Cannabis (Cannabis sativa L.) is a plant, which is becoming more enticing to the pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetic industry, because it contains numerous secondary metabolites, the most important of which are cannabinoids that have soothing effects on the physiological processes of humans and animals. Because there is very little existing literature on the stability of cannabinoids, we decided, to test their stability in different plant oils and butters.
We tested the stability of four different sources of cannabinoids. Namely, the pure, isolated cannabinoid (CBD), isopropanolic cannabis extract, CO2 cannabis extract and cannabis trichomes. Here, we used 4 different lipophilic mediums: cannabis oil (with or without terpenes) MTC oil, coconut oil and cocoa butter. With the isopropanol extract and trichomes we also tested the stability of cannabinoids without the added medium. In this way, we prepared 14 different samples in 2 parallels, which we placed in an improvised stability chamber (glassware dryer) on 40 °C. We then determined the cannabinoid content in samples kept at 40 °C after 34 days, and after 99 days using HPLC analysis.
In doing so, we tested the changes in the concentration of cannabinoids CBD, CBDA, Δ9-THC, CBN, CBG, and CBC. We came to the conclusion, that the concentration of the cannabinoids CBD, CBG and CBC, only slight changes, from which we can conclude that these cannabinoids are stable. With the passage of time CBDA was changing into the CBD, Δ9-THC, however, proved to be the least stable cannabinoid, as its concentration decreased by almost half in most samples. As a result, the CBN concentration increased, but a material deficit was created, with which we proved that not only CBN but also other intermediates are formed during Δ9-THC decay.
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