Chemistry Seminar

An HPLC-DAD Method for Detecting Cannabidolic Acid and Cannabidiol

Presented by

Gabby Whiting

Friday, April 23rd, 2021 at 3pm

Abstract:
Cannabis sativa belongs to the botanical family Cannabaceae and is known for its multi-
directional and diverse activity.
The medical use of food supplements containing Cannabis sativa has attracted the interest of
consumers, as well as the medical and scientific community. With increasing consumption of
cannabis products, raised a concern of the potential discrepancy between the actual and declared
contents of active substances by the manufacturer in these products. As a result, it is crucial to
develop and elaborate on current analytical procedures for determining appropriate
phytocannabinoids.
This study focused on developing a simple, fast, and environmentally friendly liquid-
liquid extraction method. This method was combined with fat freezing from an oil sample to
isolate cannabidiol (CBD) and cannabidoilic acid (CBDA). The research considered using
minimal organic reagents and sample amounts.
The developed method used 500 µL of acetonitrile per 10 mg of an oil supplement
sample, fulfilling the ‘green method’ requirements. Under the optimal conditions, the extraction
recovery for CBD was 97.3-109% and for CBDA was 69.1-69.5% with a respective precision
(RSD %) of 5.0-8.4 and 7.1-10.6. The evaluated main analytical parameters, of the developed
high-pressure liquid chromatography with diode array detector (HPLC-DAD) method for CBD
and CBDA were satisfactory.
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