Tag Archives: Cannabaceae

In vivo and in vitro anti-inflammatory activity evaluation of Lebanese Cannabis sativa L. ssp. indica (Lam.)

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Journal of Ethnopharmacology “Cannabis sativa L. is an aromatic annual herb belonging to the family Cannabaceae and it is widely distributed worldwide. Cultivation, selling, and consumption of cannabis and cannabis related products, regardless of its use, was prohibited in Lebanon until April 22, 2020. Nevertheless, cannabis oil has been traditionally used unlawfully for many years in Lebanon to treat diseases such as arthritis, diabetes, cancer and few neurological disorders.

Aim of the study: The present study aims to evaluate the phytochemical and anti-inflammatory properties of a cannabis oil preparation that is analogous to the illegally used cannabis oil in Lebanon.

Results: Chemical analysis of COE revealed that cannabidiol (CBD; 59.1%) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC; 20.2%) were found to be the most abundant cannabinoids.Various monoterpenes (α-Pinene, Camphene, β-Myrecene and D-Limonene) and sesquiterpenes (β-Caryophyllene, α-Bergamotene, α-Humelene, Humulene epoxide II, and Caryophyllene oxide) were identified in the extract. Results showed that COE markedly suppressed the release of TNF-α in LPS-stimulated rat monocytes. Western blot analysis revealed that COE significantly inhibited LPS-induced COX-2 and i-NOS protein expressions and blocked the phosphorylation of MAPKs, specifically that of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK) and p38 MAPK. COE displayed a significant inhibition of paw edema in both rat models. Histopathological examination revealed that COE reduced inflammation and edema in chronic paw edema model.

Conclusion: The current findings demonstrate that COE possesses remarkable in vivo and in vitro anti-inflammatory activities which support the traditional use of the Lebanese cannabis oil extract in the treatment of various inflammatory diseases including arthritis.”

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33359187/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S037887412033631X?via%3Dihub

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Industrial Hemp ( Cannabis sativa subsp. sativa) as an Emerging Source for Value-Added Functional Food Ingredients and Nutraceuticals

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molecules-logo“Industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L., Cannabaceae) is an ancient cultivated plant originating from Central Asia and historically has been a multi-use crop valued for its fiber, food, and medicinal uses. Various oriental and Asian cultures kept records of its production and numerous uses.

Due to the similarities between industrial hemp (fiber and grain) and the narcotic/medical type of Cannabis, the production of industrial hemp was prohibited in most countries, wiping out centuries of learning and genetic resources. In the past two decades, most countries have legalized industrial hemp production, prompting a significant amount of research on the health benefits of hemp and hemp products.

Current research is yet to verify the various health claims of the numerous commercially available hemp products. Hence, this review aims to compile recent advances in the science of industrial hemp, with respect to its use as value-added functional food ingredients/nutraceuticals and health benefits, while also highlighting gaps in our current knowledge and avenues of future research on this high-value multi-use plant for the global food chain.”

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32906622/

https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/25/18/4078

Hemp in Veterinary Medicine: From Feed to Drug

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 See the source image“Hemp (Cannabis sativa) is an angiosperm plant belonging to the Cannabaceae family. Its cultivation dates back to centuries. It has always been cultivated due to the possibility of exploiting almost all the parts of the plant: paper, fabrics, ropes, bio-compounds with excellent insulating capacity, fuel, biodegradable plastic, antibacterial detergents, and food products, such as flour, oils, seeds, herbal teas, and beer, are indeed obtained from hemp.

Hemp flowers have also always been used for their curative effects, as well as for recreational purposes due to their psychotropic effects. Cannabis contains almost 500 chemical compounds, such as phytocannabinoids, terpenes, flavonoids, amino acids, fatty acids, vitamins, and macro-, and micro-elements, among others.

When utilized as a food source, hemp shows excellent nutritional and health-promoting (nutraceutical) properties, mainly due to the high content in polyunsaturated fatty acids (especially those belonging to the ω-3 series), as well as in phenolic compounds, which seem effective in the prevention of common diseases such as gastrointestinal disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, and others.

Moreover, hemp oil and other oils (i.e., olive oil and medium-chain triglyceride-MCT-oil) enriched in CBD, as well as extracts from hemp dried flowers (Cannabis extracts), are authorized in some countries for therapeutic purposes as a second-choice approach (when conventional therapies have failed) for a certain number of clinical conditions such as pain and inflammation, epilepsy, anxiety disorders, nausea, emesis, and anorexia, among others.

The present review will synthetize the beneficial properties of hemp and hemp derivatives in animal nutrition and therapeutics.”

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32850997/

“C. sativa has been an important source of food in the Old World, as hempseeds and seed meal are excellent sources of dietary oil, fiber, and protein. Many of the constituents of C. sativa can be classified as either nutrients, nutraceuticals, or pharmaceutical ingredients.”

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fvets.2020.00387/full

The Bee Community of Cannabis sativa and Corresponding Effects of Landscape Composition.

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Image result for environmental entomology“Industrial hemp, Cannabis sativa (Cannabaceae), is a newly introduced and rapidly expanding crop in the American agricultural landscape. As an exclusively wind-pollinated crop, hemp lacks nectar but produces an abundance of pollen during a period of floral dearth in agricultural landscapes. These pollen resources are attractive to a range of bee species but the diversity of floral visitors and their use of hemp across a range of agricultural contexts remains unclear. We made repeated sweep net collections of bees visiting hemp flowers on farms in New York, which varied in both landscape context and phenotypic traits of hemp varieties. We identified all bee visitors to the species level and found that hemp supported 16 different bee species. Landscape simplification negatively impacted the abundance of bees visiting hemp flowers but did not affect the species richness of the community. Plant height, on the other hand, was strongly correlated with bee species richness and abundance for hemp plots with taller varieties attracting a broader diversity of bee species. Because of its temporally unique flowering phenology, hemp has the potential to provide a critical nutritional resource to a diverse community of bees during a period of floral scarcity and thereby may help to sustain agroecosystem-wide pollination services for other crops in the landscape. As cultivation of hemp increases, growers, land managers, and policy makers should consider its value in supporting bee communities and take its attractiveness to bees into account when developing pest management strategies.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31789341

https://academic.oup.com/ee/advance-article/doi/10.1093/ee/nvz141/5634339

Cannabis Systematics at the Levels of Family, Genus, and Species.

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Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research cover image

“New concepts are reviewed in Cannabis systematics, including phylogenetics and nomenclature. The family Cannabaceae now includes Cannabis, Humulus, and eight genera formerly in the Celtidaceae. Grouping Cannabis, Humulus, and Celtis actually goes back 250 years. Print fossil of the extinct genus Dorofeevia (=Humularia) reveals that Cannabis lost a sibling perhaps 20 million years ago (mya). Cannabis print fossils are rare (n=3 worldwide), making it difficult to determine when and where she evolved. A molecular clock analysis with chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) suggests Cannabis and Humulus diverged 27.8 mya. Microfossil (fossil pollen) data point to a center of origin in the northeastern Tibetan Plateau. Fossil pollen indicates that Cannabis dispersed to Europe by 1.8-1.2 mya. Mapping pollen distribution over time suggests that European Cannabis went through repeated genetic bottlenecks, when the population shrank during range contractions. Genetic drift in this population likely initiated allopatric differences between European Cannabis sativa (cannabidiol [CBD]>Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol [THC]) and Asian Cannabis indica (THC>CBD). DNA barcode analysis supports the separation of these taxa at a subspecies level, and recognizing the formal nomenclature of C. sativa subsp. sativa and C. sativa subsp. indica. Herbarium specimens reveal that field botanists during the 18th-20th centuries applied these names to their collections rather capriciously. This may have skewed taxonomic determinations by Vavilov and Schultes, ultimately giving rise to today’s vernacular taxonomy of “Sativa” and “Indica,” which totally misaligns with formal C. sativa and C. indica. Ubiquitous interbreeding and hybridization of “Sativa” and “Indica” has rendered their distinctions almost meaningless.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30426073

https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/can.2018.0039

New Methods for the Comprehensive Analysis of Bioactive Compounds in Cannabis sativa L. (hemp).

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 molecules-logo

“Cannabis sativa L. is a dioecious plant belonging to the Cannabaceae family. The main phytochemicals that are found in this plant are represented by cannabinoids, flavones, and terpenes. Some biological activities of cannabinoids are known to be enhanced by the presence of terpenes and flavonoids in the extracts, due to a synergistic action.

In the light of all the above, the present study was aimed at the multi-component analysis of the bioactive compounds present in fibre-type C. sativa (hemp) inflorescences of different varieties by means of innovative HPLC and GC methods. In particular, the profiling of non-psychoactive cannabinoids was carried out by means of HPLC-UV/DAD, ESI-MS, and MS². The content of prenylated flavones in hemp extracts, including cannflavins A and B, was also evaluated by HPLC.

The study on Cannabis volatile compounds was performed by developing a new method based on headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) coupled with GC-MS and GC-FID. Cannabidiolic acid (CBDA) and cannabidiol(CBD) were found to be the most abundant cannabinoids in the hemp samples analysed, while β-myrcene and β-caryophyllene were the major terpenes. As regards flavonoids, cannflavin A was observed to be the main compound in almost all the samples.

The methods developed in this work are suitable for the comprehensive chemical analysis of both hemp plant material and related pharmaceutical or nutraceutical products in order to ensure their quality, efficacy, and safety.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30322208

https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/23/10/2639

Medicinal properties of terpenes found in Cannabis sativa and Humulus lupulus.

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European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry

“Cannabaceae plants Cannabis sativa L. and Humulus lupulus L. are rich in terpenes – both are typically comprised of terpenes as up to 3-5% of the dry-mass of the female inflorescence.

Terpenes of cannabis and hops are typically simple mono- and sesquiterpenes derived from two and three isoprene units, respectively. Some terpenes are relatively well known for their potential in biomedicine and have been used in traditional medicine for centuries, while others are yet to be studied in detail.

The current, comprehensive review presents terpenes found in cannabis and hops. Terpenes’ medicinal properties are supported by numerous in vitro, animal and clinical trials and show anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, analgesic, anticonvulsive, antidepressant, anxiolytic, anticancer, antitumor, neuroprotective, anti-mutagenic, anti-allergic, antibiotic and anti-diabetic attributes, among others.

Because of the very low toxicity, these terpenes are already widely used as food additives and in cosmetic products. Thus, they have been proven safe and well-tolerated.”

 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30096653
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0223523418306408?via%3Dihub

Extraction Method and Analysis of Cannabinoids in Cannabis Olive Oil Preparations.

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“Recently, an increasing number of pharmacists had to supply medicinal products based on Cannabis sativa L. (Cannabaceae), prescribed by physicians to individual patients. 

Cannabis olive oil preparation is the first choice as a concentrated extract of cannabinoids, even though standardized operative conditions for obtaining it are still not available.

In this work, the impact of temperature and extraction time on the concentration of active principles was studied to harmonize the different compounding methods, optimize the extraction process, and reduce the variability among preparations.“

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29202510

https://www.thieme-connect.de/DOI/DOI?10.1055/s-0043-123074

“Therapeutic Use of Δ9-THC and Cannabidiol: Evaluation of a New Extraction Procedure for the Preparation of Cannabis-based Olive Oil.”  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29189144

Phytochemical Aspects and Therapeutic Perspective of Cannabinoids in Cancer Treatment

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Cannabis sativa L. – dried pistillate inflorescences and trichomes on their surface. (a) dried pistillate inflorescences (50% of the size); (b) non‐cystolithic trichome; (c) cystolithic trichome; (d) capitate‐sessile trichome; (e) simple bulbous trichome; (f) capitate‐stalked trichome (400×).

“Cannabis sativa L. (Cannabaceae) is one of the first plants cultivated by man and one of the oldest plant sources of fibre, food and remedies.

Cannabinoids comprise the plant‐derived compounds and their synthetic derivatives as well as endogenously produced lipophilic mediators. Phytocannabinoids are terpenophenolic secondary metabolites predominantly produced in CannabissativaL.

The principal active constituent is delta‐9‐tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which binds to endocannabinoid receptors to exert its pharmacological activity, including psychoactive effect. The other important molecule of current interest is non‐psychotropic cannabidiol (CBD).

Since 1970s, phytocannabinoids have been known for their palliative effects on some cancer‐associated symptoms such as nausea and vomiting reduction, appetite stimulation and pain relief. More recently, these molecules have gained special attention for their role in cancer cell proliferation and death.

A large body of evidence suggests that cannabinoids affect multiple signalling pathways involved in the development of cancer, displaying an anti‐proliferative, proapoptotic, anti‐angiogenic and anti‐metastatic activity on a wide range of cell lines and animal models of cancer.”

https://www.intechopen.com/books/natural-products-and-cancer-drug-discovery/phytochemical-aspects-and-therapeutic-perspective-of-cannabinoids-in-cancer-treatment

The Name of Cannabis: A Short Guide for Nonbotanists.

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Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. publishers

“The genus Cannabis (Family Cannabaceae) is probably indigenous to wet habitats of Asiatic continent. The long coexistence between mankind and Cannabis led to an early domestication of the plant, which soon showed an amazing spectrum of possible utilizations, as a source of textile fibers, as well as narcotic and psychoactive compounds. Nowadays, the specie(s) belonging to the genus Cannabis are represented by myriads of cultivated varieties, often with unstable taxonomic foundations. The nomenclature of Cannabis has been the object of numerous nomenclatural treatments. Linnaeus in Species Plantarum (1753) described a single species of hemp, Cannabis sativa, whereas Lamarck (1785) proposed two species of Cannabis: C. sativa, the species largely cultivated in Western Continent, and Cannabis indica, a wild species growing in India and neighboring countries. The dilemma about the existence of the species C. indica considered distinct from C. sativa continues up to present days. Due to their prevalent economic interest, the nomenclatural treatment is particularly important as far as it concerns the cultivated varieties of Cannabis. In this context, we propose to avoid the distinction between sativa and indica, suggesting a bimodal approach: when a cultivar has been correctly established. It could be advisable to apply a nomenclature system based on the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants (ICNCP): it is not necessary to use the species epithets, sativa or indica, and a combination of the genus name and a cultivar epithet in any language and bounded by single quotation marks define an exclusive name for each Cannabis cultivar. In contrast, Cannabis varieties named with vernacular names by medical patients and recreational users, and lacking an adequate description as required by ICNCP, should be named as Cannabis strain, followed by their popularized name and without single quotation marks, having in mind that their names have no taxonomical validity.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28861494

http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/can.2016.0027