Terpenoid Profiles in Cannabis Classification
Dr. Cindy Orser, Chief Science Officer at Digipath Labs, recently published original research on the application of terpenoid chemoprofiles for cannabis classification in the peer-reviewed journal, Natural Products Chemistry & Research. This research furthers Digipath's scientific analysis on the importance of terpenoid data for growers and consumers.
The detailed chemical database resulting from the analyses of thousands of cannabis flower samples from an artificially geographically restricted area can serve as the basis for the development of a chemotaxonomic classification scheme outside of conjectural cultivar naming by strain. Chemotaxonomic classification schemes for cannabis cultivars have previously been reported by others based largely on cannabis strains grown under an unregulated testing environment or in Europe from strains grown by a single cultivator. In this study 2,237 individual cannabis flower samples, representing 204 individual strains across 27 cultivators in a tightly regulated Nevada cannabis testing market, were analyzed across 11 cannabinoids and 19 terpenoids. Even though 98.3% of the samples were from Type I cannabis strains with high THCA content, principal component analysis (PCA) of the combined chemometric dataset resulted in three distinct clusters that were distinguishable by terpenoid profiles alone.
Dr. Cindy Orser commented, "We propose that three terpenoid cluster assignments account for the diversity of drug-type cannabis strains currently being grown in Nevada. Expanded chemometric datasets will be used to further refine the Digipath terpenoid-centric classification scheme across cannabis cultivars."
Todd Denkin, President and COO at Digipath Labs, reiterated the company's goal of leveraging terpenoid data by stating, "after years of focusing solely on THCA content, cannabis growers are now paying more attention to the distinctive subtleties that terpenoids contribute."
