We Need a 1.5g Sample

Bring your flower samples to one of our locations in Berkeley or Albuquerque. A representative will help explain the test while they prep your sample.

It Only Takes 5 Minutes

We'll grind the flower and pour it into a clean sample cup. The test itself only takes a few minutes - feel free to hang out at the lab while we run the scan.

Get a Report & Samples Back!

Each Potency Report includes figures for THC-A, ∆-9-THC, CBD-A, CBD, and Moisture Content. If you stay in the building until the end of the test, we'll even give your sample back - ready-to-roll.

Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

Near Infrared (NIR) Spectroscopy has, over the last two decades, become a preferred method in cases where materials are heterogeneous and require multiple samples, or in cases where blending requires a more rapid assessment to control blend content on the fly.

Scanning Cannabis

Near infrared spectroscopy and Cannabis seem to be a natural fit since the method has been very successful in assessing bulk contents of other agricultural products where it is currently used extensively. Since Cannabis flowers are another agricultural product, NIR is a natural choice for application development of a Cannabis potency analyzer.

Calibrated via HPLC

This device uses chemometric modeling of NIR spectroscopy and calibration data using wet chemistry (High-Performance Liquid Chromatograph - HPLC) to estimate the content of cured Cannabis flowers in percent by weight content of four cannabinoids: THCA, D9-THC, CBDA, and CBD.

Berkeley, California

Our headquarters in the bay area has a Steep Hill Express location adjacent to our full analytical laboratory. Swing by anytime!

1005 Parker St.
Berkeley, CA 97409

Open a Steep Hill Express™

Thinking about getting into the cannabis industry and interested in becoming part of the world’s best and largest team of cannabis scientists? Leverage Steep Hill’s science, technology, brand and regulatory expertise to jumpstart a third-party testing services business in your state, province or country.
Become a Steep Hill Licensee

Understanding Diffuse Reflectance Near Infrared Spectroscopy

Diffuse reflectance refers to the way light is diffusely scattered from a sample made of many small particulates, such as ground flowers. In Diffuse Reflectance Near Infrared Spectroscopy (DRNIR), some of the light is reflected off of the surface and this light has little or no information about the sample. Some of the light, however, passes into the sample and is absorbed and scattered multiple times by the sample particulates before exiting the sample in the general direction whence it came. Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy is only useful when the sample scatters light sufficiently to return it in the direction of the sample/air interface so it can be detected.

How It Works With Cannabis

Cannabis measurement with DRNIR is performed by grinding the flower and packing the sample into a sample cup, then placing the sample cup on the instrument measurement window over the light source. A white reference is measured just prior to placement of the sample, and these two scans are compared to mathematically assess the light absorbed by the sample across the wavelengths collected. Molecular bond types can be differentiated by their spectral absorbance/wavelength signatures, which makes molecular selectivity and quantitation possible in many cases.

Validation at the High Times 2016 NorCal Medical Cannabis Cup™

Steep Hill Express™ was used to perform the flower testing at the High Times 2016 NorCal Medical Cannabis Cup™ in San Francisco in June, 2016. Flower samples were also tested using Steep Hill’s HPLC wet method for comparison. The NIR analyzer was previously calibrated against HPLC results with 250 widely varying samples of Cannabis collected for this purpose.

Read the entire white paper

What are you looking for?

Laboratory-grade potency reports in minutes.

Steep Hill Express™

We Need a 1.5g Sample

It Only Takes 5 Minutes

Get a Report & Samples Back!

Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

Scanning Cannabis

Calibrated via HPLC

Berkeley, California

Open a Steep Hill Express™

Understanding Diffuse Reflectance Near Infrared Spectroscopy

How It Works With Cannabis

Validation at the High Times 2016 NorCal Medical Cannabis Cup™

Explore Steep Hill Express™ today.

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We Published a Scientific Paper

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