Julie Kowalski

For cannabis flower, cannabinoids occur at concentrations far too high for traditional spike recovery experiments to meaningfully assess extraction efficiency. Even large spike additions contribute only a small fraction of the total analyte mass, making recovery results insensitive to extraction performance. This article explains why extraction efficiency for cannabinoid methods must instead be established through matrix-exhaustive, sequential extraction studies.

Conventional approaches for determining limits of detection (LOD), such as signal-to-noise ratios and repeated measurement methods designed for single-signal detection, can result in unrealistic LOD values because they often fail to account for multi-signal identification and the disproportionate generation of analyte and noise signals in mass spectrometry techniques such as selected ion monitoring (SIM) and multiple reaction monitoring (MRM). This article proposes a practical alternative compared to standard approaches.

This article will briefly introduce GC splitless inlet anatomy and show a simple example for how optimizing injection type and volume, initial GC oven temperature, and extract dilution can improve GC peak shape.

Well-established techniques used by the food safety industry, such as QuEChERS sample preparation followed by LC–MS/MS for the analysis of multiresidue pesticides, are evaluated for use with cannabis plant material.