I am strongly considering picking up an SRI Instrumnets 420 Mini gas chromatograph for quick and dirty but close enough analysis of both plant material and crude extracts. This GC is a very small form factor and does not require gas cylinders as it has an on-board hydrogen generator and air compressor, and is configured exclusively for major cannabinoid quantification using FID. The price point is 5K. The benefits are cost, size (portability), and onboard A/D converter and free analysis software. SRI is a very small company with basically no more than 3 techs, one of which is the Owner, Hugh. The downside to this little GC is that there is really no flexibility; you can change the column, but it is set up for the one small coil 15 meter column supplied and there is little to nothing in the way of method or instrument modification. So any future thoughts of upgrading this GC for terps residuals etc is straight up no go. If I can I will post a link to the SRI Youtube video showing this little dedicated GC. Here is the product page: Gas Chromatographs - PeakSimple - SRI Instruments - Cannabis Testing Equipment. Here is a Youtube video: - YouTube.
Note that GC does not have native cannabinoid acid detection abilities and thus requires derivitization, but that can be done easily enough for rough quantification of the acids. They do have more flexible models at around 10K and up. I was just wondering if anyone had any experience with this model, or any other SRI GCs for our analytes of concern.
Also, to save the obvious coming replies, I am fully aware of the superiority and advantages of HPLC and GS/MS.
Thanks all!