Cannabidiol (CBD) has become one of the most popular natural compound applied in various
different ways. Although, it has evidence based medical application (i.e., Epidiolex® for
seizure disorder), the indications of widely available CBD-containing food supplements
are mostly not supported. Furthermore, the frequent or long-term application of cannabidiol
without
medical supervision has not been investigated. Finally, the loose and uncontrolled
legal environment regulating the food supplements market, the Cannabis products CBD-content
is not controlled
by National authorities in EU. Our aim was to develop a fast, high-throughput
analytical method to screen CBD enriched oils and food supplements and to determine
the CBD content of the
investigated products available on Hungarian market. Robust and reliable HPLC-DAD
method for the screening of products with simple sample preparation was developed.
The screening process
allowed us to check more than 25 products (21 CBD-enriched oils, 4 hemp oils).
Hemp oils were CBD-free, while CBD-enriched oils can be categorized into three groups:
in case of 4 products the
measured CBD-content met the declared value on the label, while 9 products contained
up to 63% less CBD and 8 products were with 54% more than it was declared on the labels.
Based on our
results, it is possible that CBD enriched oils and food supplements may contain
higher amount of CBD than the eligible level, thus threatening consumers and patients
by increasing the risk of
cardiovascular side effects of CBD [1], [2].
