Cannabis: from crop to shop—some insights about stability to access quality control

TL;DR

This paper explores how environmental and processing factors affect the chemical stability and quality of cannabis products from cultivation to sale.

Contribution

The paper introduces a new framework linking chemical stability, chemodiversity, and quality across the cannabis production chain.

Findings

Pre- and post-harvest factors consistently alter volatile and non-volatile compound profiles in cannabis.

Geographic research concentration is in Europe, with underrepresentation in other regions.

Technological steps like drying and storage significantly impact sesquiterpene and monoterpene stability.

Abstract

Cannabis sativa L. is increasingly used for medicinal and commercial purposes, yet most reviews treat chemical composition, ecology, and post-harvest processing as separate topics. This manuscript advances a conceptual framework that links chemical stability, chemodiversity, and post-harvest quality across the production chain (“crop to shop”), emphasizing and detailing how environmental and technological drivers shape cannabinoid and terpenoid profiles and, ultimately, product standardization.

We conducted a structured scoping review with bibliometric mapping of studies on volatile oils from inflorescences (1963–2025), applying explicit eligibility criteria and extracting metadata on genotype, collection site, plant state, extraction procedure, and analytical platforms. To synthesize chemical patterns, we employed exploratory chemometric summaries (principal component analysis and hierarchical grouping) and comparative narrative analyses of pre- and post-harvest factors (e.g., drying, grinding, extraction, storage, and others), and their implications for stability and quality assessment.

Across regions, chemical stability emerged as the central axis organizing chemodiversity, ecological roles, and quality outcomes. Pre-harvest conditions (cultivar, environment, phenology, and others) and post-harvest practices (drying regimes, particle size, extraction choices, storage conditions such as temperature, light, oxygen, and moisture) consistently redirected volatile and non-volatile profiles, with predictable formation or loss of key markers. The mapping highlights geographic concentration of research in Europe, the underrepresentation of the Americas, Oceania, and Africa, and limited coverage of minor cannabinoids and oxygenated terpenoids despite their technological relevance. The synthesis clarifies when technological steps favor sesquiterpenes versus monoterpenes, how trichome integrity protects active compounds, and why water activity and packaging permeability are decisive for stability. This review also identifies operational gaps regarding winterization parameters, sterilization impacts, and the scale-up of greener extraction methods.

By integrating phytochemistry, chemical ecology, and stability science, this review proposes a stability–chemodiversity–quality framework that distinguishes this approach from prior reviews. The framework supports actionable guidelines for cultivation choices, post-harvest handling, extraction designs, packaging, and storage to improve reproducibility and labeling accuracy. It also sets priorities for future research: standardized stability testing across matrices, inclusion of minor constituents, ecologically informed phenology, and validation of processing models based on moisture dynamics and oxygen control.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s42238-026-00409-9.

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