The main purpose of this work was to develop and validate a method for detection and quantification of cannabinoids in different hemp samples. Nowadays a lot of attention has been paid to the plant called Cannabis sativa and the main reason for this interest is its therapeutic effect. Cannabis sativa has more than 500 compounds from which the major role of activity performs compounds known as cannabinoids [1]. Phytocannabinoids possess a lot of different activities such as analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antimimetic and anticancer effects, and that is why these compounds has such a big interest [2].
The fact that the cannabis plant has a lot of different compounds makes it a complex matrix and it requires an accurate and reliable method for determination of cannabinoids. One of the main methods which have been mainly used in the most of research works dealing with the analysis of cannabinoids is a high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) [3]. This method suggest fast and reliable determination and quantification of the main cannabinoids in different cannabis matrices. Consequently our main focus was on the development and validation of efficient and accurate HPLC method. We developed the analytical method, which in 11 minutes allows to determine a broad spectrum of cannabinoids in different hemp samples (Fig. 1). The method was validated for the hemp biomass and hemp oil showing good sensitivity – LOD for hemp biomass 0,0005 % - 0,018%, for oil 0,001 % - 0,036 %, LOQ for hemp biomass 0,002 % - 0,055 % and for hemp oil 0,003 % - 0,110%.
This method was successfully applied for the detection and quantification of 8 cannabinoids analytes in different real samples available in a local market. The concentrations were compared to the specified by the manufacturers.