Introduction
The classification of terpenes and terpenoids is an important aspect of cannabis analysis, due to the distinctive aroma and flavour that they impart, as well as their contributions to physiological effects and psychoactivity. In the case of medical cannabis, specific terpene profiles are engineered by plant breeders in order to give the desired therapeutic effects.[1]
However, the separation and quantitation of these diverse compounds can be challenging. Conventional GC–FID or GC–MS results in the abundance of important terpenes being over-estimated, due to the co-elution of similar compounds or oxygenated derivatives, and poor confidence in data quality.
Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC×GC) offers significant advantages over conventional chromatography for such analyses, with its vastly expanded separation space and the added benefit of highly structured groupings of compounds. This improved separation allows common co-elutions to be resolved without the need for expensive mass spectrometers or complicated deconvolution algorithms that may not correctly apportion the analyte peak area. Here we demonstrate the fast and efficient profiling of cannabis terpenes and terpenoids, using reverse fill/flush flow modulation for robust, repeatable and affordable GC×GC–FID, combined with simple but effective data-processing workflows.
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