Effects of temperature on THC and THCA content during storage

Cannabis is one of the most attractive plants nowadays since it is being part of many herbal products, alternative medicine and street illegal use for different purposes. Stability of the herbal raw materials often determinates shelf-life of the final product. Maintaining the storage conditions of the herbal raw materials is a direct requirement for the quality of the final product. Temperature is one of the critical parameters that affect the stability of almost all herbal raw materials, especially those containing heat-sensitive compounds such as Cannabis. This plant contains more than 100 different chemicals called cannabinoids. When cannabinoids are extracted from herbal material or resin into organic solvents, both the temperature and light exposure is shown to influence their stability. It is, however, important to distinguish the degradation of neutral and acidic species (Lindholst, 2010). Different storage conditions leads to different cannabis chemical composition and content. Cannabinoids, the plant active components, are similar to the compounds the body makes and are involved in appetite, memory, movement, and pain. There are lot of certain medical conditions that require high THC content, therefore reducing it can lead to an undesirable outcome. Regarding this, the content of dried cannabis THC flowers stored at different conditions were analyzed.