Developing Analytical Methods for Water Soluble Cannabis Phytochemicals
Infusion Biosciences has entered into a research collaboration agreement with Trace Research Institute LLC, an independent research company that offers various testing, research, regulatory and consulting services for the cannabis industry in Washington State, Sproutly hasannounced in a press release.
"Sproutly will benefit from the collaboration as a licensee of the APP technology from Infusion Biosciences as the analytical methods are made available in the jurisdictions for which it holds an exclusive license from Infusion Biosciences," the company noted.
"The development of analytical methods is not only a key milestone in the commercial implementation of the APP technology but also an answer to a challenge the global cannabis industry faces with accurately measuring cannabinoids when they are formulated into cannabis beverages using methods available today," said Keith Dolo, Chief Executive Officer of Sproutly.
Gordon Fagras, Co-founder of both the Trace Research Institute and Trace Analytics, a certified independent cannabis analytics laboratory in Washington State, said that over the last several years, the cannabis industry has been faced with the challenge of accurately measuring cannabinoids when they are formulated into beverages.
"Up to this point most of the products available on the market are usually based on emulsifications, encapsulation, or even 'nano' type technology which are largely problematic to analysis as they are highly diluted and likely bound to another compound," said Fagras. "Some of these technologies are more robust than others, but the vast majority of these products tend to experience fallout and separation of the cannabis or hemp oils."
According to the company, research collaboration with Infusion Biosciences is unique in that the samples are naturally in water solution(s), and have not seen fallout of any manner to date.
"Thus we feel they are highly shelf stable," said Fagras. "Modifying sample processing and analytical testing with these concentrated water solutions of cannabinoids (and terpenes) should provide us with a unique opportunity to develop analytical methods for cannabis beverages."
Dr. Arup Sen, chief science officer of Sproutly as well as co-founder and director of Infusion Biosciences, said that phytochemicals such as cannabinoids and terpenes have so far been extracted as free oils from cannabis plants.
"Analytical methods developed to date for these oil molecules are not useful in measuring the potency of Infusion Biosciences' Infuz 2O, the naturally water-soluble forms of these molecules produced as water solutions by Infusion Biosciences' proprietary recovery process known as the APP technology," said Sen. "In order to develop and sell beverage products developed using Infuz 2O to deliver the benefits and experiences of cannabis plants, sensitive and robust analytical methods need to be developed."
Under the agreement, Infusion Biosciences will supply Trace with naturally water soluble cannabis phytochemicals (Infuz 2O) produced by Infusion Biosciences' proprietary APP technology. The research collaboration will focus on developing and validating analytical methods for the detection and measurement of cannabis phytochemicals in water solutions, Sproutly noted.
