Does Cannabis Extract Obtained From Cannabis Flowers With Maximum Allowed Residual Level of Aflatoxins and Ochratoxin a Have an Impact on Human Safety and Health?

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate whether the cannabis extract obtained from cannabis flowers that contain the maximum allowed level of mycotoxins affects human safety and health. For that purpose, a novel liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) method was developed and validated for the determination of aflatoxins and ochratoxin A (OchA) in cannabis extracts to demonstrate that this analytical method is suitable for the intended experimental design.Methods: Experimental design was done by adding maximum allowed concentration of aflatoxins (B1, B2, G1, G2) and OchA according to the European Pharmacopeia related to cannabis flowers. The concentration of aflatoxins and OchA was determined using the same LC/MS/MS analytical method in the starting material (dry flower) before preparing the spiked sample and after obtaining decarboxylated extract with ethanol 96%.Results: The results obtained indicate that aflatoxins and OchA, primarily added to the cannabis dried flowers, were also determined into the obtained final extract in amounts much higher (m/m) than in the starting plant material.Conclusion: With this experiment, we have shown that mycotoxins, especially aflatoxins, which are extremely toxic secondary metabolites, can reach critical values in cannabis extracts obtained from dry cannabis flowers with the maximum allowed quantity of mycotoxins. This can pose a great risk to consumers and their health especially to those with compromised immune systems.

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Determination of ochratoxin A in wine by direct analysis in real time-tandem mass spectrometry

Chinese Journal of Chromatography ◽

10.3724/sp.j.1123.2016.07008 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 35 (2) ◽

pp. 185 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Xiaoming GONG ◽

Ronghui MA ◽

Hongtao WANG ◽

Liqiang GUO ◽

Kai LI ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mass Spectrometry ◽

Tandem Mass Spectrometry ◽

Real Time ◽

Ochratoxin A ◽

Direct Analysis ◽

Tandem Mass

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Comparison of Flow Injection-MS/MS and LC-MS/MS for the Determination of Ochratoxin A

Toxins ◽

10.3390/toxins13080547 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (8) ◽

pp. 547

Author(s):

Kai Zhang

Keyword(s):

Ochratoxin A ◽

Flow Injection ◽

Internal Standard ◽

Grape Juice ◽

Tandem Mass ◽

Triple Quadrupole ◽

On Line ◽

Red Grape Juice ◽

Red Grape

Two methods for measuring ochratoxin A in corn, oat, and grape juice were developed and compared. Flow injection (FI) and on-line liquid chromatography (LC) performances were evaluated separately, with both methods using a triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer (MS/MS) for quantitation. Samples were fortified with 13C uniformly labeled ochratoxin A as the internal standard (13C-IS) and prepared by dilution and filtration, followed by FI- and LC-MS/MS analysis. For the LC-MS/MS method, which had a 10 min run time/sample, recoveries of ochratoxin A fortified at 1, 5, 20, and 100 ppb in corn, oat, red grape juice, and white grape juice ranged from 100% to 117% with RSDs < 9%. The analysis time of the FI-MS/MS method was <60 s/sample, however, the method could not detect ochratoxin A at the lowest fortification concentration, 1 ppb, in all tested matrix sources. At 5, 20, and 100 ppb, recoveries by FI-MS/MS ranged from 79 to 117% with RSDs < 15%. The FI-MS/MS method also had ~5× higher solvent and matrix-dependent instrument detection limits (0.12–0.35 ppb) compared to the LC-MS/MS method (0.02–0.06 ppb). In the analysis of incurred corn and oat samples, both methods generated comparable results within ±20% of reference values, however, the FI-MS/MS method failed to determine ochratoxin A in two incurred wheat flour samples due to co-eluted interferences due to the lack of chromatographic separation.

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