With the coming legalization of cannabis in Canada, producers are increasingly looking for quick and accurate means of determining the potency and quality of their products.
Researchers at UBC's Okanagan campus have developed a new method of measuring phytocannabinoids—the primary bioactive molecules in cannabis—that will lead to faster, safer and more accurate information for producers, regulators and consumers alike.
"There is growing demand on testing labs from licensed cannabis growers across the US and Canada who are under pressure to perform potency testing on ever-increasing quantities of product," says Matthew Noestheden, Ph.D. chemistry student under Prof. Wesley Zandberg at UBC's Okanagan campus. "Traditional tests can take upwards of 20 minutes to perform, where we can do it in under seven. It will save a great deal of time and money for producers with enormous greenhouses full of thousands of samples requiring testing."
