I have received HHC 1mg standards via Cayman Chemical in solid form. I am curious of the merits of preparing either of these standards in ACN vs MeOH. Our current mobile phases are A: H2O 0.1%FA, B: MeOH 0.05% FA. Our other 10 cannabinoid standards are 1mg/mL in either ACN or MeOH. As a 2 year operating neophyte to the analytical side of cannabinoid testing, does anyone have an explanation to why certain standards are prepared in ACN vs MeOH? Very curious!
I am looking to create a method for HHC and eventually with d8-THC Acetate apart from our standard 10 cannabinoid analysis method on an Agilent Infinity 1260II, Poroshell 120, 2.7um 3.0x500mm column. Thanks for any responses and information!
2 Likes
Solvent choice usually considers stability of the molecule and solubility. You obviously wouldn’t want the compound to crash out in the freezer or convert into some other compound. There are probably also considerations about exempt preparations for scheduled compounds.
I bet you could use either solvent if you run your cal curve pretty much right away after diluting. More prudent question is why was it not available as a 1mg/mL solution from cayman directly?
4 Likes
I’d guess the 1mg/ml dilutions are only for the federally restricted compounds and not the pseudo-legal CBD derived isomers
1 Like
Oddly enough the HHC isomers were only available in solid form from what I could find. As far as the scheduling, the HHC solid was not scheduled and there is a d8-THC-O standard that is exempt from scheduling in 1mg/mL ACN.
A 0.5mg/mL preparation in ACN is available from NSI it seems, never used them before.
https://emeraldscientific.com/reference-materials/cannabinoids/single-component/hexahydrocannabinol-hhc/
ACN versus MeOH has a lot to do with stability, as acidic cannabinoids are not stable in protic solutions and will decarb.
7 Likes
somehow forgot to mention this about alcohols/acidic compounds - good point!
3 Likes
Are these the Hydroxy HHC standards or did you find actual HHC standards?
Very little Hydroxy HHC in the market from what I can tell.
2 Likes
I only see hydroxy HHC’s on cayman’s website…
https://www.caymanchem.com/search?q=HHC
edit: looks like they have them now.
so @kcalabs “soon” may have been “less than a week”.
thanks @Phytochem17 for updating us (below).
1 Like
Acn would be the safest bet. Seems the more liable compounds are always in ACN so I’d say that is the best solvent to err on the side of caution.
2 Likes
Yeah @StoneyStark you might want to look into this. I spoke with the sales/technical team directly at Cayman today and they said they don’t have HHC reference material, only the hydroxys. I see your 1 mg neat preparation on that list of compounds.
You may want to double check what you purchased, because straight from the source I’ve been told there is no HHC standards for a few more week.
3 Likes
Have you been able to produce a reference standard from your materials?
I wish. I bought a teledyne flash device for making reference materials but its still sitting in its box. I really wish I had skilled labor that I didn’t have to compensate haha otherwise, all tasks fall to me and one other chemist.
3 Likes
Yeah, definitely the hydroxy items# 36249, 36250. Woops 
.Looks like I’ll be waiting to calibrate for HHC. 
Thanks @eyeworm! I wonder how these will elute with that extra group. As far as testing on the market now, I guess that NSI is the probable source for most of the labs I wonder.
@kcalabs, we’ve used you for testing a few times before for HHC. You have a standard source for those, or is the confidential knowledge? Ha
cayman isnt far out from having something - they claim only a few weeks.
NSI has them. Cayman will have them soon, too.
1 Like