Quantitative Determination of Cannabinoids in Cannabis and Cannabis Products Using Ultra‐High‐Performance Supercritical Fluid Chromatography and Diode Array/Mass Spectrometric Detection

Ultra‐high‐performance supercritical fluid chromatography ( UHPSFC ) is an efficient analytical technique and has not been fully employed for the analysis of cannabis. Here, a novel method was developed for the analysis of 30 cannabis plant extracts and preparations using UHPSFC / PDA ‐ MS . Nine of the most abundant cannabinoids, viz . CBD , ∆ 8 ‐ THC , THCV , ∆ 9 ‐ THC , CBN , CBG , THCA ‐A, CBDA , and CBGA , were quantitatively determined ( RSD s < 6.9%). Unlike GC methods, no derivatization or decarboxylation was required prior to UHPSFC analysis. The UHPSFC chromatographic separation of cannabinoids displayed an inverse elution order compared to UHPLC . Combining with PDA ‐ MS , this orthogonality is valuable for discrimination of cannabinoids in complex matrices. The developed method was validated, and the quantification results were compared with a standard UHPLC method. The RSD s of these two methods were within ±13.0%. Finally, chemometric analysis including principal component analysis ( PCA ) and partial least squares‐discriminant analysis ( PLS ‐ DA ) were used to differentiate between cannabis samples.