Genetics & Research in Cannabis & Hemp

Heavy Metals can be absorbed into the cannabis plant and, even if at trace levels, they can still be harmful to end consumers. As such, it’s important to measure the toxic or nutritional elemental content of the cannabis sample. To help ensure accuracy and compliance, our Titan MPS and NexION ICP-MS include detailed state and matrix-specific methods that allows heavy metals such as Mercury, Lead, Arsenic, and Cadmium, and nutritional elements such as copper, zinc, and iron to be quantified in a cannabis lab.

Partner with us to have access to four decades of patents, innovations, and accolades in ICPMS technology that only PerkinElmer has.

Testing to ensure that pesticide and mycotoxin levels in cannabis products are below regulatory levels is critical, as the cannabis concentrate matrix presents many analytical challenges including higher sample matrix effects and an increased concentration of cannabinoids in the sample. High performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) has emerged as the method of choice for pesticide and mycotoxin analysis as it offers superior selectivity, sensitivity, ruggedness, and does not require extensive sample preparation before analysis for a wide panel of analytes.

Our QSight^® LC/MS/MS can analyze pesticides (including hydrophobic and chlorinated pesticides typically analyzed by GC/MS/MS) and mycotoxins in a cannabis concentrate matrix. Thanks to the dual APCI and ESI sources, you can get detection limits below those specified by the states cannabis regulations with a single instrument.

Moreover, we are now capable of offering you our QS-Works 420, the fully automated cannabis sample preparation workflow, which includes the ONE Pesticide420^™ reagent kit, JANUS^® G3 420 Workstation, QSight^® 420 LC/MSMS, integrated SimplicityLab420^™ software for data management, and cannabis specific SOPs, ensures that only the highest quality of cannabis products reach the consumer.

Terpenes are a class of compounds found in the oils of all plants and botanicals and are responsible for their unique flavors and aromas. Terpene profiles are diverse and can vary significantly depending on factors such as temperature, growth medium, nutrients and sunlight. This complexity makes accurate and reliable methods for testing and analysis important for consumers, healthcare professionals, and growers to ensure the quality and consistency of the cannabis is documented and labelled accurately.

The extraction process of cannabinoids and terpenes from the plant material involves the use of solvents. Solvents are used to extract the cannabinoids and terpenes from the plant material. The procedure can also create impure byproducts, which may not be completely removed from the final product. These residual solvents can be toxic. The determination and understanding of terpenes and residual solvents concentrations are critical phases of cannabis testing for both health safety and product quality. The PerkinElmer HS-GC/MS solution for the determination of terpenes is fast and robust providing the laboratory with greater sample throughput, instrument uptime, and enhanced profits.

Our GC/MS-HS solution for Residual Solvents is fast and capable of quantifying residual solvents in all cannabis matrices. Combined with essentially maintenance-free operation, a PerkinElmer’s GC/MS-HS method will enhance productivity and strengthen your cannabis lab’s business operations.

With four different models to choose from, a JANUS^® G3 workstation is available to meet your throughput requirements and eliminate your cannabis sample preparation bottlenecks for your potency testing.