Simultaneous determination of cannabidiol, cannabinol, and \gD9-tetrahydrocannabinol in human hair by gas chromatography-mass spectrometryin human hair by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

Abstract

An analytical method was developed for evaluating the cannabidiol (CBD), cannabinol (CBN), and delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (delta9-THC) level in human hair using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Hair samples (50 mg) were washed with isopropyl alcohol and cut into small fragments (< 1 mm). After adding a deuterated internal standard, the hair samples were incubated in 1.0 M NaOH for 10 min at 95 degrees C. The analytes from the resulting hydrolyzed samples were extracted using a mixture of n-hexane-ethyl acetate (75:25, v/v). The extracts were then evaporated, derivatized, and injected into the GC-MS. The recovery ranges of CBD, CBN, and delta9-THC at three concentration levels were 37.9-94.5% with good correlation coefficients (r2 >0.9989). The intra-day precision and accuracy ranged from -9.4% to 17.7%, and the inter-day precision and accuracy ranged from -15.5% to 14.5%, respectively. The limits of detection (LOD) for CBD, CBN, and delta9-THC were 0.005, 0.002, and 0.006 ng/mg, respectively. The applicability of this method of analyzing the hair samples from cannabis abusers was demonstrated.

Headspace solid‐phase microextraction of cannabinoids in human head hair samples

“…The identification of the main THC metabolite 11-nor-D-9-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid (THC-COOH) in hair, would certainly document active cannabis use more effectively than the detection of the parent drug or other cannabinoids such as CBD and CBN, which might come from environmental exposure [8,[25][26][27]. Nevertheless, this metabolite has much lower affinity for hair matrix (even compared with other cannabinoids) and, generally, is found only in pg/mg range.…”

“…Some methods have been described in the scientific literature for the determination of cannabinoids in hair samples. GC-MS is the technique of choice in the majority of these methods [3,[7][8][9][10][11]. Highest sensitivity was reached by the use of MS/MS [3,[12][13][14][15].…”

Simultaneous identification of 2-carboxy-tetrahydrocannabinol, tetrahydrocannabinol, cannabinol and cannabidiol in oral fluid

“…Various cannabinoids have been analyzed in plasma, blood and urine [1][2][3], but their detection in the more esoteric matrices such as sweat, oral fluid and hair has only recently been addressed. Kim et al [4] report an analytical method for the detection of CBN, CBD and THC in hair, with a detection limit of 6 pg/mg for THC. Other authors have analyzed cannabinoids in hair, using various techniques, such as solid-phase micro-extraction [5] and two-dimensional chromatography [6].…”

Chemistry and Biological Activity of Tetrahydrocannabinol and its Derivatives

“…However, as mentioned above, these detectors are commonly not used in routine analyses of forensic samples. Among PFPA and PFPOH, acylation reagents such as trifluoroacetic anhydride (TFAA) and N-methyl-bis(trifluoroacetamide) (MBTFA) are also used for analysis of cannabinoids in human materials [111][112][113][114]. Trideuterated THC-COOH (7.4) is the most commonly used internal standard for the analysis of metabolites with GC-MS. Baptista et al [103] have shown that the limit of quantification (LOQ) for the important metabolite THC-COOH is much more better if negative chemical ionization (NCI) is used instead of electron ionization (EI).…”