Special Issues-05-02-2017

The wide dynamic range of ICP-MS allows it to be used for the simultaneous determination of parts-per-billion levels of heavy metals including lead, arsenic, cadmium, and mercury, together with high parts-per-million levels of nutritional elements, such as phosphorus, calcium, potassium, and magnesium.

With the recent legalization of cannabis in several states, there is a growing need for robust, reliable, and cost-effective analytical methods to facilitate routine testing for potency and contaminants. Here we present an LC–MS/MS method that uses the budget-friendly SCIEX Triple Quad 3500 LC–MS/MS system for the simultaneous detection and quantification of cannabinoids, pesticides, and mycotoxins in cannabis products using the Scheduled MRM algorithm.

Well-established techniques used by the food safety industry, such as QuEChERS sample preparation followed by LC–MS/MS for the analysis of multiresidue pesticides, are evaluated for use with cannabis plant material.We evaluated a modified QuEChERS LC-MS/MS method for analysis of multiresidue pesticides.

Headspace SPME combined with GC–MS for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of terpenes in cannabis offers several advantages compared to other methods. It does not require the use of organic solvents, does not coextract matrix, and provides additional means of peak identification and purity using spectral data. It is also a nondestructive method.

The method presented here allows for the accurate, precise, and robust speciation, profiling, and quantification of cannabinoids in hemp oil extracts and commercial cannabinoid products for research and development laboratories.

Click the title above to open the Spectroscopy May 2017 Advancing the Analysis of Medical Cannabis Supplement, Vol 32 No s5, in an interactive PDF format.

The method described here allows for the simultaneous analysis of 47 pesticides and five mycotoxins in cannabis in one simple QuEChERS procedure. This simple method is designed for implementation in start-up laboratories and in established laboratories that wish to streamline their sample preparation process, decrease solvent usage, and obtain accurate and fast results.