Enhancing drying efficiency and terpene retention of cannabis using cold  plasma pretreatment

Das, Pabitra Chandra; Heydari, Mohamad Mehdi; Baik, Oon-Doo; Zhang, Lifeng; Tabil, Lope

Enhancing drying efficiency and terpene retention of cannabis using cold plasma pretreatment

dc.contributor.author	Das, Pabitra Chandra
dc.contributor.author	Heydari, Mohamad Mehdi
dc.contributor.author	Baik, Oon-Doo
dc.contributor.author	Zhang, Lifeng
dc.contributor.author	Tabil, Lope
dc.date.accessioned	2025-03-14T14:20:07Z
dc.date.available	2025-03-14T14:20:07Z
dc.date.issued	2025-02-11
dc.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/).
dc.description.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.
dc.description.sponsorship	University of Saskatchewan (CGPS Dean’s Scholarship) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada CREATE Grant (CREATE/543319–2020) through the project titled Quality Assurance and Quality Control for Cannabis (QAQCC) and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant (RGPIN-2023-03940).
dc.description.version	Peer Reviewed
dc.identifier.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
dc.identifier.doi	10.1016/j.indcrop.2025.120669
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10388/16691
dc.language.iso	en
dc.publisher	Elsevier
dc.rights	Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada	en
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/
dc.subject	Cannabis
dc.subject	Cannabinoids
dc.subject	Terpenes
dc.subject	Energy
dc.subject	Color
dc.subject	Diffusivity
dc.title	Enhancing drying efficiency and terpene retention of cannabis using cold plasma pretreatment
dc.type	Article