Researchers from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) have identified the presence of cannabidiol (CBD) in a native Brazilian plant, Trema micrantha blume. The discovery could revolutionize the availability of medicinal cannabis in Brazil, where the production and use of CBD for medicinal purposes is limited by high costs and strict regulation.
Researchers found CBD in the fruit and flowers of Trema micrantha blume — a small tree that is ubiquitous across Brazil and commonly known in Portuguese as candiúba, crindiúva, or pau-pólvora — without the presence of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is the principal psychoactive compound in cannabis.
“It would be an easier and cheaper source of cannabidiol [in Brazil],” said the lead researcher on the project, Rodrigo Soares Moura Neto.
A resolution from the Federal Council of Medicine (CFM) last year restricted the use of medicinal cannabis, only allowing doctors to prescribe CBD in cases of epilepsy in children and adolescents. Mr. Moura Neto has noted that, per rules imposed by the national health agency (Anvisa), CBD commercialized in Brazil must not have more than 0.2 percent of THC in its formula. In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has set that limit to 0.3 percent.
“In the case of the Brazilian plant, this would not be a problem, as there is no THC in it. There also wouldn’t be judicial restrictions on planting, as it can be planted as much as we want. In fact, the plant is already spread all across Brazil,” the researcher said.
Mr. Moura Neto is coordinating a team of chemists, biologists, geneticists, and botanists who are researching the most efficient ways of extracting cannabidiol from the Trema micrantha blume plant. In six months they will start the in vitro process of analyzing whether this CBD has the same properties as the component extracted from the Cannabis sativa plant, which is the species used to produce marijuana.
The researchers hope that their findings will help overcome legal barriers in Brazil and make medicinal CBD widely available.
A bill to legalize the cultivation of cannabis for medicinal purposes has been stuck in Congress for years. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is due to pick up this Wednesday a trial on whether to decriminalize marijuana possession for personal consumption.
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