The substantial increase in legalization and subsequent regulation of cannabis has intensified the control and analytical monitoring of cannabis products to assure sample quality and control the cannabinoid content of the crop. In this sense, the restriction on cultivating legal cannabis plants has been limited to 0.2–0.3% of Δ⁹-THC content, depending on the host country’s laws. Thereby, cannabis flowers containing more than this limit are considered illicit drug-type cultivations and require the obtention of specific permits to work with them. The official method established by the European Commission set the gas chromatography/flame ionization detector (GC-FID) as the proper instrument to analyze the delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ⁹-THC) content. In the present work, the potential drawbacks associated with the utilization of the official method for the evaluation of the Δ9-THC content have been described. Thus, the effect of the GC injector port temperature in the degradation of cannabinoids was evaluated, observing the degradation of CBD by 20%, generating Δ⁹-THC and CBN as by-products. Likewise, 17.2% of Δ⁹-THC was degraded, producing CBN as a by-product. Therefore, despite the brief residence of cannabinoids in the GC inlet, the effect of temperature is noteworthy and must be considered. Derivatization of cannabinoids should be a mandatory step to prevent the thermal degradation of cannabinoids, assuring the accuracy of the results. Furthermore, the evaluation of cannabinoid degradation thermally treated for longer periods of time was carried out. The kinetic degradation of CBD was evaluated in this way, observing a degradation of 0.22 μg/L per second. At the same time, the kinetics of the appearance of Δ⁹-THC demonstrates the intermediate nature of this cannabinoid, being degraded at 0.03 s⁻¹ μM⁻¹. The degradation of CBD also produced CBN and CBE as by-products.

Cannabis sativa L. is an ancient cultivar that has found applications in various fields, e.g., medicine, due to its beneficial effects. However, due to its psychotropic effects, the regulation of this cultivar has increased throughout the decades. In this context, the need for rapid and reliable analytical methods to ensure the quality control of Cannabis cultivars has become of extreme importance. NIRS has arisen as a powerful tool in this field due to its multiple advantages, e.g., non-destructive, rapid, and cost-effective. In this article, the chemometric techniques commonly employed in NIRS method development are described, along with their application for the analysis of Cannabis samples. Regarding qualitative methods, different mathematical treatments and classification models are explained. As for quantitative methods, the representative linear and non-linear modelling techniques applied for the development of prediction equations are described, alongside their application in the Cannabis field. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time this type of review is written, since there are several articles which address cannabinoid determination, but the main purpose of this review is to enhance the potential of NIRS over the traditional techniques employed for the analysis of Cannabis samples.

Light supplementation within the canopy is an effective method to improve light distribution throughout the whole plant, ensuring the inner canopies receive adequate light exposure to maximize overall growth. This approach is gaining interest among cannabis growers looking for more efficient lighting strategies to enhance their valuable production for medicinal purposes. We compared the traditional top lighting (TL) approach with two light supplementation methods: subcanopy lighting (SCL), which adds extra light to the inner canopies from below, and inter-canopy lighting (ICL), providing dedicated light at the basal and middle levels. Both SCL and ICL resulted in a more uniform light distribution throughout the plants and increased the yields of inflorescences, cannabinoids, and terpenes. The ICL treatment achieved the highest yield increases, showing a 29.95% increase in dry inflorescence yield, a 24.4% higher accumulation of THC, and a 12.5% increase in total terpene concentration. Notably, both SCL and ICL reduced the coefficients of variation, yielding more standardized products by decreasing the variability of the dry inflorescences yield, which also had more consistent chemical profiles, with reductions in variability for both THC and total terpene yields of over 50%. Although using more energy for lighting, SCL was more power-efficient for inflorescence and cannabinoid yields, while ICL was more efficient in achieving yield enhancements. In conclusion, adding supplemental light to the inner canopies enhances the profitability of medical cannabis cultivation, resulting in higher yields, improved energy efficiency, and more standardized products for research and medical purposes.

In the last decades, cannabinoids, the active constituents of Cannabis sativa L., have been attracting a strong interest, regarding the health effects associated with the use of Cannabis and Cannabis-derived products. The progressive legalization of this species in several countries has prompted an increasing concern about the characterization and quantification of cannabinoids in diverse chemotypes of the plant, as well as the obtained final products. Therewith, Process and Product Quality Assurance (PPQA) becomes a mandatory practise to verify the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). Gas chromatography is one of the most used techniques in this sense due to its high attainable resolution. However, sample complexity and the thermal lability of cannabinoids hinder the analysis. In this chapter, a fully description of the recent advances in the Cannabis sativa L. analysis by gas chromatography will be presented, including different approaches that have come up to solve the obstacles encountered.