Faster Cannabis Testing Targets Oils, Creams, and Flowers

A cannabis oil, a medicinal cream, and a dried flower can contain the same cannabinoids while presenting very different challenges to a testing laboratory. Oils bring fats, creams contain complex formulation ingredients, and flowers contribute a mixture of plant compounds. Measuring THC or CBD accurately means separating the target compounds from everything surrounding them.

A new study accepted by Microchemical Journal tackles that problem with a method that measures seven cannabinoids in less than five minutes of instrument runtime.¹ Researchers at Brazil’s Federal University of Santa Catarina and Federal Institute of Santa Catarina also evaluated a new extraction solvent and a shared preparation workflow across four product types.

The broader opportunity is more consistent quality control. If laboratories can characterize different formulations efficiently, manufacturers could gain more opportunities to check whether processing, formulation, and storage preserve the composition they intended.

How The New Cannabis Testing Method Works

The method combines liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry, commonly abbreviated LC-MS/MS. Liquid chromatography separates compounds as they travel through a column. Mass spectrometry then helps identify and measure them using their mass and fragmentation patterns.

The researchers measured CBD, delta-9 THC, CBG, CBN, CBC, CBDA, and THCA. Including acidic cannabinoids matters because raw cannabis contains substantial amounts of compounds such as THCA and CBDA, which can become THC and CBD during heating.

Liquid chromatography allows laboratories to examine those acidic forms without the unwanted heat-driven conversion associated with some gas chromatography procedures. That makes it useful for understanding both the starting material and changes introduced during manufacturing.

The team validated the method for inflorescences, plant extracts, medicinal oils, and medicinal creams. They assessed calibration, detection limits, precision, recovery, and interference from the surrounding sample ingredients.

The five-minute figure describes the instrument run, rather than the entire testing process. Preparation included eight minutes of ultrasonic treatment and three minutes of centrifugation, alongside weighing, mixing, filtration, and dilution. Laboratory turnaround also depends on calibration, quality checks, scheduling, and result review.

Why Cannabis Formulations Can Distort Test Results

Analytical chemists call the material surrounding a target compound its matrix. A cannabinoid dissolved in a clean laboratory solvent behaves differently from one embedded in a cream or surrounded by plant constituents.

Those ingredients can suppress or enhance an instrument’s signal. A stronger signal does not necessarily mean more cannabinoid is present, and a weaker signal does not necessarily mean the product contains less.

This is a practical industry concern. A 2025 NIST study on THC testing interference identified compounds that could inflate delta-9 THC measurements in certain chromatographic analyses. It also examined laboratory data from 7,448 plant samples to demonstrate the prevalence of these interferences.

That research used a different analytical approach and does not establish a problem with the new Brazilian method. It illustrates why a testing advance must demonstrate selectivity and matrix performance alongside speed.

The Brazilian team found generally limited matrix interference, with some exceptions in flowers. Its alternative solvent also produced favorable results in medicinal creams, where methanol caused signal suppression or enhancement for particular cannabinoids.

A New Extraction Solvent With Practical Potential

The researchers evaluated a natural deep eutectic solvent made from thymol and butanoic acid. These mixtures combine components whose interactions allow them to form a liquid extraction medium.

Here, extraction means removing cannabinoids from a small analytical sample so they can be measured. The study does not demonstrate a new commercial process for manufacturing cannabis medicines.

The mixture performed particularly well for plant extracts and medicinal creams. However, methanol produced better recovery results for medicinal oils. This distinction suggests a useful additional laboratory option rather than one solvent that is best for every product.

What Greener Cannabis Testing Would Require

The alternative solvent offers a promising direction for extraction chemistry, but the complete workflow still used methanol for dilution and acetonitrile during chromatography. Calling the method solvent-free or fully green would overstate the findings.

A stronger environmental assessment would consider total solvent consumption, waste handling, energy use, and the number of repeat analyses required. The paper does not provide a complete comparison across those measures. Its contribution is demonstrating that an alternative extraction medium can work within a validated cannabinoid testing workflow.

From Potency Checks To Manufacturing Feedback

A useful way to understand the opportunity is to view testing as feedback throughout production. A final potency result describes one sample at one point. Repeated measurements could help a manufacturer understand where product composition changes.

For example, measuring both THCA and THC could help evaluate a heating step. Comparing cannabinoid profiles before and after formulation could reveal dilution or processing differences. Testing retained samples over time could support investigations into stability.

MyCannabis has previously examined CBD oil stability and changes during storage. The relevant connection is that a product’s appearance cannot replace chemical measurement. A laboratory method that measures multiple cannabinoids could support more informative stability investigations, although this particular study does not establish shelf-life claims.

Shorter instrument runs could make repeated testing more practical where instrument capacity is a bottleneck. A shared preparation workflow could also simplify training and handling across product categories. These are potential operational benefits, not cost savings or productivity gains measured in the paper.

Reliable Cannabis Testing Needs Independent Verification

Validation in one laboratory is an important starting point. Wider adoption requires evidence that other laboratories can reproduce performance with their own equipment, analysts, and product formulations.

A 2026 blinded evaluation of cannabinoid testing highlights a further challenge: cannabinoids added to a sample during validation may not fully represent cannabinoids naturally present within it. The authors emphasized evaluating extraction efficiency for both situations.

That does not invalidate recovery testing. It explains why successful tests with added standards should be complemented by reference materials and independent comparisons. Recovering a compound added to a sample is not always equivalent to extracting it from the original product.

For the new method, useful next steps include testing more formulations, assessing routine instrument performance, and comparing results between laboratories. The paper is also an accepted journal pre-proof, so its final published version may receive editorial corrections.

What Better Testing Means For Cannabis Consumers

Consumers will rarely choose a product based on its laboratory’s extraction solvent. They benefit when reliable measurements translate into clear, traceable information.

When reviewing a certificate of analysis, useful questions include:

• Does the report match the product’s batch number?
• Are cannabinoid concentrations and measurement units clearly stated?
• Which contaminants were tested separately from cannabinoid potency?

A seven-cannabinoid panel does not establish freedom from pesticides, heavy metals, microbes, or residual solvents. Those require separate assessments. Readers comparing liquid formulations can use MyCannabis’s CBD oils and tinctures buying guide alongside batch documentation and verification of the seller’s authorization.

Better product measurement also supports future research. As discussed in MyCannabis’s coverage of cannabinoid biosensors for personalized pain treatment, measuring exposure and interpreting clinical effects remain different tasks. Knowing a product’s composition helps establish the starting dose, but cannot predict an individual’s response.

The defensible optimism lies in making cannabis quality more measurable. This study combines a short instrument run, several cannabinoids, and preparation across diverse products. With further verification, that combination could help laboratories provide the dependable information that manufacturers, researchers, and consumers need.

References:

¹ Dolzan, M. D., Cobo, D. F., Biavatti, M. W., & Vitali, L. (2026). Fast LC-MS/MS method to determine seven phytocannabinoids in Cannabis sativa L. inflorescence and medicinal matrices: A new extraction approach using a thymol-based natural deep eutectic solvent. Microchemical Journal. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.microc.2026.119836