ANALYTICALSOLUTIONSA U S T R A L I A

Cannabinoid Analytical and Preparative Separations

PREPARATIVE SEPARATION OF CANNABINOIDS BY SFC

12

Valve switching for different purity specificationProcess principle of chromatography using supercritical CO2

Preparative SFC

00.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

2.0

2 4 6 8 10

Time (min)

Nor

mal

ised

resp

onse

(220

nm)

CBD

Typically medicinal cannabis production involves an initial extraction from the flower bud material using Supercritical Fluid Extraction (SFE), solvent extraction or similar technique to produce a concentrate of terpenes and cannabinoids.

The basic SFC system comprises a high-pressure liquid CO2 pump, co-solvent pump (for gradient work), separation column, typically a cellulose column with size to suit production throughput, adetector system coupled to a fraction collector to separate required peaks and a recycle CO2 module.

Co-solvent

ANALYTICALSOLUTIONSA U S T R A L I A

Cannabinoid Analytical and Preparative Separations

PREPARATIVE SEPARATION OF CANNABINOIDS BY SFC

Separation purity for each cannabinoid is recorded and checked with spectra from the diode array detector (DAD).

Wavelength (λ)

CBD Spectrum

200nm

0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0.0

250nm 300nm 350nm

Abs

orba

nce

(ABS

)

Wavelength (λ)

CBDA Spectrum

200nm

0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0.0

250nm 300nm 350nm

Abs

orba

nce

(ABS

)

Wavelength (λ)

THC Spectrum

200nm

0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0.0

250nm 300nm 350nm

Abs

orba

nce

(ABS

)