Pesticides

Testing cannabis for pesticides is an important step in ensuring product safety and quality. The number of regulated pesticides that are required to be monitored varies by state, as do the action limits which range from 0.01 µg/g (10 ppb) to above 1 µg/g (1 ppm). Waters robust and rapid method for monitoring pesticides delivers results below the current guidelines so that you are compliant today and in the future.

Essential Reading:
Oregon Pesticide Solution | California Pesticides Solution 

Recommended Products: 

Xevo TQ-S micro LC-MS/MS 
For accurate analysis of most pesticides

Xevo TQ-GC GC-MS/MS 
For pesticides that require a harder ionization technique

Key benefits

• Simple extraction and dispersive SPE (dSPE) clean up procedure
• Pre-existing LC, GC, MS and Data Processing methods from Quanpedia Database for maximum efficiency gains
• LC-MS/MS and GC-MS/MS analysis using a common MassLynx software

Mycotoxins

Mycotoxins are a group of naturally occuring chemicals produced by certain moulds which can grow on crops produced, transported or stored in humid and warm conditions.  Mycotoxins, and in particular aflatoxins (G2, G1, B2 and B1) and Ochratoxin A, can cause a variety of adverse health effects. Waters offers a range of options for monitoring mycotoxin levels from simple, easy to use strip tests to confirmatory analysis using LC-MS/MS.

Essential Reading: 
California Pesticides Solution 

Recommended Products:

Vicam Aflatoxin test kits 
For instant and simple screening

Vicam Series-4EX Fluorometer 
For fast measurement at ppt levels

Xevo TQ-S micro LC-MS/MS 
To accurately determine sub ppb trace levels

Key benefits

• Screen aflatoxins at 20ppb levels using AflaCheck strip tests
• Simultaneous analysis of pesticides and mycotoxins
• Quantitative and confirmatory analysis using LC-MS/MS

Potency

Cannabis sativa is a complex natural product that is known to produce at least 100 different cannabinoids. Traditionally, laboratories have focused their analysis on five core compounds that the strength of any cannabis product is measured by: d9-THC, THC-A, CBD-A, CBD, and CBN. 

Recently, more attention has been paid to some of the other minor cannabinoids, which requires methods that are capable of higher resolution separations. High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and Ultra Performance LC are ideal for potency determination as they can identify and measure structurally similar cannabinoids and their different forms (e.g. free form and corresponding acid forms of THC and CBD) in a single analysis.

Essential Reading:  
Simple isocratic separation of 16 cannabinoids

Recommended Products:

Alliance HPLC 
Ideal for small to mid size labs

ACQUITY H-Class Plus UPLC 
For high throughput in large organizations

ACQUITY UPC² 
For challenging chiral cannabinoid separation

Key Benefits

• 16 cannabinoids fully separated in just 26 minutes using HPLC
• Rapid analysis of cannabinoids under 10 minutes using UPLC method
• Separation of structurally similar cannabinoids using UPC²