Due to growing legalization of cannabis, the need for a rapid method
to quantify CBD and THC in cannabis is apparent. While EI-MS
provides unique structure elucidation for THC and CBD through oddelectron
ionization, the resulting complex MS1 spectra cannot be
deconvoluted without chromatography. ESI-MS softly ionizes THC
and CBD with even-electron ionization, but the CID fragmentation is
too similar to differentiate, thus also requiring chromatography (Fig
A). Therefore, there needs to be a soft odd-electron ionization that
produces EI-like fragmentation on an MS2 level. Soft Ionization by
Chemical reaction in transfer (SICRIT®), a dielectric barrier
discharge-based ion source accomplishes this, allowing for soft
ionization of these components as both the [M]+ and [M+H]+, allowing
for chromatographic-free quantification of cannabis.