Cannabis Sativa L.: a comprehensive review on the analytical methodologies for cannabinoids and terpenes characterization.

The global Cannabis Sativa market, including essential oils, foods, personal-care products, and medical formulations has gained much attention over the last years due to the favorable regulatory framework. Undoubtedly, the enormous interest about cannabis cultivation mainly derives from the well-known pharmacological properties of cannabinoids and terpenes biosynthesized by the plants. In this review, the most recently used analytical methodologies for detecting both cannabinoids and terpenes are described. Well-established and innovative extraction protocols, and chromatographic separations, such as GC and HPLC, are reviewed highlighting their respective advantages and drawbacks. Lastly, GC × GC techniques are also reported for accurate identification and quantification of terpenes in complex cannabis matrices.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier B.V.)