Cannabidiol Extraction and Quantification: A Comparison of Four Solvent Based Extraction Methods in Gummy Matrices

The changing laws regarding the legal definition of hemp in Ohio have resulted in a need for forensic labs to perform quantitative analysis of cannabinoids, rather than the purely qualitative analysis used in the past. Some methods have been proposed for this, but cannabinoid products come in a wide range of sample matrices which makes it hard to determine how best to extract the regulated substance, delta-9-Tetrahydracannabinil (THC). Four extraction methods were tested for the purposes of comparison: an acetonitrile soak, a QuEChERS method, a method used by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and a method used by the Virginia Department of Forensic Science (VDFS). The methods were performed and changed based on previous research to determine if they could efficiently extract cannabidiol (CBD) from a gummy matrix. CBD is structurally similar to THC, though CBD is unregulated. These four methods were tested on CBDFX mixed berry gummies. The percent recoveries of the methods were statistically different from each other, with QuEChERS performing the best and VDFS the worst. Using percent recovery to determine the best method of the four, QuEChERS was then also tested on R+R Medicinals alpine strawberry and cbdMD tropical mix gummies to determine the consistency of the method’s performance. The QuEChERS method was also found to perform with a significant difference between the cbdMD brand and R+R Medicinals brand gummies. Further research is necessary to develop and optimize a suitable method for the extraction and quantification of CBD and THC from a gummy matrix.