Cannabinoids vs. Whole Metabolome: Relevance of Cannabinomics in Analyzing Cannabis Varieties

Cannabis sativa varieties are usually characterized in the literature by chemotypes, with Δ9-THC and CBD content as the main markers. However, chemotyping could also be done based on minor compounds (including other phytocannabinoids or compounds from other phytochemical families. In this work, a workflow, which we propose to name cannabinomics, combines mass spectrometry of the whole metabolome and statistical analysis to help differentiate C. sativa varieties and deciphering their characteristic markers. By applying this approach to the data obtained from 20 varieties of C. sativa, we compared the results with those obtained using the quantification of 11 targeted phytocannabinoids and also genotyping. Cannabinomics can be considered as a complementary tool for phenotyping and genotyping, allowing the identification of minor compounds playing a key role as markers of differentiation.