HIV Insight: Medicinal Cannabis: In Vitro Validation of Vaporizers for the Smoke-Free Inhalation of Cannabis

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Medicinal Cannabis: In Vitro Validation of Vaporizers for the Smoke-Free Inhalation of Cannabis

Inhalation by vaporization is a promising application mode for cannabis in medicine.

An in vitro validation of 5 commercial vaporizers was performed with THC-type and CBD-type cannabis. Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry was used to determine recoveries of total THC (THC_tot) and total CBD (CBD_tot) in the vapor. High-performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detection was used for the quantitation of acidic cannabinoids in the residue and to calculate decarboxylation efficiencies.

Recoveries of THC_tot and CBD_tot in the vapor of 4 electrically-driven vaporizers were 58.4 and 51.4%, 66.8 and 56.1%, 82.7 and 70.0% and 54.6 and 56.7% for Volcano Medic^®, Plenty Vaporizer^®, Arizer Solo^® and DaVinci Vaporizer^®, respectively. Decarboxylation efficiency was excellent for THC (≥ 97.3%) and CBD (≥ 94.6%).

The gas-powered Vape-or-Smoke^™ showed recoveries of THC_tot and CBD_tot in the vapor of 55.9 and 45.9%, respectively, and a decarboxylation efficiency of ≥ 87.7 for both cannabinoids. However, combustion of cannabis was observed with this device. Temperature-controlled, electrically-driven vaporizers efficiently decarboxylate inactive acidic cannabinoids and reliably release their corresponding neutral, active cannabinoids. Thus, they offer a promising application mode for the safe and efficient administration of medicinal cannabis.

Below: Percentage of total cannabinoids found in the vapor, residue and device parts of Volcano Medic^®, Plenty Vaporizer^®, Arizer Solo^®, DaVinci Vaporizer^®, and Vape-or-Smoke^™.

Depicted are the mean values + 1 SD. Bars, left to right: THC from THC-type cannabis; THC from CBD-type cannabis; CBD from CBD-type cannabis; THC standard; CBD standard.