Cannabinoids vs. whole metabolome: Relevance of cannabinomics in analyzing Cannabis varieties

<p><em>Cannabis sativa</em> has a long history of domestication both for its bioactive compounds and its fibers. This has produced hundreds of varieties, usually characterized in the literature by chemotypes, with &Delta;⁹-THC and CBD content as the main markers. However, chemotyping could also be done based on minor compounds (phytocannabinoids and others). In this work, a workflow, which we propose to name cannabinomics, combines mass spectrometry of the whole metabolome and statistical analysis to help differentiate <em>C. sativa</em> varieties and deciphering their characteristic markers. By applying this cannabinomics approach to the data obtained from 20 varieties of <em>C. sativa</em> (classically classified as chemotype I, II, or III), we compared the results with those obtained by a targeted quantification of 11 phytocannabinoids. Cannabinomics can be considered as a complementary tool for phenotyping and genotyping, allowing the identification of minor compounds playing a key role as markers of differentiation.</p>