Finding Rare Cannabinoids in Non-Cannabis Plants

Particular glands protruding from hashish flowers categorical a sequence of distinctive molecules. Cannabinoids, as they’re recognized, exist in hashish.  But it surely seems that similar molecules are current in non-cannabis vegetation, as effectively.  Researchers from Israel’s Weizmann Institute lately reported that they discovered cannabigerolic acid (CBGA) and different uncommon cannabinoids in Helichrysum umbraculigerum, a perennial shrub informally generally known as the woolly umbrella.¹

A South African Botanical

Ferdinand Bohlmann and Evelyn Hoffman first mentioned the chemical irregularity of Helichrysum. In a 1979 paper printed in Phytochemistry², they analyzed the South African species H. umbraculigerum, native to the japanese a part of the nation, the place it was utilized in conventional medication and fumigation rituals.

Bohlmann and Hoffman asserted that the plant’s tops — each leaves and flowers — produce cannabis-specific compounds. However a follow-up research carried out by Italian researchers in 2017 failed to search out CBG or its acidic precursor in H. umbraculigerum flowers. They did, nonetheless, determine an analog of CBG generally known as Heli-CBG (additionally current in some fiber hemp varietals), which binds to the CB2 cannabinoid receptor.^3,4

In a Could 2023 article in Nature Plants, Weissman Institute scientists confirmed that woolly umbrella produces CBGA in trichomes on its leaves, however hardly any CBGA was current on its flowers. That’s totally different from hashish, the place CBGA and different cannabinoids are concentrated in trichomes on flower tops.¹

Trichomes discovered on hashish inflorescence (flowers) have a particular mobile construct, in accordance with a 2022 research by College of British Columbia researchers in Present Biology. The gland’s bulbous head holds giant porous cells that permit acidic cannabinoids (CBGA, CBDA, THCA, and many others.) transfer by the trichome.⁵ The Weizmann Institute crew reported that H. umbraculigerum produces an identical cannabinoid transport community on its leaves.¹

Sourcing Uncommon Cannabinoids in Non-Hashish Shrubs

How did the Israeli scientists determine this out? They fed woolly umbrella precursor compounds chargeable for making cannabinoids in hashish. When given two precursors (hexanoic acid and phenylalanine), the shrub produced extra cannabinoids in comparison with vegetation fed common vitamins. Which means that the identical biosynthetic pathway exists in each hashish flowers and woolly umbrella leaves.

The woolly umbrella shrub naturally produces on its leaves over 4% cannabigerolic acid alongside different uncommon cannabinoids. The shrub additionally incorporates water-soluble cannabinoids, which aren’t present in hashish.

Primarily, two totally different plant species have developed the identical equipment to provide CBGA. But, woolly umbrella is evolutionarily distinct from hashish. And in contrast to the shrub, hashish makes two distinctive enzymes that flip CBGA into both THCA and/or CBDA.

Exploring a New Phytocannabinoid Toolkit

Thus, there are two toolboxes for cannabinoid phyto-synthesis within the phylogenetic tree. Terpenes and some flavonoids accompany lipophilic hashish flowers, whereas a posh array of flavones and water-soluble cannabinoids develop in H. umbraculigerum. By understanding their similarities and variations, we will higher assess the therapeutic potential of every plant.

Cannabinoid compounds present in woolly umbrella dissolve extra simply in water and may goal particular areas of the physique, such because the deeper bowel. However higher bioavailability, an argument for water-soluble cannabinoids, will not be essentially equal to higher efficiency. That which is absorbed rapidly and simply additionally leaves the physique and loses efficacy sooner. And cannabinoid receptors have extra affinity for fat-loving compounds in comparison with water-soluble agonists.^6,7

Travis Cesarone is a contract author and communicator specializing in medical hashish sciences. © Copyright, Undertaking CBD. Is probably not reprinted with out permission.

References

1. Berman, P., de Haro, L.A., Jozwiak, A. et al. Parallel evolution of cannabinoid biosynthesis. Nat. Vegetation (2023).
2. Cannabigerol-ähnliche verbindungen aus Helichrysum umbraculigerum. Phytochemistry. 1979;18(8):1371-1374.
3. Pollastro, F., De Petrocellis, L., Schiano-Moriello, A., Chianese, G., Heyman, H., Appendino, G., & Taglialatela-Scafati, O. (2017). Amorfrutin-type phytocannabinoids from Helichrysum umbraculigerum. Fitoterapia, 123, 13–17.
4. Pollastro F, Taglialatela-Scafati O, Allarà M, Muñoz E, Di Marzo V, De Petrocellis L, Appendino G. Bioactive prenylogous cannabinoid from fiber hemp (Hashish sativa). J Nat Prod. 2011 Sep 23;74(9):2019-22. doi: 10.1021/np200500p. Epub 2011 Sep 8. PMID: 21902175.
5. Livingston, S. J., Rensing, Ok. H., Web page, J. E., & Samuels, A. L. (2022). A polarized supercell produces specialised metabolites in hashish trichomes. Present biology : CB, 32(18), 4040–4047.e4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.07.014
6. Li, X., Chang, H., Bouma, J. et al. Structural foundation of selective cannabinoid CB2 receptor activation. Nat Commun 14, 1447 (2023).
7. Stadel, R., Ahn, Ok. H., & Kendall, D. A. (2011). The cannabinoid type-1 receptor carboxyl-terminus, greater than only a tail. Journal of neurochemistry, 117(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-4159.2011.07186.x