What is High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)?

What is High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)?

What is High-Performance Liquid Chromatography

High-performance liquid chromatography is an analysis technique used to separate, identify, and quantify the individual components in a mixture. The process allows you to analyse the components dissolved in a liquid solvent (like CBD distillate). This technique is used throughout most laboratories to test the quality of finished products, as well as throughout the manufacturing process. It gives an incredibly precise quantitative and qualitative analysis of the ingredients in a compound, which is a crucial step in the drug approval process.

How Does an HPLC Machine Work?

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A pump will push the sample at incredibly high pressure through a column with chromatographic packing material (which could be very small polymer or glass beads, or silica, resin, alumina, etc.) via a stream of helium or nitrogen gas (the solvent). Through this process, the sample separates into its individual compounds, which can then be analysed to ensure correct concentrations of desirable compounds are present, and no foreign particles or substances are present in the substance. While manual intervention was previously required, most modern HPLC machines are fully automated and can adjust pump pressures, reservoir contents, and content analysis.

HPLC for Cannabis Extraction

Why is HPLC so important for cannabis extraction? As this industry continues to develop its legitimacy in the eyes of national regulatory bodies and end-users, we must do our part to ensure cannabis products are safe to use, free from contaminants or foreign substances, and meeting the concentrations of active ingredients found on their labels. In cannabis distillate, concentrations to look for include cannabinoids and terpenes (ensuring you have the right concentrations of each) and pesticides and heavy metals (ensuring you don’t have these harmful compounds in your distillate).

Part of our commitment at extractX as we move from food-grade to pharma-grade across the board is HPLC testing at multiple stages throughout the extraction process to ensure our partners are getting the highest-quality distillate output from their cannabis biomass.

If you’re a hemp or cannabis cultivator, processor, or product formulator seeking a partner who understands quality testing to produce high-quality cannabis distillate, we walk to talk! Our turnkey mobile labs arrive at your facility within 4-6 months and require a $0 lab CapEx. Please contact us to learn about becoming an extractX partner.