Removal of Purple Pigmentation from Cannabis using QuEChERS Extraction, ChloroFiltr® dSPE Clean-up and LC-MS/MS

Cannabis testing laboratories have the challenge of removing a variety of unwanted matrix components from plant material prior to running extracts on their LC-MS/MS or GC-MS. The complexity of the cannabis plant presents additional analytical challenges that do not need to be accounted for in other agricultural products. Up to a third of the overall mass of cannabis seed, half of usable flower, and nearly all of extracts can be contributed to essential oils such as terpenes, flavonoids and actual cannabinoid content (1). The biodiversity of this plant is exhibited in the over 2,000 unique strains that have been identified, each with their own pigmentation, cannabinoid profile and overall suggested medicinal use (2). While novel methods have been developed for the removal of chlorophyll, few, if any, sample preparation methods have been devoted to removal of other colored pigments from cannabis.

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