Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry for the Geographical Sourcing of Cannabis sativa L.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17063/bjfs13(1)y202542-59Keywords:
LC-MS, Hemp, Marijuana, THC, CBN, LDAAbstract
Marijuana, dried and ground Cannabis, is the most consumed illicit drug in the world, despite many undesirable and risky effects to human health that are caused by its use. The medicinal use and/or legal recreational use of Cannabis has also been rising worldwide. Therefore, traceability methodologies are increasingly gaining importance whether for forensic use, such as drug trafficking eradication, or for quality control purposes of legal medicinal Cannabis. The goal of this study was to analyze Cannabis samples seized by the Brazilian Federal Police in eradication operations occurred in 2014 and 2017, by means of liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA), aiming to trace their geographical origin. The LDA showed 39.13% accuracy in sourcing the samples from 2014, and 80.95% for the 2017 samples, which indicates that high temperature in the drying step and plant age negatively affect data accuracy.
References
UNODC, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. World Drug Report 2024. Available from: https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/WDR_2024/WDR_2024_SPI.pdf
El-Deftar MM, Robertson J, Foster S, Lennard C. Evaluation of elemental profiling methods, including laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), for the differentiation of Cannabis plant material grown in different nutrient solutions. Forensic Sci Int. 2015;251:95–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2015.03.029
European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction. European Drug Report 2022: Trends and Developments. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union; 2022.
Brazilian Federal Police. Drogas apreendidas por UF – Série histórica de 1995 a 2022 (até junho). Available from: https://www.gov.br/pf/pt-br/acesso-a-informacao/estatisticas/diretoria-de-investigacao-e-combate-ao-crime-organizado-dicor/drogas_apreendidas_por_uf.pdf/view
Bonn-Miller MO, Loflin MJ, Thomas BF, Marcu JP, Hyke T, Vandrey R. Labeling accuracy of cannabidiol extracts sold online. JAMA. 2017;318:1708–9. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2017.11909
Horth RZ, Crouch B, Horowitz BZ, Prebish A, Slawson M, McNair J, et al. Notes from the field: acute poisonings from a synthetic cannabinoid sold as cannabidiol – Utah, 2017–2018. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2018;67:587–8. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6720a5
Pérez-Moreno M, Pérez-Lloret P, González-Soriano J, Santos-Álvarez I. Cannabis resin in the region of Madrid: adulteration and contamination. Forensic Sci Int. 2019;298:34–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2019.02.049
McPartland JM, McKernan KJ. Contaminants of concern in cannabis: microbes, heavy metals and pesticides. In: Chandra S, Lata H, ElSohly M, editors. Cannabis sativa L. – Botany and Biotechnology. 1st ed. Springer International Publishing; 2017. p. 457–74. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54564-6_22
Busse F, Omidi L, Timper K, Leichtle A, Windgassen M, Kluge E, Stumvoll M. Lead poisoning due to adulterated marijuana. N Engl J Med. 2008;358:1641–1642. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMc0707784
Kelkar AH, Smith NA, Martial A, Moole H, Tarantino MD, Roberts JC. An outbreak of synthetic cannabinoid–associated coagulopathy in Illinois. N Engl J Med. 2018;379:1216–23. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa1807652
Scheel AH, Krause D, Haars H, Schmitz I, Junker K. Talcum induced pneumoconiosis following inhalation of adulterated marijuana: a case report. Diagn Pathol. 2012;15:7–26. https://doi.org/10.1186/1746-1596-7-26
Bao C, Bao S. Neonate death due to marijuana toxicity to the liver and adrenals. Am J Case Rep. 2019;20:1874–8. https://doi.org/10.12659/AJCR.919545
Hancock-Allen JB, Barker L, VanDyke M, Holmes DB. Death following ingestion of an edible marijuana product – Colorado, March 2014. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2015;64(28):771–2. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6428a6
Shibuya EK, Sarkis JES, Negrini-Neto O, Moreira MZ, Victoria RL. Sourcing Brazilian marijuana by applying IRMS analysis to seized samples. Forensic Sci Int. 2006;160:35–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2005.08.011
Booth AL, Wooller MJ, Howe T, Haubenstock N. Tracing geographic and temporal trafficking patterns for marijuana in Alaska using stable isotopes (C, N, O and H). Forensic Sci Int. 2010;202:45–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2010.04.025
Hurley JM, West JB, Ehleringer JR. Tracing retail cannabis in the United States: geographic origin and cultivation patterns. Int J Drug Policy. 2010;21:222–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2009.08.001
Hurley JM, West JB, Ehleringer JR. Stable isotope models to predict geographic origin and cultivation conditions of marijuana. Sci Justice. 2010;50:86–93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scijus.2009.11.003
West JB, Hurley JM, Dudás FÖ, Ehleringer JR. The stable isotope ratios of marijuana. II. Strontium isotopes relate to geographic origin. J Forensic Sci. 2009;54:1261–9. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1556-4029.2009.01171.x
Gilmore S, Peakall R, Robertson J. Organelle DNA haplotypes reflect crop-use characteristics and geographic origins of Cannabis sativa. Forensic Sci Int. 2007;172:179–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2006.10.025
Jagadish V, Robertson J, Gibbs A. RAPD analysis distinguishes Cannabis sativa samples from different sources. Forensic Sci Int. 1996;79:113–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/0379-0738(96)01898-1
Mendoza MA, Mills DK, Lata H, Chandra S, ElSohly MA, Almirall JR. Genetic individualization of Cannabis sativa by a short tandem repeat multiplex system. Anal Bioanal Chem. 2009;393:719–26. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-008-2500-3
Pinarkara E, Kayis SA, Hakki EE, Sag A. RAPD analysis of seized marijuana (Cannabis sativa L.) in Turkey. Electron J Biotechnol. 2009;12(1):1-13. https://doi.org/10.2225/vol12-issue1-fulltext-7
Macedo MP, Kosmann C, Pujol-Luz JR. Origin of samples of Cannabis sativa through insect fragments associated with compacted hemp drug in South America. Rev Bras Entomol. 2013;57:197–201. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0085-56262013005000008
Crosby TK, Watt JC, Kistemaker AC, Nelson PE. Entomological identification of the origin of imported cannabis. J Forensic Sci Soc. 1986;26:35–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0015-7368(86)72444-4
Chan K-W. Validating a gas chromatography-mass spectrometric method and sample classification procedure for cannabis profiling using cannabinoids from case samples. Aust J Forensic Sci. 2014;46:424–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/00450618.2014.882985
ElSohly MA, Stanford DF, Murphy TP. Chemical fingerprinting of cannabis as a means of source identification. In: ElSohly MA, editor. Marijuana and the Cannabinoids. Humana Press, Forensic Science and Medicine; 2007.
Watling RJ. Sourcing the provenance of cannabis crops using inter-element association patterns ‘fingerprinting’ and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. J Anal At Spectrom. 1998;13:917–26. https://doi.org/10.1039/A800338F
Martone G, Della Casa E. Analysis of the ageing processes in hashish samples from different geographic origins. Forensic Sci Int. 1990;47:147–55. https://doi.org/10.1016/0379-0738(90)90208-G
Turner CE, Hadley K, Fetterman PS. Constituents of Cannabis sativa L. VI: Propyl homologs in samples of known geographical origin. J Pharm Sci. 1973;62:1739–41. https://doi.org/10.1002/jps.2600621045
Jenkins RW, Patterson DA. The relationship between chemical composition and geographical origin of cannabis. Forensic Sci. 1973;2:59–66. https://doi.org/10.1016/0300-9432(73)90014-9
Mattarucchi E, Stocchero M, Moreno-Rojas JM, Giordano G, Reniero F, Guillou C. Authentication of Trappist beers by LC-MS fingerprints and multivariate data analysis. J Agric Food Chem. 2010;58(23):12089–95. https://doi.org/10.1021/jf102632g
Sander LC, Bedner M, Tims MC, Yen JH, Duewer DL, Porter B, et al. Development and certification of green tea-containing standard reference materials. Anal Bioanal Chem. 2012;402:473–87. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-011-5472-7
Paré JRJ, Yaylayan V. Mass spectrometry: principles and applications. In: Techniques and Instrumentation in Analytical Chemistry. Vol. 18. Amsterdam: Elsevier; 1997. p. 239–66. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-9244(97)80016-9
Stanimirova I, Daszykowski M, Walczak B. Robust methods in analysis of multivariate food chemistry data. In: Data Handling in Science and Technology. Vol. 28. Amsterdam: Elsevier; 2013. p. 315–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-444-59528-7.00008-9
Witten IH, Frank E, Hall MA, Pal CJ. Data transformations. In: Witten IH, et al. Data Mining. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann; 2017. p. 285–334. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-804291-5.00008-8
Tharwat A, Gaber T, Ibrahim A, Hassanien AE. Linear discriminant analysis: a detailed tutorial. AI Commun. 2017;30(2):169–90. https://doi.org/10.3233/AIC-170729
Ripley B, Venables B, Bates DM, Hornik K, Gebhardt A, Firth D. Package ‘MASS’. 2019. Available from: https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/MASS/MASS.pdf
R Development Core Team. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing; 2015. Available from: https://www.r-project.org/
BRASIL. Ministério da Saúde. Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária. Diretoria Colegiada. Resolução RDC n° 166, de 24 de julho de 2017. Dispõe sobre a validação de métodos analíticos e dá outras providências. Diário Oficial da União: seção 1, Brasília, DF, n. 141, p. 87, 25 jul. 2017. Available online: http://antigo.anvisa.gov.br/documents/10181/2721567/RDC_166_2017_COMP.pdf/d5fb92b3-6c6b-4130-8670-4e3263763401. Accessed on 30 Nov 2022. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Recommended methods for the identification and analysis of cannabis and cannabis products. New York: United Nations; 2009.
Dujourdy L, Besacier F. A study of cannabis potency in France over a 25 years period (1992–2016). Forensic Sci Int. 2017;272:72–80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2017.01.007
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Brazilian Journal of Forensic Sciences, Medical Law and Bioethics

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.