Alpha Cat - Master Class

Transcript of the Alpha Cat Master Class:

Hello my name is Sebastien Béguerie, I’m the founder of Alpha Cat.

I’m going to present you the method of analysis by thin layer chromatography The Alpha Cat method allows to analyse up to 6 cannabinoids: the THC, the CBD,the CBN, the THCV , the CBG and the CBC.

In addition to that the cannabinoids also can be determined in their acid form, that are present in the plant in its natural state, without transformation by heat being by combustion or vaporization.

So the first phase is to weigh 100mg of sample, of flowers, but it can also be pure resin type Hashish or alcoholised tinctures, concentrated forms by different types of extractions with solvents, such as butane that is very popular now.

We can analyze different types of matrices that will contain the cannabinoids.

This flower here, we are going to weigh as I said 100mg or 0.1 gram to be easier with the most used scales.

In our test tube we put 0.1 gr and then we're going to add 1 ml of solvent.

We are going to call it “test liquid” in Spanish to ease things.
Now we have the phase just before applying the samples on the plates.

So we sum up;,we put 100 mg of marijuana in 1 micro litre of test fluid.

With this sample we’re going to take 4 samples to do a percentage test, it’s to say, to see the strength in active principles, mainly the THC and it will allow to see if there is any CBD when we’re going to put each aligned line, where we can see the points of CBD that will appear, we are going to be able to select them.

We’re going to decarboxylate each line, heat them all and apply 2 micro litres of our sample on the plate, 4 samples, and the last plate is going to be for one variety in which we will put 2 different concentrations to see if the variety is too strong we are going to be able to go down on a second dilution to verify if it’s over 20 in particular, and then another application where we won't to decarboxylate to be able to make a difference between the heated
and unheated sample to see the acidic forms THC which will appear unheated will be compared with the THC which will appear heated
and then in the gap between the two, the difference, will give us the acid form, which is natural.

Make sure that it rises correctly.

Then take 1 micro litre.

So, then 1 micro litre.

So its the same idea, it rises and we note it directly on the plate.
We will put a minute hand for 40 seconds that will represent the time that we leave exposed the point of the deposit of our sample under 150 degrees in our machine.

In the kit do with the oven, to the place of the machine we apply our points and then put them in the oven at 150 degrees for 5 minutes.

Here we have the calibrated lines that will allow us to put us above
Now we will prepare developers glasses.

We are going to put 2 micro litres of test fluid, then 2 pipettes, each of 1 micro litre.

Then we will introduce our plate with the points downwards We are going to put the coloring powder to make our basin.

We are going to add a little water to get a bit of depth.

We must dilute the coloring powder carefully in the water to avoid any lumps and allow having a homogeneous surface.

Then we've got the plates, our plates are dry.

Once dry, we will reveal them thanks to the contact with the water,
the coloring will stick to cannabinoid molecules, and it is what is going to highlight them in a fluorescent way.

It is the same method as the analogical photos.

We do a bath, only the surface must touch, it isn’t necessary to soak the plate completely.

We see appearing with clarity the points.

In general 10 minutes are needed for that points are fully revealed and so that we can move on to the following phase, of measurement.

We are going to let them dry vertically to allow the colorant to lower down correctly avoiding so turbid spots.

Those are the rules, to define the concentration we will measure the point, then we must wait that the plate is dry to see appearing the core of the point and around a halo.

What we are going to check is only the core.

We're going to have two lines, one decreasing another constant that will allow, depending on the thickness, match a percentage.
So here we can see the point, this is the point corresponding to 1 micro litre, so here we see that they’re 7, then you need to multiply by 2, THC is in fact 14%.

On the side we can see the form which wasn’t heated and then we see approximately 2 %, the stain should be between the two lines and then we are at 2% of unheated THC, compared with the 14%
of heated THC it gives us a 12% of acid THC.

The fact that there is a presence of CBG will amplify the effect of THC, and this variety is going to have a more sedative potential effect.

It’s an observation that can be seen below.

In summary, 14% of THC, the acid THC that we could compare of 12% and then a presence of CBG less than 1 %.

Here is the plate of potency test, by the quantification directly from the principal cannabinoids which is the CBD and the THC to allow you to make a selection "screening " as they say in English.

We can see that all have THC and a sample contains CBD the small orange spot just above.

Then if we want to make a selection on the CBD we see clearly that we must choose the sample 3 I prepare a file card, the date, 7 April 2014.

We are going to notice the numbers according to the points, then we are not going to notice the names, it will be 1,2,3,4, the sample 1 corresponds to the Super Juani, sample number 2 Sugar Pop,
sample number 3 CBD sweet, then we have the announced CBD, it was with a Sour Widow, and the last sample, Criminal.

To identify them, on our plates we stick tags to be able to correspond.

To protect it, we can keep it in simple ladle.

There you have it !