Hashish analysis

El Sohly, M. A., J. H. Holley and C. E. Turner. Constituents of Cannabis sa tiva L. XXVI. The delta-9-tetrahydro-cannabinol content of confiscated marijuana, 1974-1983. Proc Oxford Symp Cannabis 1985 1984 37-42. Morita, M. and H. Ando. Analysis of hashish oil by gas chromatography / mass spectrometry. Kagaku Keisatsu Kenkyusho Hokoku Hokagaku Hen 1984 37(2) 137-140. 

However, despite the convincing results obtained at Miinchen and Harvard, there was also a certain amount of scepticism, for example, by Jack Dunitz as well as by Marshall Gates, the assistant editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society. In a letter to Woodward he wrote We have dispatched your communication to the printers but I cannot help feeling that you have been at the hashish again. Remarkable seems a pallid word with which to describe this substance [13]. The sceptical voices disappeared when Philip Frank Eiland and Ray Pepinsky reported a complete X-ray crystal structure analysis of Fe(C5H5)2... 

Notes One possible opiate" turned out to contain strychnine - a substance rarely found in any analysis program (and when it is found, it is very often a test to see if the analysis process could find it). The single sample of "real" THC was probably Hash Oil, which is really made from hashish. 

Some of the older accounts of hashish preparation refer to the inclusion of pollen. This is probably a mistake they are undoubtedly referring to the powdery fragments of the female tops. A mature crop of females will include few males, and microscopic analysis of hashish has rarely revealed more than traces of pollen. Pollen had been thought to be quite potent until recent data proved otherwise (see table 7). 

SOURCE K.H. Davis et al., "The Preparation and Analysis of Enriched and Pure Cannabinoids from Marihuana and Hashish," Lloydia 33 (1970) 453 F. Markus, "Cannabivarin and Tatrahydrocannabivarin, Two Constituents of Hashish," Nature 232 (1971) 579 P.S. Fetterman et al., "Mississippi Grown Cannabissativa L.," Journal of Pharmaceutical Science 60 (1971) 1246 P. Chambon et al., "Problames Poses Par la Culture Locale du Chanvre et Dosage des Chanvre," Bulletin das Travaaux de la Societe de Pharmacia da Lyon 16 (1972) 46. 

An example of a CEC analysis of an illicit drug was shown by Lurie and collaborators [134], In this study, a standard mixture of seven cannabinoids was separated, and this test mixture was then compared with concentrated hashish and marijuana extracts (Figure 5.26). The cannabinoid standards used were cannabigerol (CBG), cannabidiol (CBD), cannabinol (CBN), A-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (d9-THC), A-8-tetrahydrocannabinol (d8-THC), cannabichromene (CDB), and A-9-tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (d9-THCA-A), with dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) as the neutral marker. A Hypersil C18 column (3 (im dp) was used. The column inner diameter was 100 pm and had a total length of 49 cm, and the effective length was 40 cm. UV detection was conducted at 210 nm. The run buffer was 75% ACN and 25% 25 mM phosphate buffer pH 2.57. The applied voltage was 30 kV, and the column temperature was kept at 20°C. 

GC is also the predominant technique to analyze cannabis products like marijuana and hashish. Here, the determination of the total tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content or the available THC content is useful, because THC-acid is present in these samples as well as THC. The application of direct GC is the technique of choice for this determination, after extraction from the plant material with a suitable solvent such as methanol or chloroform. Methaqualone and phencyclidine and their analogs are other drug compounds well suited for gas chromatographic analysis. For some benzodiazepines, thermal... 

A -Tetrahydrocannablnol (A -THC, ), the major active component of hashish (1) has a chemical structure basically different from those of most centrally active drugs. It has no nitrogen atom It has a ter-pene moiety and a pentyl side chain which make It highly lipophilic (2). On the basis of these differences, as well as on a critical analysis of the pharmacological actions of A -THC, It has been suggested (3) that... 

The analysis of materials suspected to be or to contain controlled substances represents the largest portion of the workload in most forensic laboratories. When suspected controlled substances are submitted as physical evidence (exhibits), the forensic chemist must identify and, in some cases, quantify the controlled substances present. The most common forms of drug evidence seen can be summarized as the "five P s" powders, plant matter, pills, precursors, and paraphernalia. Powders include colored powders from crystalline white to resinous brown, and many, such as heroin and cocaine, are derived directly or indirectly from plants. Many powders are oily and odiferous, while some can be described (unofficially and informally) as goo. Hashish, a concentrated form of marijuana, lies between plant and powder. Typical plant matter exhibits are marijuana, mushrooms, and cactus buttons. As biological evidence, plant matter must be stored properly to prevent rotting and degradation prior to analysis failure to do so can generate the aforementioned goo. 

Fig. 13.12. Analysis of a hashish slab with DAPPI using toluene (a)and acetone (b) at flow rates of 2 ml min" as spray solvents. The insets show the tandem mass spectra of (a) the ion of cannabinol and (b) the [M+H] ion of cannabinol the ions at m/z 314 and 315 are attributed to the respective ionic species of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Reproduced from Ref. [29] with permission. John Wiley Sons, Ltd., 2008.

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