Rapid quantification of cannabidiol from oils by direct analysis in real time mass spectrometry

This work is the first to describe the use of Direct Analysis in Real Time Mass Spectrometry (DART-MS) for the rapid quantification of cannabidiol (CBD) in CBD oils. For this study, self-prepared samples spiked with CBD in hemp seed oil as well as commercial CBD oils from the Austrian market with different CBD contents were analyzed. CBD concentrations were between 5 and 30% (m/m) for the spiked samples as well as between 5 and 15% (m/m) for the real samples. The performance of quantification by means of DART-MS was assessed against a validated liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) method. The correlation of the quantification results of both methods was high with a correlation factor greater than 0.98 and a maximum bias of 9.8%. Furthermore, the relative standard deviation values of the DART-MS measurments were below the tolerable limit of 12%. These results demonstrate that quantification of CBD by DART-MS is reliable and hence suitable as a rapid and cost-effective alternative method for quality control of CBD content in CBD oils.