Metabolic fingerprinting of Cannabis sativa L., cannabinoids and terpenoids for chemotaxonomic and drug standardization purposes.
Cannabis sativa L. is an important medicinal plant. In order to develop cannabis plant material as a medicinal product quality control and clear chemotaxonomic discrimination between varieties is a necessity. Therefore in this study 11 cannabis varieties were grown under the same environmental conditions. Chemical analysis of cannabis plant material used a gas chromatography flame ionization detection method that was validated for quantitative analysis of cannabis monoterpenoids, sesquiterpenoids, and cannabinoids. Quantitative data was analyzed using principal component analysis to determine which compounds are most important in discriminating cannabis varieties. In total 36 compounds were identified and quantified in the 11 varieties. Using principal component analysis each cannabis variety could be chemically discriminated. This methodology is useful for both chemotaxonomic discrimination of cannabis varieties and quality control of plant material.
Division of Pharmacognosy, Section Metabolomics, Institute of Biology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands. jtfische@gmail.com
Justin Thomas
JT
Fischedick
Arno
A
Hazekamp
Tjalling
T
Erkelens
Young Hae
YH
Choi
Rob
R
Verpoorte
D002186:Cannabinoids / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000592:standards*; D002188:Cannabis / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000145:classification; D002849:Chromatography, Gas; D015394:Molecular Structure; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000592:standards*; D010946:Plants, Medicinal / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000145:classification; D012015:Reference Standards; D013729:Terpenes / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000600:supply & distribution*
D002186:Cannabinoids; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations; D013729:Terpenes