One of marijuana’s two main active ingredients was found in a plant other than cannabis, researchers say.
Brazilian scientists announced that they had discovered cannabidiol (CBD) in the fruits and flowers of the Jamaican nettle (Trema micranthum)an evergreen shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions of North and South America, AFP reported this summer.
T. micranthum belongs to the Cannabaceae plant family, which contains 11 genera and around 170 species. One genus includes cannabis plants, such as Cannabis sativa, which is used to make marijuana. These plants produce chemicals called cannabinoids, including the highly inducing substance tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and CBD, which do not provide users with a high.
Contrary to C. sativa, T. micranthum does not contain THC, so it could be an interesting new source of CBD without the legal barriers associated with growing cannabis.
Related: How does cannabis get you high?
“As we continue to see more patients being prescribed medical cannabis for chronic health conditions in the UK and around the world, it is promising to see new approaches to the production of cannabidiol and other cannabinoids.” Dr Simon Erridgethe head of research at Sapphire Medical Clinics in the UK, who was not involved in the new finding, told Live Science in an email.
“There should be cautious enthusiasm around this news, however, as researchers have not yet published data on the amounts of CBD they were able to extract from Trema micranthum“, he said. The techniques used to optimize the extraction of CBD from the cannabis flower, on the other hand, have been refined over several decades, he said.
There is growing interest in the potential of using medical cannabis to treat a number of pathologies, ranging from Parkinson’s disease has epilepsy And chronic pain. However, even if this practice is now legal in certain countries, notably UKAnd in many states of the United StatesThere is always barriers to access to medicine worldwide.
“It was wonderful to find a plant (with CBD but) without THC, because you avoid all the mess around psychotropic drugs. [psychoactive] substances,” Rodrigo Moura Netomolecular biologist at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro who led the recent research, declared to AFP.
“That means the potential is huge,” he said.
Moura Neto and his team have not yet published their results, but he told AFP they hope to expand their research with a public grant. Their upcoming research will involve examining the best way to extract CBD from T. micranthum and test whether it could be an effective substitute for medical marijuana.
In the meantime, “until we have similar data regarding Trema micranthum, the vast majority of CBD will continue to come from cannabis plants,” Erridge said.
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