Improved Profiling of Cannabis Terpenes for Accurate Product Labelling Using GC×GC
There are three main sub-species of cannabis—indica, sativa, and ruderalis—but there are hundreds of commercial strains based on these sub-species and their hybrids. Profiling the terpene content in these strains is vital to provide accurate labelling of cannabis-based products, but it can be very challenging. The usual technique for this—one-dimensional gas chromatography (GC)—is not always reliable when it comes to separating the diverse classes of terpenes. This article illustrates how two-dimensional GC (GC×GC) coupled with mass spectrometry (MS) can be used to profile cannabis terpenes with enhanced separation, resulting in the confident identification of terpenes and improved flavour interpretation.
