The influence of terpenes on the release of volatile organic compounds and active ingredients to cannabis vaping aerosols
Jiries Meehan-Atrash, Wentai Luo, Kevin J. McWhirter, David G. Dennis, David Šarlah, Robert P. Jensen, Isaac Afreh, Jia Jiang, Kelley C. Barsanti, Alisha Ortiz, Robert M. Strongin
Abstract
analysis of their aerosol gas phase products using automated thermal desorption-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry with the aid of isotopic labelling and chemical mechanism modelling. Four abundant products - isoprene, 2-methyl-2-butene, 3-methylcrotonaldehyde, and 3-methyl-1-butene - are shown to derive from a common radical intermediate for both THC and β-myrcene and these products comprise 18-30% of the aerosol gas phase. The relative levels of these four products are highly correlated with applied power to the e-cigarette, which indicates formation of these products is temperature dependent. Vaping THC-β-myrcene mixtures with increasing % mass of β-myrcene is correlated with less degradation of the starting material and a product distribution suggestive of a lower aerosolization temperature. By contrast, dabbing THC-β-myrcene mixtures with increasing % mass of β-myrcene is associated with higher levels of HPHCs, and isotopic labelling showed this is due to increased reactivity of β-myrcene relative to THC.