Recent Analytical Approaches in Quality Control of Cannabis sativa L. and Its Preparations

Cannabis sativa L. is annually herbal plant belonging to the family Cannabaceae gaining more and more attention all over the world, due to its long historical clinical practice and its recent legalization either for recreational or medicinal uses. The quality control of the plant is a critical for its legalization and globalization. This review deals with the recent analytical methods (years 2015-2018) in the quality control of Cannabis, including the traditional chromatographic methods like HPLC, LC/MS/MS, UPLC, GC/FID, and GC/MS; and spectrophotometric, including FT-IR, NIR and NMR techniques as well as the most recent advanced techniques. The comprehensive methods, such as fingerprint and multi-component quantification are emphasized; hyphenated techniques, like HPLC, LC/MS/MS, GC/FID, GC-MS, LC-NMR, chemometric methods. In few words, the analysis and quality control of cannabis biomass, extracts and/or preparations is moving towards an integrative and comprehensive direction, in order to better address the inherent holistic nature of cannabis.