Cannabis, Cannabis sativa, which use dates back to millennia BC, is a plant of »thousands of molecules«. It is known for its many properties, which make the raw material useful for a variety of purposes in the cosmetics, food, pharmaceutical, and construction industries. It is also the main topic in many professional and scientific publications, yet we rarely find a comparison of cannabis extraction methods. The purpose of this thesis was to analyze the composition of various cannabis extracts obtained by extraction processes with subcritical water, supercritical CO2, and organic solvents. The presence of cannabinoids was analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), the presence of volatile compounds was investigated by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS), and the antioxidant activity of individual extracts was determined by DPPH and ABTS. With the obtained results, we showed the differences in the composition of extracts according to different methods of extraction, and at the same time evaluated the suitability and significance of each method for obtaining the investigated compounds.
We found out that the extracts differ significantly, both in the qualitative and quantitative content of the tested compounds. CV3 had the highest content of cannabinoids among extracts obtained with supercritical CO2 (52.71%), SV15 (0.06%) among extracts obtained with subcritical water, and ethanolic extract among extracts obtained with organic solvents. (5.28%). The highest content of total terpene compounds was found in the extract obtained with subcritical water at 190 ° C and 20 bar (52.22%), followed by the extract obtained with supercritical CO2 CV3 (38.18%), and its aqueous residue, CO2 water (32.09%). Among the extracts obtained with organic solvents, the methanol extract had the highest content of total terpene compounds (4.59%). The highest antioxidative activity was shown by extracts obtained with supercritical CO2, mainly the CV3 extract, followed by extracts obtained with subcritical water, where SV15 extract predominates, and the extracts obtained with organic solvents had the lowest antioxidative activity, among which the methanol extract had the best effect.
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