Quantification of sixteen cannabinoids in hemp seed edible oils and the influence of thermal processing on cannabinoid contents and profiles

Abstract

To investigate cannabinoid content and profiles, 16 cannabinoids were quantified in 30 commercial hemp seed edible oils. In addition, one hemp seed oil was subjected to thermal processing up to 200 °C for up to 60 min. UHPLC-MS/MS was used for analysis. The content of cannabinoids in the samples ranged from 9 to 279 mg kg⁻¹ (sum) and for Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC) from 0.2 to 6.7 mg kg⁻¹. Three samples exceeded the EU Δ9-THC equivalent maximum levels of 7.5 mg kg⁻¹ for hemp seed oils. Cannabinoid profiles can provide indications of different product characteristics (e.g. degree of processing, variety of plant material). Furthermore, intense thermal processing (200 °C, 60 min) led to 38% decrease in sum cannabinoid content (sum of all analysed cannabinoids in this study), 99% decrease in cannabinoid acids, and 22% increase in Δ9-THC.

Keywords:

• Δ9-THC
• THCA
• CBD
• food processing
• tandem mass spectrometry

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Niklas Lindekamp: Conceptualisation, Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing – Original Draft, Visualisation. Nadja Triesch: Conceptualisation, Methodology, Validation, Writing – Review & Editing, Supervision, Project administration. Sascha Rohn: Writing – Review & Editing, Supervision. Stefan Weigel: Conceptualisation, Writing – Review & Editing, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Sebastian Kemter and Michael Weiß for their support.

Disclosure statement

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.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from external funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.