The chemo- and cultivar-rich species Cannabis sativa L. (Cannabaceae) is with more than 500 identified constituents (125 phytocannabinoids, >400 non-cannabinoids, mostly terpenes) probably the chemically best elucidated plant. Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) are its most studied compounds of therapeutic interest, modulating by multi-target actions primarly the endocannabinoid system. By «entourage effects» terpenes and flavonoids may also contribute to the broad medical potential of cannabis. Among numerous indications, often only based on anecdotal patient reports and empirical data, is nowadays most clinical evidence existing for muscle spasms, neurological diseases (e.g. epilepsy, migraine), pain, and psychiatric disorders (e.g. anxiety, depression).
Increasing areas of application of cannabis, cannabis products and cannabinoids - such as in agriculture, medicine, pharmaceutics, food, cosmetics, and forensics - and the complex chemistry of cannabis require adequate analytical methods. Often hyphenated instrumental techniques are used e.g. for taxonomical classification, chemical profiling and fingerprinting, pattern recognition, chemometrics, in-process and quality control, biomedical, and forensic analyses. Most established in cannabis analytics are GC-FID, GC-MSD, and HPLC-DAD. Due to the complexity and instability of some cannabis constituents and to avoid data misinterpretation special attention should be paid to sampling, storage, sample preparation, and extraction. Taking into account parameters like type of matrix, target analytes (neutrals, acids, volatiles), speed and costs of analysis and instrumentation, the evaluation of an application-conform method can be a real challenge.
Focussing on the analytical characterization and validation of cannabis, medical cannabis and derived pharmaceutics pros and cons as well as pitfalls and risks are discussed of chromatographic and spectroscopic methods, such as HPTLC, (U)HPLC, GC, GC-MS, NMR, N-IRS and IMS.
