Journal Article

Pine rosin identified as a toxic cannabis extract adulterant

Meehan-Atrash, Jiries, Strongin, Robert M.

2020

Overview

•Pine rosin was identified as component in a sample of cannabis extract adulterant.•The inhalation toxicology of pine rosin is well-studied.•Current analytical methods may misidentify pine rosin as an additive.•The prevalence of this additive is unknown. Pine rosin (colophony) has been identified as a potentially new adulterant in cannabis oil. Its inhalation toxicity poses a significant health concern to users. For example, pine rosin fumes are released during soldering, and have been cited as a causative agent of occupational asthma. Symptoms also include desquamation of bronchial epithelium, which has also been observed in e-cigarette or vaping product used-associated lung injury (EVALI) patients. The sample analyzed herein was acquired from a cannabis industry source, also contains medium chain triglycerides and oleamide, the latter of which is a hypnotic that is commonly found in the synthetic marijuana product Spice, or K2. A combination of proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) and high pressure liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESIMS) was used to unambiguously identify major pine rosin ingredients such as abietic and other resin acids. Comparison to commercial samples of pure pine rosin confirmed the assignment.

• Publisher: Elsevier B.V,Elsevier Limited
• Subject: abietic acid / Acids / Adulterant / adulterants / adulterated products / Asthma / BHO / Cannabis / Cannabis - chemistry / Cannabis extract / Cannabis industry / Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Cutting agent / Drug Contamination / Electronic cigarettes / Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems / electrospray ionization mass spectrometry / Epithelium / essential oils / EVALI / Forensic sciences / Fumes / High pressure / High-performance liquid chromatography / Humans / Inhalation / Injuries / Injury analysis / Ionization / Laboratories / Liquid chromatography / Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / Marijuana / Mass spectrometry / Mass spectroscopy / Medical marijuana / medium chain triacylglycerols / NMR / Nuclear magnetic resonance / nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy / Occupational diseases / Oleamide / phytotoxins / Pine rosin / Pinus / plant extracts / Plant Extracts - chemistry / Resins, Plant - analysis / Respiration / Rosin / Smoking / Soldering / Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization / Spectrum analysis / Toxicity / Triglycerides / Vaping