Spectroscopic evaluation of contents present in a therapeutic plant: Cannabis sativa

Present work deals with compositional analysis of Cannabis sativa (C. sativa) plant using different spectroscopic techniques. For elemental analysis, Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) technique is used. The LIBS result shows the presence of various organic (C, N, O, and H) as well as inorganic elements (Fe, Si, Mg, Mn, Ca, Al, Ti, Sr, Ba, N_A, K, Cr_s, and Cu) in C. sativa plant. The results of semi-quantitative analysis using LIBS is validated by the determining the concentration of elements using Atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Partial least square regression (PLSR) are applied on LIBS data for statistical analysis of C. staiva plants. PCA is used to classify the C. sativa plant samples from huge data set of LIBS spectra without loss of any information. And PLSR is used to quantify the several elements (Cu, Fe, and Mn) in an unknown sample from the matrix of LIBS spectra of known sample and reference data of AAS. Also, the organic nature of C. sativa plant has been observed by the molecular analysis using Ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy (UV–VIS) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. The presence of organic molecules Cannabinoid (used in medical applications) has been observed in UV–VIS spectra of C. sativa plant.