Understanding cannabinoids.
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Last Friday, May 20th, the scientific journal PLOSone published an article titled “The phytochemical diversity of commercial Cannabis in the United States” in which the authors describe their analysis of over 90,000 cannabis test results, asking the critical question: what’s in a strain? Confidence Analytics contributed to the research paper by providing anonymized data about cannabinoids and terpenes to the authors.
The Confidence Cannabis Testing Analytical Lab is excited to announce that our extended cannabinoid analysis method is ready to launch! For all Washington State customers testing flower and concentrates, you will now start to see results on your Cannabis Certificate of Analysis (COA) for:
Measurement of cannabinoid content, or “the potency test”, is frequently discussed in cannabis analysis. Many such methods have been developed in the past few years, but none have yet been rigorously validated and shown to work consistently with real cannabis samples of all types. Consequently, labs testing cannabis are each using different methods of analysis, and no standardized method has been universally adopted.
A study published in Scientific Reports titled The Cannabinoid Content of Legal Cannabis in Washington State Varies Systematically Across Testing Facilitys and Popular Consumer Products has highlighted the need for standardized laboratory methodologies in the legal cannabis industry. Authored by Nick Jikomes PhD (Principal Research Scientist with Leafly‘s Division of Data Science) and Michael Zoorob (Department of Government, Harvard University), and based on the complete I-502 dataset collected between the opening of Washington’s recreational cannabis market in 2014 through to May 2017, the study documents systematic differences in the cannabinoid content reported by different laboratories in the state. These differences persisted even after controlling for differences related to the producers, product types, or strain names of the samples being processed by each lab.
At Confidence Analytics, we strive to understand more about Cannabis every day. Not only do we perform experiments to improve our procedures and data quality, but we have the opportunity to try new and exciting techniques in the laboratory.