Analytical Sciences

Development and Early Identification of Cannabis Chemotypes during the Plant Growth: Current Analytical and Chemometric Approaches

Cristiano BOLCHI,* Marco PALLAVICINI,* Eleonora CASAGNI,* Edgardo Vieira de MANINCOR,** Veniero GAMBARO,* Michele Dei CAS,*** and Gabriella RODA*

*Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Università degli Studi di Milano, I-20133 Milano, Italy
**Ecocanapa, via Macchi 44, 20124 Milano, Italy
***Department of Health Sciences, Università degli Studi di Milano, I-20133 Milano, Italy

The identification of cannabis chemotypes at an early stage of a plant’s growth, which is long before anthesis, has been intensively pursued in order to control the on-target selection of the cultivar type at the beginning of cultivation, so as to avoid economic and legal drawbacks. However, this issue has been systematically addressed by only few and relatively recent studies of analytical chemistry, possibly because result validations require long-term monitoring of the content and ratio of cannabinoids and terpenes in a great number of plant specimens suitably selected and grown. Here, we review the procedures, the chromatographic techniques and the statistics used in topical investigations during the past thirteen years. Through heterogeneous and not easily comparable approaches, they prove the feasibility of chemotypes safe determination within the first month of a plant’s life.

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