Enhancing drying efficiency and terpene retention of cannabis using cold plasma pretreatment
Date
2025-02-11
Authors
Das, Pabitra Chandra
Heydari, Mohamad Mehdi
Baik, Oon-Doo
Zhang, Lifeng
Tabil, Lope
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Elsevier
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Article
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Abstract
Hang-drying of cannabis at room conditions is a slow process and leads to the risk of microbial growth. This method can sometimes prevent cannabis from reaching the equilibrium moisture content (EMC) below the safe storage threshold. On the other hand, high-temperature drying techniques are faster but negatively impact the secondary metabolites. Cold plasma (CP) is a novel technique explored in this study to treat cannabis at various operational conditions of plasma jet (power: 300, 350, and 400 W, time: 20, 30, and 40 s) prior to drying at environmental conditions of 25°C and 50 % RH. The findings revealed that untreated cannabis samples reached an equilibrium moisture content (EMC) of approximately 16 % in 1260 min. In contrast, CP-pretreated samples achieved lower EMCs of 10–14 % within 690–840 min. CP pretreatment also resulted in high moisture diffusivity, lower energy consumption, and higher energy efficiency. Increasing CP power and residence time accelerated the decarboxylation of cannabinoids, leading to the formation of more tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and less tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA), without significantly affecting the total THC (27.45 % untreated vs. 25.82 % - 28.36 % g/ g of dry matter in CP pretreated samples). Compared with untreated dried inflorescences, the 400 W and 30 s CP treated inflorescences resulted in the retention of 96 % of terpenes, whereas all 300 W CP treated samples retained > 90 % of terpenes. Overall, the study highlights that CP pretreatment is a promising technology for the cannabis industry in shortening the drying time and preserving the product quality, especially terpenes.
Description
© 2025 The Author(s).
Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by nc-nd/4.0/).
Keywords
Cannabis, Cannabinoids, Terpenes, Energy, Color, Diffusivity
Citation
Das, P. C., Heydari, M. M., Baik, O.-D., Zhang, L., & Tabil, L. G. (2025). Enhancing drying efficiency and terpene retention of cannabis using cold plasma pretreatment. Industrial Crops and Products, 226, 120669–120669. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indcrop.2025.120669
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DOI
10.1016/j.indcrop.2025.120669