“Cannabis sativa, long established as a cornerstone of the pharmaceutical and industrial fiber markets, represents a radical and underexplored platform for renewable energy innovation.

In this Hypothesis and Theory framework, we introduce a novel, patented (Provisional Patent No. 63916615) dual-use bio-refinery paradigm. This model harnesses engineered cannabis photosynthesis to drive green hydrogen production without compromising its established value as a high-yield medicinal crop.

By strategically redirecting photosynthetic electron flow toward oxygen-protected hydrogenase activity, it is possible to generate molecular hydrogen at commercially relevant scales while maintaining plant viability.

Unique to this model is the ability to leverage over $10 billion in existing controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) infrastructure, bypassing the capital-intensive barriers that have hindered traditional algal biohydrogen systems. We outline a tripartite circular economy strategy that integrates hydrogen capture during the vegetative phase with the subsequent harvest of therapeutic cannabinoids and industrial biomass.

This convergence of synthetic biology, clean energy, and biomedicine positions cannabis as a uniquely versatile multipurpose crop capable of fueling both the pharmaceutical industry and the global transition to a sustainable hydrogen economy.”

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42245109

“The global transition toward a net-zero carbon economy necessitates the development of scalable, carbon-negative energy sources. While hydrogen (H₂) is a premier clean energy carrier, biological production methods have traditionally struggled with economic viability due to low feedstock density and high infrastructure costs. We propose that Cannabis sativa, a crop already optimized for high-density biomass and metabolic output, serves as the ideal biological “factory” to overcome these hurdles.”

“Cannabis sativa stands at the intersection of the most disruptive shifts in modern industry: the legalization of medicinal biotechnologies and the urgent need for carbon-negative energy transition.

By adopting this patented dual-use framework, we can transform one of the world’s most valuable crops into an engine for a sustainable, hydrogen-powered future.”

“Collaborative frameworks between synthetic biologists, agricultural engineers, and regulatory bodies will be essential to advance this platform toward commercial viability.”

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2026.1833491/full

“The search for modulators of melanogenesis with improved biological compatibility remains an active area of investigation, as existing tyrosinase (TYR) inhibitors are often limited by low potency, instability, or cytotoxicity.

Here, we investigated CBD-TSC₁, a cannabidiol-based thiosemicarbazone derivative, as a TYR-targeting scaffold.

Structural characterization confirmed a single, stable E-isomer, and pKa profiling together with kinetic analyses indicated reversible mixed-type inhibition of human TYR, involving interactions with both free enzyme and enzyme-substrate complexes. CBD-TSC₁ exhibited higher inhibitory activity than CBD and kojic acid under the tested conditions while maintaining low cytotoxicity in G361 melanoma and HaCaT keratinocyte cell lines. In addition, CBD-TSC₁ reduced intracellular oxidative stress at low micromolar concentrations. In zebrafish larvae, treatment with CBD-TSC₁ resulted in a dose-dependent reduction in melanin content, comparable to that of kojic acid under identical experimental conditions, supporting an association between thiosemicarbazone modification and the observed biological activity.

Overall, CBD-TSC₁ demonstrated consistent activity across biochemical, cellular, and zebrafish-based assays under the tested conditions. Although the mechanistic relationship between TYR inhibition, redox modulation, and melanogenesis regulation remains to be fully clarified, the present findings support further investigation of cannabidiol-based thiosemicarbazone derivatives as modulators of TYR-related pathways.”

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42235859

“CBD-TSC₁ is a novel cannabidiol-thiosemicarbazone hybrid with dual anti-melanogenic activity.”

“Thiosemicarbazone modification is essential for superior enzymatic and redox performance.”

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0960894X26001745?via%3Dihub

“As a traditional Chinese herbal medicine, Cannabis sativa holds broad prospects for application in the development of functional foods, pharmaceutical formulations, dietary supplements, and cosmetic products. However, the bioactivity of polysaccharides in C. sativa has been largely overlooked.

In this study, crude C. sativa leaf polysaccharide (CSLP) was extracted using the hot-water extraction and ethanol-precipitation method.

CSLP contains 64.15 ± 1.96% carbohydrates and 2.13 ± 0.47% protein, with a yield of 6.71 ± 0.84% (w/w). Preliminary structural characterization showed that CSLP was mainly composed of arabinose, galactose, and glucose, with a molecular weight of 28.867 kDa.

CSLP not only demonstrated potential in vitro antioxidant activity against ABTS, DPPH, superoxide anion, and hydroxyl radicals, but also repaired H₂O₂-induced oxidative damage in RAW 264.7 macrophages by increasing the cellular levels of SOD, CAT, and GSH-Px, and reducing MDA levels. Mechanistically, CSLP possibly modulated the Nrf2/Keap1 signaling pathway in H₂O₂-stimulated RAW 264.7 cells via upregulating the gene expressions of Nrf2, NQO1, and HO-1, while downregulating Keap1 expression.

These results suggest that CSLP could potentially be used as an antioxidant ingredient in the food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic industries.”

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42195853

“Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.), a member of the Cannabaceae family, is a plant with both medicinal and edible properties.”

“C. sativa and its extracts exhibit various bioactivities, showing broad application prospects in functional foods, pharmaceutical formulations, dietary supplements, and cosmetics.”

“These findings provide a theoretical foundation for the development of C. sativa leaf polysaccharides as natural antioxidants in the functional food and pharmaceutical sectors.”

https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/15/10/1649

“Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) is a multipurpose crop with significant industrial and therapeutic potential.

This article reviews the various uses of hemp in production, building, food, cosmetics and medicine, focusing on its economic, environmental and health benefits.

Industrially, hemp has been used for making fabrics, paper, bioplastics, construction materials and biofuels, because of its strong fibres, fast growth and low impact on the environment.

Hemp seed oil and protein in the food and beauty industries are gaining more recognition for their nutritional and functional characteristics.

Medically, compounds extracted from hemp, especially cannabidiol (CBD) and other non-psychoactive phytochemicals, have been shown to possess significant anti-inflammatory, pain-relieving, neuroprotective, antioxidant and antibacterial properties.

This article talks about how better cultivation methods, processing technologies, and extraction techniques can help improve product quality, marketability, regulatory frameworks, safety standards and the quality control measures that are in place to monitor hemp production and utilization, as well as the focus on new policies in developing nations.

Even though hemp has a wide range of potentials, the industry still faces difficulties in the form of laws, lack of infrastructure, unequal product standardization, and lack of scientific proof in certain areas of application. This article further identifies research gaps and points out potential areas for innovation, policymaking, and market development to be explored in the future.

If backed up by proper regulations and research, hemp has great potential to contribute to the development of environmentally friendly industries, the improvement of public health and the socio-economic upliftment of communities.”

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42197253

“Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) was among the earliest plants cultivated by humans. Humans have been using it for fibre, food, and medicine for more than 10,000 years, as shown by archeological findings. To make ropes, textiles, paper and medicinal preparations, early civilisations in China, Mesopotamia, and Egypt used hemp. In ancient China, some of the first types of paper were made from hemp fibres. Besides that, traditional Chinese medicine in 2700 BCE described the healing effects of hemp-based remedies.” 

https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/31/10/1699

“All through time, humans have used smoke of medicinal plants to cure illness.

To the best of our knowledge, the ethnopharmacological aspects of natural products’ smoke for therapy and health care have not been studied. Mono- and multi-ingredient herbal and non-herbal remedies administered as smoke from 50 countries across the 5 continents are reviewed. Most of the 265 plant species of mono-ingredient remedies studied belong to Asteraceae (10.6%), followed by Solanaceae (10.2%), Fabaceae (9.8%) and Apiaceae (5.3%).

The most frequent medical indications for medicinal smoke are pulmonary (23.5%), neurological (21.8%) and dermatological (8.1%).

Other uses of smoke are not exactly medical but beneficial to health, and include smoke as a preservative or a repellent and the social use of smoke.

The three main methods for administering smoke are inhalation, which accounts for 71.5% of the indications; smoke directed at a specific organ or body part, which accounts for 24.5%; ambient smoke (passive smoking), which makes up the remaining 4.0%.

Whereas inhalation is typically used in the treatment of pulmonary and neurological disorders and directed smoke in localized situations, such as dermatological and genito-urinary disorders, ambient smoke is not directed at the body at all but used as an air purifier.

The advantages of smoke-based remedies are rapid delivery to the brain, more efficient absorption by the body and lower costs of production.

This review highlights the fact that not enough is known about medicinal smoke and that a lot of natural products have potential for use as medicine in the smoke form. Furthermore, this review argues in favor of medicinal smoke extended use in modern medicine as a form of drug delivery and as a promising source of new active natural ingredients.”

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17030480

“From time immemorial, human beings have used smoke of medicinal plants to lead a healthy life.”

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378874106004314?via%3Dihub

“We examined the effect of hemp extract on the activity of the antioxidant system (catalase, peroxidase, glutathione, superoxide dismutase, and total antioxidant capacity) in the hemolymph of adult honey bees (Apis mellifera).

The bees were divided into three groups: (1) an experimental group fed with pure sugar syrup with cotton strips soaked with hemp extract put inside the cage; (2) an experimental group fed with a mixture of sugar syrup with hemp extract; and (3) a control group fed with a mixture of sugar and a water-glycerine solution. Hemolymph samples were collected on the 1st day of this study and then every week, until all bees in the group died.

The activities of all antioxidant enzymes were higher for the experimental groups, compared to those for the control group. The highest antioxidant activities were noted in the group supplemented with cannabis with the use of syringes. Supplementation with hemp also increased the lifespan of bees in this group compared to that of the bees consuming only sugar syrup (control: 35 days), with 49 and 52 days for groups of cannabis on strips and in syrup, respectively.

Hemp extract, thanks to its antioxidant properties, increased the activities of key antioxidant enzymes that protect the bee’s organisms against free radicals and thus delay the aging processes.”

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35453392

“The aim of our research was to determine the effect of hemp extract on the activities of enzymes in the antioxidant system in bees’ hemolymph, along with the aging processes.”

“Hemp extract significantly increased the activity of antioxidant enzymes, extending the life of bees to 49 days (for the strip method) and 56 days (for the syringe method). In addition, we showed that a faster and stronger effect was obtained during supplementation in syrup in syringes, where the activities for the enzymes SOD, CAT, GPx, GST, and TAC were the highest.

Thanks to this, we believe that hemp extract can in the future contribute to the improvement of the natural immunity of honey bees and help them with the fight against environmental pollution and the increase of oxidative stress.”

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3921/11/4/707

“In the experiment, we tested the effect of 30% CBD oil on the activity of the antioxidant system (superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione), the level of total antioxidant capacity, and the concentrations of ions (calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus) in honeybee workers in the hive test.

For this purpose, we prepared hives containing all stages of the development of honey bees and started the experiment by adding 200 marked, one-day old bees to each colony (intended for hemolymph collection). In the test, we created three groups (two colonies per group): (1) Experimental with CBD oil mixed with sugar syrup (CSy); (2) experimental with CBD oil on textile strips (CSt); and (3) control with pure sugar syrup only (C). Every week, we collected hemolymph from the marked bees.

In the experiment, all antioxidant enzyme activities were higher for the experimental groups CSy and CSt compared to group C. The highest concentrations/levels were obtained for the CSy group. Concentrations of calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus ions were also higher for the experimental groups compared to the C group (the highest concentration for the CSy group).

We conclude that CBD oil positively contributes to stimulating the antioxidant system of honeybees.”

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36829838

“Our previous studies have shown that CBD oil/hemp extracts added to the diet of bees prolonged the life of insects and contributed to a positive stimulation of the immune system”

“The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of a commercial hemp extract in the form of CBD oil on the activity of the antioxidant system”

“After a series of studies in cages and in colony conditions, we found that supplementation with CBD will potentially support the immune system of honeybees through stimulating the antioxidant system (protection against oxidative stress affecting cells and their biochemistry).

Depending on the need, the effects can be obtained regardless of the method of administration, but for the best results, we suggest using CBD in nutritional supplements (direct, faster action). In addition, research confirms that the active substance CBD may be responsible for the positive effect of the hemp extract.”

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3921/12/2/279