BobCajun
Well-Known Member
I'm sure I'm not the first person to notice that THC contents shown in analysis results seem unrealistically high. This may explain why. Since it's just an abstract of an article, I'll save you the trouble of actually going to the linked page;
"Abstract
Leaves of young marihuana plants (Cannabis sativa L.) were found by gas liquid chromatography to contain appreciable amounts of two long-chain alkanes, n-heptacosane and n-nonacosane. These alkanes, along with other straight chain alkanes ranging from C19 to C32 could also be detected as minor components in a variety of other marihuana and hashish samples. Depending on the polarity of the g.l.c. column used, the alkanes may have retention times similar to those of the major cannabinoids and thus interfere with qualitative and quantitative analyses of the latter. The findings indicate that g.l.c. alone cannot be used as an accurate and reliable technique for cannabinoid analysis, unless the alkanes are previously removed. However, the alkane composition may be of additional advantage in determining the origin of seized cannabis samples."
Though it only mentions GLC, it seems likely that it would also apply to HPLC, which is what most of the testing labs use. Of course I don't that for certain, but it's worth looking into. The compounds mentioned, n-heptacosane and n-nonacosane, are plant waxes. That's the wax that gets winterized out of BHO I assume. So winterized extract tests may be accurate, or at least a lot more accurate, than crude extracts and especially of plain herb, which has plenty of wax in it.
"Abstract
Leaves of young marihuana plants (Cannabis sativa L.) were found by gas liquid chromatography to contain appreciable amounts of two long-chain alkanes, n-heptacosane and n-nonacosane. These alkanes, along with other straight chain alkanes ranging from C19 to C32 could also be detected as minor components in a variety of other marihuana and hashish samples. Depending on the polarity of the g.l.c. column used, the alkanes may have retention times similar to those of the major cannabinoids and thus interfere with qualitative and quantitative analyses of the latter. The findings indicate that g.l.c. alone cannot be used as an accurate and reliable technique for cannabinoid analysis, unless the alkanes are previously removed. However, the alkane composition may be of additional advantage in determining the origin of seized cannabis samples."
Though it only mentions GLC, it seems likely that it would also apply to HPLC, which is what most of the testing labs use. Of course I don't that for certain, but it's worth looking into. The compounds mentioned, n-heptacosane and n-nonacosane, are plant waxes. That's the wax that gets winterized out of BHO I assume. So winterized extract tests may be accurate, or at least a lot more accurate, than crude extracts and especially of plain herb, which has plenty of wax in it.
