The Use of Polysaccharide-based Chiral Stationary Phases for the Achiral and Chiral Separation of Cannabinoids

Historically the analysis and study of cannabis and cannabis-related molecules has been challenging because of their collective legal status. With the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, at least some of those restrictions were eased, and a resulting boom in CBD production and CBD-containing products followed. The analyses of these products were limited to the easiest adaptable technology at the time, which was achiral reversed phase chromatography. For a time, this was sufficient, as the focus of the analyses were achiral in nature. However, more and more cannabinoids being identified or used to challenge the legal status of Δ9 THC are chiral in nature, and these achiral methods are not capable of performing the now necessary chiral separations. Polysaccharide-based chiral stationary phases have been widely used in the pharmaceutical industry for this purpose for many decades now, and are well suited to handle these similar analyses now for the cannabis industry. This presentation will cover the early and current efforts for the separation method development of achiral and chiral mixtures of cannabinoids on polysaccharide-based chiral stationary phases, or both analytical and preparative applications.

Learning Objectives:

1. Discuss the history and application of chiral chromatography.

2. Explain the application of mixed chiral and achiral separations for cannabinoids.