Preparative Isolation of Cannabinoids from Cannabis sativa by Centrifugal Partition Chromatography

Abstract

A simple method is presented for the preparative isolation of seven major cannabinoids from Cannabis sativa plant material. Separation was performed by centrifugal partition chromatography (CPC), a technique that permits large‐scale preparative isolations. Using only two different solvent systems, it was possible to obtain pure samples of the cannabinoids; (−)‐Δ⁹‐(trans)‐tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ⁹‐THC), cannabidiol (CBD), cannabinol (CBN), cannabigerol (CBG), (−)‐Δ⁹‐(trans)‐tetrahydrocannabinolic acid‐A (THCA), cannabigerolic acid (CBGA), and cannabidiolic acid (CBDA). A drug‐type and a fiber‐type cannabis cultivar were used for the isolation. All isolates were shown to be more than 90% pure by gas chromatography. This method makes acidic cannabinoids available on a large scale for biological testing. The method described in this report can also be used to isolate additional cannabinoids from cannabis plant material.

Keywords:

• Cannabis sativa
• Cannabinoids
• Isolation
• Preparative scale
• Centrifugal partition chromatography

Acknowledgments

SIMM is gratefully acknowledged for their kind gift of plant material. The financial support by the Van Leersum Fonds for purchasing the CPC solvent pump is highly appreciated. We would like to thank the Dutch Forensic Institute (NFI), Rijswijk, The Netherlands for their kind gift of CBD and CBN standards.