In an effort to increase public awareness, here's some analytical chemistry inside baseball explaining how a dishonest lab might "inflate" potency. For background, here are the basic HPLC cannabinoid analysis procedure steps: 1. Prepare calibration levels from NIST certified reference materials (CRM), 1000 part per million (ppm) each, by mixing and serial diluting to 0.5 - 100 ppm. Run on HPLC-DAD to get an absorbance vs concentration plot (calibration) for each cannabinoid. 2. Homogenize a sample of cannabis material and pull an aliquot 0.2 - 1.0 grams, depending on matrix and method. 3. Extract in a solvent such as ethanol or methanol (acetonitrile / methanol, if running DCC standard for non-infused flower). 4. Dilute the extraction at 10-1 and 100-1 levels, and run on the calibrated HPLC to acquire strong signals for both major and minor cannabinoids that fall within the curve bounds of 0.5 and 100 ppm. From the absorbance, your sample mass, extraction volume, and dilution factors, back-calculate the % w/w for each cannabinoid in each sample (software or Excel does this). To generate higher levels (INFLATE), for the steps above, use any or all of the following fraudulent tactics: 1. Prepare calibrators to be more dilute than the values entered in the instrument calibration software. Do this by winding the pipettor to slightly higher levels for the diluent additions ('water down' the calibration points, in layman's terms). All samples analyzed on the curve will report as slightly higher concentration than they are. 2. Homogenize only the high potency parts of the flower sample, or under-report the weight of the aliquot. For heterogeneous concentrates, aliquot more potent sections of the sample (diamonds, excluding the HTE, for example). 3. Over-report the extraction volume. One can wind down a dispensette pump to deliver 19.5 mL instead of 20 mL, for example (biasing all potencies high, in this case, by 2.5%). 4. Over-report the dilution factors for the 1-10 and 1-100 dilutions. Again, wind the pipettors to the preferred bias, adding less diluent than reported for each sample dilution so the vials are over-concentrated. CCA is not a testing lab. We produce Raw Garden cannabis products. We measure the potency of materials and formulations voluntarily and internally, and not only don’t inflate (why lie to ourselves?), we use an analytical balance for ALL FOUR of the steps described above, and calculate extraction volumes and dilution factors from those measurements. Pipettors are great small volume delivery tools, but given the obsession over potency reported values, pipettors are far too variable from injection to injection to trust with THC(a). It’s just too easy to lie about what you extracted and diluted for the purpose of making big $$. Scales don’t lie, they're traceable, and should be the standard for cannabinoid potency analysis extraction and dilution steps to minimize uncertainty and improve integrity of potency reporting.
Julian Amkraut
2mo
Kevin Kroeger and to think that list just barely scratches the surface!
CEO Raw Garden
2moWe are going to begin documenting these "extra steps" that the team takes in order to begin educating the consumer on what quality processes entail. The goal is to produce a 10-part series of commercials and podcasts.