By Madsen Lake
Mycotoxin is a chemical that forms in cannabis plant during the production ofaga off of triterpenoids. Triterpenoids are known to have strong psychotropic properties that have been used in the treatment of hallucinations in patients with schizophrenia and other similar diseases. It is not entirely clear what mycotoxin is, however it appears that mycotoxin is produced by fungi that are in the soil when growing cannabis. When mycotoxin is in the cannabis plant, it begins to grow and produces a mycotoxin named Mycotoxic hydroquinone (MHQ).
Due to the mycotoxin content of cannabis, mycotoxin testing can’t be performed on fresh cannabis. Instead mycotoxin testing must be done when the plant is stored or dried. Testing is usually done on cannabis that has been stored for one to three months. In this way, specialists can determine the amount of mycotoxin that is present in a product and if mycotoxin is responsible for any undesirable health effects in human beings.
There are two common mycotoxin testing methods. One such method uses HPLC-based technology to another method use gas analysis of liquid cannabis. Both these methods involve several steps including the extraction of the sample and then analysis by gas chromatography/Mass Spectrometry, ion chromatography/Mass Spectrometry, and NMR. All these techniques need to be followed strictly in order to get reliable results.
The most commonly used mycotoxin in the world is MHQ. In this case, mycotoxin is produced by certain species of fungi called Mycoccus anti spasmodium. In order to protect itself from mycotoxin, certain species of these fungi secrete a chemical known as cerimycin, which is actually a mycotoxin. Some mycotoxin is produced by other species of fungi and is known as rhizomycosis. In most mycotoxin testing, the testing is done on contaminated material that comes from forensic testing.
A particular problem with cytotoxicity testing is the fact that mycotoxin production is not always proportional to the amount of contamination. This means that there could be a large amount of mycotoxins present in a small quantity of cannabis. This could result in inaccurate conclusions regarding safety levels. Some countries have already banned the production, but there are some areas in the US where cannabis is widely smoked and consumed.
This situation has led to the increased interest of various laboratories in mycotoxin contamination testing. Some companies are actively undertaking mycotoxin testing on cannabis. The most recent research concerning this subject was published in 2021 in the Journal of Medical Science. There was a study performed by a group of chemists from the University of Michigan Medical School and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This group tested twenty strains of cannabis and four non-bacterial mycotoxin molds.
