Pop quiz! What is the difference between Blue Dream and Durban Poison? These two strains have similar cannabinoid profiles, are both considered to be sativa strain, and both even have a similar bud structure and color palette. So what makes these two strains – and the associated high – completely different from one another? Need a hint? Follow your nose.
Any particular strain’s aromatic profile can be broken down into hundreds of unique compounds that, when combined, form the “bouquet” of a strain’s scent. These aromatic compounds can include flavonoids, esters, ketones, and fatty acids, but the most abundant – and arguably important – are a class of chemicals called terpenes. Terpenes, together with the other aromatic compounds in cannabis, are what differentiates one strain from another. Long thought to be only responsible for the aroma of different cannabis strains, research has found significant evidence that terpenes are also responsible for the different kinds of highs associated with different strains. There is even evidence of therapeutic benefits of terpenes when taken together with cannabinoids, a phenomenon dubbed the “Entourage Effect.”
The analysis of terpenes has benefits across the spectrum of the cannabis industry, from cultivators, to extractors, to consumers. Knowing the terpene profile, as well as the cannabinoid profile of a given strain gives power and knowledge when making decisions about one’s health or their desired experience with cannabis. At Lab Link Testing, we utilize Gas Chromatography coupled with Mass Spectroscopy (GC-MS) to identify and quantify 65 unique terpenes in flower, concentrates, and vape cartridges.
Unlike cannabinoids, terpenes are semi-volatile, which means that they are more likely to evaporate at ambient temperatures – that’s why we smell terpenes and not cannabinoids after all! Due to this unique challenge, gas chromatography is the industry standard when it comes to terpene analysis. Another challenge facing accurate terpene analysis is the similarity in chemical structure. Terpenes are a class of chemical, which means that they all have similar chemical properties. This can make separating α-pinene from β-pinene incredibly difficult. Add on another 64 unique terpenes and it becomes a veritable mess of imprecision and uncertainty. This is where Mass Spectroscopy comes in. While each terpene is like a cousin to every other terpene, Mass Spectroscopy is able to take these similar compounds and separate them out by comparing known spectra – a unique “fingerprint” for every chemical (not just terpenes!).
Lab Link’s methodology combines the separation power of chromatography with the specificity of mass spectroscopy to accurately identify and quantitate more terpenes than most other labs, with the robustness to add more terpenes and aromatic compounds to our repertoire in the future.
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The cannabinoids and terpenes found in cannabis concentrates are often extracted through the use of organic solvents such as butane, ethanol, and pentane. In fact, the “B” in BHO stands for butane, meaning that butane was the solvent used to extract and concentrate the raw cannabis biomass into Butane Hash Oil. Though these solvents – and others used in cleaning/sterilization like isopropyl alcohol and acetone – are widely used in the cannabis extraction industry, that does not mean they are safe to consumer, either through inhalation or ingestion.
Though most of these solvents will evaporate at room temperature, when dissolved in cannabis concentrates, they are trapped and will remain in the final product until adequately purged. This makes residual solvent analysis incredibly important to both the production and sale of cannabis concentrates.
The state of Michigan requires the analysis and quantitation of 28 solvents including butane, hexane, benzene, and chloroform, in all edible products, concentrates that have used solvents in the extraction process, and vape cartridge concentrates. To test for these chemicals, Lab Link utilizes Gas Chromatography coupled with Mass Spectroscopy and a headspace sample introduction system (HSGC-MS)
The benefits of headspace analysis are two-fold. Firstly, because of the volatility of the analytes in question, headspace sample introduction allows for us to harness that volatility by sampling the gas within a vial instead of a liquid which could allow for evaporation. The second benefit comes from the minute sample size required for accurate quantification. Lab Link uses only 50 milligrams of sample for each residual solvents analysis. Using a small sample size has multiple benefits when it comes to the safety of lab staff as well – the smaller the sample size, the less risky exposure of toxic chemicals such as toluene and methylene chloride.
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In 2019, the CDC reported a total of 2,506 hospitalizations and 54 deaths due to a condition coined EVALI. What is EVALI? EVALI stands for E-Cigarette or Vaping Use-Associated Lung Injury. It’s a serious medical condition likely linked to the presence of Vitamin E Acetate in nicotine and cannabis vape products.
Before the health hazards were assessed, Vitamin E Acetate was often used to thin out the thick viscous liquid produced in the manufacture of cannabis distillate. Now that the health risks have been defined, it’s important for vape products to remain clean of this potentially deadly additive.
Similar to the analyses of pesticides and mycotoxins, Lab Link utilizes Liquid Chromatography coupled with tandem Mass Spectrometry separate and quantify Vitamin E Acetate in vape cartridges. As with all chromatography methods, a sample’s result is identified by comparing its result to that of a reference standard and is quantified by measuring a series of different concentrations of reference material and plotting the sample result against the line formed by the calibration standards. In the case of a single analyte, like Vitamin E Acetate, we use mass spectroscopy to target Vitamin E Acetate specifically. A cannabis matrix is complex, with often hundreds, if not thousands, of unique chemicals present, so the specificity that mass spectroscopy allows is critical.
Due to the seriousness of EVALI and the widespread damage it has caused, Lab Link carefully analyzes each vape cartridge that comes through our doors.
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Did you know that hemp – industrial cannabis that contains less that 0.3% THC by weight – is being used to remediate soil contaminated with heavy metals such as lead and cadmium? Hemp was even used in the 1990s to help clean up fields contaminated with heavy metals near Chernobyl. However, due to cannabis’s ability to draw environmental contaminants into its own tissues, toxic metals such as arsenic and mercury can accumulate within the plant, which can then be consumed, or concentrated further through extraction.
Lab Link currently analyzes every cannabis sample for seven metals – lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury, copper, nickel and chromium – through the use of Inductively Coupled Plasma coupled with Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS).
Getting a cannabis sample ready for analysis is a bit complex and involves digesting the sample in a mixture of nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide. If you’re interested to see a similar reaction, go check out what piranha liquid does to a hot dog. This digestion process breaks apart molecules with incredibly efficiency, leaving only their constituent atoms behind. This liquified atom soup is then blasted with a beam of plasma, but it’s not the stuff found in your blood. This kind of plasma is one of the four fundamental states of matter and it is characterized by the presence of charged particles. It’s also hotter than the sun. The most common form of plasma that you’re familiar with is lightning. Another instance of plasma in the real world is the light produced in neon signs. We, at Lab Link, use our plasma to charge the atoms in our sample which are then measured and quantified against known standards of each metal.
While we aren’t using our plasma to make a science fiction blaster like the one Han Solo used, we think our plasma beam is still pretty cool.
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Water activity refers to the ratio of vapor pressure of water in cannabis plant material or infused edibles. The results of a water activity analysis can be incredibly informative. A higher water activity result indicates that water is more available for microbes as a food source, therefore assisting the growth of microorganisms. A higher water activity result can also support chemical and enzymatic reactions that can reduce shelf life.
To reduce the risk of microbial growth and prolong shelf life, water activity levels in raw plant material such as flower and trim, should be no more than 0.65, while infused edible products should read no more than 0.85.
And here’s a fun fact to close out an otherwise technical section: because it’s a ratio, water activity has no units.
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Whenever a sample fails for any species of Aspergillus fungi, subsequent testing for mycotoxins is required in the state of Michigan. Mycotoxins are toxic substances that are produced as a result of fungal growth. These byproducts carry their own slew of health risks and hazards and can exist within a cannabis sample even if the sample has undergone processes to kill off mold. Lab Link uses Liquid Chromatography coupled with tandem Mass Spectroscopy (LCMS-MS) to detect ultra-low levels of mycotoxins including four types of aflatoxin and ochratoxin – the most commonly found mycotoxins in cannabis products.
Mycotoxins exist in cannabis in incredibly small amounts and LCMS-MS is truly the only answer for their analysis. Capable of generating accurate results down to the part per trillion, liquid chromatography first separates the mycotoxins from one another and then the mass spectrometer breaks the molecules into ion fragments, which are then compared to a known spectra – or chemical fingerprint – to validate the result.
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Imazalil. Jasmolin. Metalaxyl. Cinerin. Are these Tolkien-esque elves of Targaryen descent? Prescription medications? Nope, the four substances listed above are all pesticides that Lab Link tests for in cannabis products such as vapes, raw plant material, and edibles. In fact, every cannabis product found in dispensaries has mandated pesticide testing. Michigan tests require 67 of these potentially harmful substances to be analyzed. Lab Link uses Liquid Chromatography coupled with tandem Mass Spectroscopy (LCMS-MS) to detect ultra-low quantities of each of these pesticides, down to parts per trillion!
So how do these chemicals make it into cannabis products in the first place? First and foremost, cannabis, as a live plant, is a fantastic phytomediator, meaning that it absorbs all sorts of toxins from the environment into its tissues. These toxins can stay within and on the plant through multiple flushes and washes, no matter where pesticides are used, whether in the soil or on a juvenile plant. Furthermore, when cannabis biomass is concentrated into wax, shatter, and distillate, everything within that biomass is being concentrated, not just the good stuff.
Although pest, herb, and insecticides can produce a higher yield of cannabis crops, the chemicals and active ingredients in the pesticides tested for are inherently dangerous to human health and do not belong in our bodies.
Being able to accurately measure all of these potentially hazardous compounds is no easy task. LCMS-MS is largely the industry standard when looking for such minute quantities. Liquid chromatography allows for the separation of many of these compounds, but liquid chromatography alone isn’t enough to separate them completely. That’s where the mass spectrometer comes in. A mass spectrometer is able to analyze the chemical fingerprint (or spectra) of any particular analyte – as long as it knows where to look. By comparing the spectra of what is found in cannabis samples to a reference standard, we can positively identify all pesticides in our analysis. The second mass spectrometer allows us to get even more resolution and it’s the coupling of these two mass spectrometer systems that allows us to make a big deal out of one part per trillion.
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In the cannabis industry, precise labeling is essential to when building customer trust and loyalty. Patients using cannabinoids for medicinal purposes rely on accurate cannabinoid profiling to treat their illnesses safely and effectively, while recreational users also require accurate information to safely make informed decisions regarding dosage.
The potency and composition of cannabinoids can vary depending on cultivation, harvesting, and processing methods, with each strain having a unique biological effect. Accurate analysis of cannabinoid ratios, such as THC to CBD, allows for proper determination of a product’s efficacy and application. Lab Link offers extensive cannabinoid profiling to reinforce quality expectations in cultivation and manufacturing processes, providing additional confidence for consumers.
Lab Link employs High Performance Liquid Chromatography with Diode Array Detection (HPLC-DAD) to provide a comprehensive cannabinoid profile of sixteen cannabinoids. Our CRA-approved potency method was developed in-house by our experts utilizing industry best practices and exceeds AOAC Method Performance Requirements to deliver the most accurate results possible.
HPLC is considered the ideal method for analyzing cannabinoids in cannabis products due to its versatility, high sensitivity, robustness, reproducibility, and sample throughput capabilities. HPLC enables accurate and reliable analysis of cannabinoids in different cannabis products, such as plant material, infused edibles, and cannabis concentrates, providing critical information for potency determination, quality control, and safety assessment.
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