ISOLATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF CANNABINOIDS FROM THE STEMS OF Cannabis sativa

Abstract

There is an increased interest in the chemistry of cannabis and cannabinoids and this is because of their therapeutic potentials. Several cannabinoids have been isolated from the leaves and flowers of Cannabis sativa, with some formulated into drugs for the treatment of certain ailments. In this study, the isolation and characterization, using chromatographic and NMR techniques, of cannabinoids from the stems of Cannabis sativa was carried out. Cannabis stems were collected from the Department of Biology, Nasarawa State College of Education, Akwanga. Fractionation and purification of the extracts were carried out using silica gel column chromatography. A high performance liquid chromatography equipped with an electrostatic light scattering detector, ultraviolet detector (UV) and mass spectrometry (MS) was used to determine the mass of isolated cannabinoids. Two cannabinoids, cannabinol and cannabinol methyl ether were isolated from fractions of the hexane, ethyl acetate and methanol extracts, and were characterized using a JEOL Delta GX 400 MHz FT nuclear magnetic resonance spectrophotometer. The isolation of these cannabinoids in sample analysed confirms that Nigeria cannabis contained cannabinoids, and this also shown that the stems of cannabis can be used as stimulants to reduce the effects and symptoms of glaucoma and treat cases related to epidermolysis bullosa because of the isolation of cannabinol.