Short Lecture “HPLC-DAD analysis of CBD content in hemp oils and food supplements”

Cannabidiol (CBD) has become one of the most popular natural compound applied in various different ways. Although, it has evidence based medical application (i.e., Epidiolex® for seizure disorder), the indications of widely available CBD-containing food supplements are mostly not supported. Furthermore, the frequent or long-term application of cannabidiol without medical supervision has not been investigated. Finally, the loose and uncontrolled legal environment regulating the food supplements market, the Cannabis products CBD-content is not controlled by National authorities in EU. Our aim was to develop a fast, high-throughput analytical method to screen CBD enriched oils and food supplements and to determine the CBD content of the investigated products available on Hungarian market. Robust and reliable HPLC-DAD method for the screening of products with simple sample preparation was developed. The screening process allowed us to check more than 25 products (21 CBD-enriched oils, 4 hemp oils). Hemp oils were CBD-free, while CBD-enriched oils can be categorized into three groups: in case of 4 products the measured CBD-content met the declared value on the label, while 9 products contained up to 63% less CBD and 8 products were with 54% more than it was declared on the labels. Based on our results, it is possible that CBD enriched oils and food supplements may contain higher amount of CBD than the eligible level, thus threatening consumers and patients by increasing the risk of cardiovascular side effects of CBD [1], [2].