 and 0.05%, respectively). Data was collected from standards kept in sealed ampules.

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