Chicago, IL--A team of researchers led by Uttam Garg, PhD, of Children's Mercy, Kansas City and the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine, conducted research to see if tests that detect delta-9-THC can also detect delta-8. To do this, Garg's team spiked negative urine samples with various concentrations of delta-8 (10-50 ng/mL) and analyzed these samples with a standard approach for detecting cannabis use. First, they screened the samples with a commercial cannabinoid immunoassay, then they followed this with confirmatory testing using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS).
As noted in a press release, Garg's team found that the cannabinoid immunoassay yielded positive results for all samples with delta-8 concentrations of 30 ng/mL and higher. The GC-MS method also identified delta-8. The latter is especially significant because delta-8 and delta-9-THC are very similar at a molecular level, but the GC-MS method was able to distinguish between them due to a difference in something known as retention time. The researchers confirmed these findings in a patient sample containing delta-8.
"With our methods, we can detect both delta-8 and delta-9 isomers and distinguish delta-9 from delta-8," Garg said in the release. "If someone is using delta-8-THC, the immunoassay we are using and likely other immunoassays which are out on the market will detect it. Once an immunoassay positive sample has been identified, then you need a chromatographic method to separate delta-8 and delta-9 because they are very similar structurally. That's what we did in our lab—we used immunoassay for initial screening and GC-MS to separate and distinguish the two compounds."
Read the entire release for more.