Annotated synthetic cannabinoids (SCBs) and non-target compounds in herbal mixtures from ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography and gas chromatography-mass selective detector

The confiscated herbal mixtures used in the current work were the Herbal Blend and Spice Diamond brand. Extracts of the herbal mixtures were successfully analysed using UPLC-HRMS to detect SCBs responsible for the reported highs. The detected SCBs were AMB-FUBINACA (1) in the Herbal Blend brand, as well as 5F-ADB (2) and 5F-EDMB-PINACA (3) in the Spice Diamond brand (Table 3.1). Analysis by UPLC-HRMS also revealed presence of non-SCBs compounds in the herbal mixtures (Table 3.3), the drug precursor 4-piperidone monohydrate (1), the research chemical N-(2-Hydroxypropyl) methacrylamide (HPMA) (2), the aromatic compound Vanillin (3), Tretinoin (7) and the chlorophyll degradation product, Pheophorbide A (8). The use of GC-MSD revealed additional herbal mixtures volatile constituents (Table 3.2), Menthol (13), para-Anisaldehyde (14), Piperitone (15), Menthyl acetate (16), Piperonal (17), 3,4-Dihydrocoumarin (18), Vanillin (19), Ethyl vanillin (20), γ-decalactone B (21), 2,4-Bis(1,1-dimethylethyl) phenol (22) and α-Bisabolol oxide A (23). The annotated non-target compounds were mostly aromatic compounds. The SCBs and non-SCBs compounds confirm that the Herbal Blend brand contains ingredients different from the listed (tendu leaves, Ceylon blend and St. John Wort) although some of the aromatic compounds may be from the plant material listed, and reveal the constituents of the Spice Diamond brand herbal mixtures contain not only SCBs. This is consistent with findings from similar studies and reports. Other than compounds Vanillin, Pheophorbide A and 2,4-Bis(1,1-dimethylethyl) phenol, no other compounds found in the Herbal Blend brand were detected in the Spice brand in the current work, suggesting that the two herbal mixtures are non-identical.