Preparative isolation of cannabinoids from Cannabis sativa by centrifugal partition chromatography

A simple method is presented for the preparative isolation of seven major cannabinoids from Cannabis sativa plant material. Separation was performed by centrifugal partition chromatography (CPC), a technique that permits large-scale preparative isolations. Using only two different solvent systems, it was possible to obtain pure samples of the cannabinoids; (-)-Delta(9)-(trans)-tetrahydrocannabinol (Delta(9)-THC), cannabidiol (CBD), cannabinol (CBN), cannabigerol (CBG), (-)-Delta(9)-(trans)-tetrahydrocannabinolic acid-A (THCA), cannabigerolic acid (CBGA), and cannabidiolic acid (CBDA). A drug-type and a fiber-type cannabis cultivar were used for the isolation. All isolates were shown to be more than 90% pure by gas chromatography. This method makes acidic cannabinoids available on a large scale for biological testing. The method described in this report can also be used to isolate additional cannabinoids from cannabis plant material.