{"title":"Phytocannabinoid profile and potency of cannabis resin (hashish) of northwest Himalayas of India","authors":"Jyotsnessh Chauhan MSc, Binaya Kumar Bastia MD, Kanchan Kohli PhD, Babulal Chaudhary MD, Gaurav Chikara MD, Annie Gupta PhD, Ankit Kumar MD","doi":"10.1111/1556-4029.15583","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Cannabis is one of the most consumed illicit drugs and the potency of cannabis products is of note due to health-related concerns. Hand-rubbed hashish is the ancient technique of extracting psychoactive resin from cannabis plants and is practiced in the Indian Himalayas. This study establishes the cannabinoid profile and potency of hand-rubbed hashish collected from 20 regions of the northwest Himalayas. Fifty-eight hashish samples were analyzed using a validated high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection (HPLC-DAD) method. Ten cannabinoids were quantified including acidic (THCA & CBDA), and neutral compounds (CBDV, THCV, CBD, CBG, CBN, Δ<sup>9</sup>-THC, Δ<sup>8</sup>-THC, and CBC). The mean concentration (w/w%) of Δ<sup>9</sup>-THC is 26%; THCA is 15% and THC<sub>Total</sub> is 40% is observed in the studied hashish samples. The majority (70%) of the hashish samples were categorized in chemotype I with the THC:CBD:CBN ratio of 91:3:4, and the remaining 30% were categorized under chemotype II with the ratio of 76:15:8. Diverse qualities of hashish are produced in the studied regions as per the seed, plant selection, and skills of manual rubbing, which results in potency variations. The average difference between the least and highest potent hand-rubbed hashish of a region is 27 w/w% (THC<sub>Total</sub>). The other studied non-psychoactive cannabinoids have a mean w/w% of <5%, followed by 6% of CBDA. It is concluded that the cultivated and wild cannabis fields in the northwest Himalayas belong to the drug-type cannabis subspecies. Hand-rubbed hashish holds traditional significance and impacts the current policies of legislation.</p>","PeriodicalId":15743,"journal":{"name":"Journal of forensic sciences","volume":"69 5","pages":"1918-1925"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of forensic sciences","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1556-4029.15583","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"MEDICINE, LEGAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Cannabis is one of the most consumed illicit drugs and the potency of cannabis products is of note due to health-related concerns. Hand-rubbed hashish is the ancient technique of extracting psychoactive resin from cannabis plants and is practiced in the Indian Himalayas. This study establishes the cannabinoid profile and potency of hand-rubbed hashish collected from 20 regions of the northwest Himalayas. Fifty-eight hashish samples were analyzed using a validated high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection (HPLC-DAD) method. Ten cannabinoids were quantified including acidic (THCA & CBDA), and neutral compounds (CBDV, THCV, CBD, CBG, CBN, Δ9-THC, Δ8-THC, and CBC). The mean concentration (w/w%) of Δ9-THC is 26%; THCA is 15% and THCTotal is 40% is observed in the studied hashish samples. The majority (70%) of the hashish samples were categorized in chemotype I with the THC:CBD:CBN ratio of 91:3:4, and the remaining 30% were categorized under chemotype II with the ratio of 76:15:8. Diverse qualities of hashish are produced in the studied regions as per the seed, plant selection, and skills of manual rubbing, which results in potency variations. The average difference between the least and highest potent hand-rubbed hashish of a region is 27 w/w% (THCTotal). The other studied non-psychoactive cannabinoids have a mean w/w% of <5%, followed by 6% of CBDA. It is concluded that the cultivated and wild cannabis fields in the northwest Himalayas belong to the drug-type cannabis subspecies. Hand-rubbed hashish holds traditional significance and impacts the current policies of legislation.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Forensic Sciences (JFS) is the official publication of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS). It is devoted to the publication of original investigations, observations, scholarly inquiries and reviews in various branches of the forensic sciences. These include anthropology, criminalistics, digital and multimedia sciences, engineering and applied sciences, pathology/biology, psychiatry and behavioral science, jurisprudence, odontology, questioned documents, and toxicology. Similar submissions dealing with forensic aspects of other sciences and the social sciences are also accepted, as are submissions dealing with scientifically sound emerging science disciplines. The content and/or views expressed in the JFS are not necessarily those of the AAFS, the JFS Editorial Board, the organizations with which authors are affiliated, or the publisher of JFS. All manuscript submissions are double-blind peer-reviewed.