Roberta Ascrizzi

I work as an analytical phytochemist in the Pharmaceutical Biology research group of the Pharmacy Department, University of Pisa, Italy. After my Master Degree in Pharmacy, I obtained a PhD in “Pharmaceutical and Bioactive Substances Science” at the Pharmacy Department of the University of Pisa, Italy, with a thesis focused on Cannabis sativa L., particularly addressed to the study of hemp volatile secondary metabolites and their variability based on intrinsic (hemp variety) and extrinsic (agronomic techniques, site, climate, treatment, etc.) factors. I have extensively studied hemp essential oils of different composition for several applications, such as pest management and alcoholic beverages flavoring. Moreover, I have studied the application of the volatile analysis in hashish blocks as a tool to aid the estimation of the route through which the material has reached the dealers’ market. My main fields of expertise are i) the extraction and study of the spontaneously emitted volatiles and of the essential oils obtained from food, medicinal, and aromatic plants, and ii) the chemometric evaluation of existing patterns in these compositional behaviors.