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The phytochemical diversity of commercial Cannabis in the United States

The legal status of Cannabis is changing, fueling an increasing diversity of Cannabis-derived products. Because Cannabis contains dozens of chemical compounds with potential psychoactive or medicinal effects, understanding this phytochemical diversity is crucial. The legal Cannabis industry heavily...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Smith, Christiana J., Vergara, Daniela, Keegan, Brian, Jikomes, Nick
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9119530/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35588111
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0267498
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author Smith, Christiana J.
Vergara, Daniela
Keegan, Brian
Jikomes, Nick
author_facet Smith, Christiana J.
Vergara, Daniela
Keegan, Brian
Jikomes, Nick
author_sort Smith, Christiana J.
collection PubMed
description The legal status of Cannabis is changing, fueling an increasing diversity of Cannabis-derived products. Because Cannabis contains dozens of chemical compounds with potential psychoactive or medicinal effects, understanding this phytochemical diversity is crucial. The legal Cannabis industry heavily markets products to consumers based on widely used labeling systems purported to predict the effects of different “strains.” We analyzed the cannabinoid and terpene content of commercial Cannabis samples across six US states, finding distinct chemical phenotypes (chemotypes) which are reliably present. By comparing the observed phytochemical diversity to the commercial labels commonly attached to Cannabis-derived product samples, we show that commercial labels do not consistently align with the observed chemical diversity. However, certain labels do show a biased association with specific chemotypes. These results have implications for the classification of commercial Cannabis, design of animal and human research, and regulation of consumer marketing—areas which today are often divorced from the chemical reality of the Cannabis-derived material they wish to represent.
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spelling pubmed-91195302022-05-20 The phytochemical diversity of commercial Cannabis in the United States Smith, Christiana J. Vergara, Daniela Keegan, Brian Jikomes, Nick PLoS One Research Article The legal status of Cannabis is changing, fueling an increasing diversity of Cannabis-derived products. Because Cannabis contains dozens of chemical compounds with potential psychoactive or medicinal effects, understanding this phytochemical diversity is crucial. The legal Cannabis industry heavily markets products to consumers based on widely used labeling systems purported to predict the effects of different “strains.” We analyzed the cannabinoid and terpene content of commercial Cannabis samples across six US states, finding distinct chemical phenotypes (chemotypes) which are reliably present. By comparing the observed phytochemical diversity to the commercial labels commonly attached to Cannabis-derived product samples, we show that commercial labels do not consistently align with the observed chemical diversity. However, certain labels do show a biased association with specific chemotypes. These results have implications for the classification of commercial Cannabis, design of animal and human research, and regulation of consumer marketing—areas which today are often divorced from the chemical reality of the Cannabis-derived material they wish to represent. Public Library of Science 2022-05-19 /pmc/articles/PMC9119530/ /pubmed/35588111 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0267498 Text en © 2022 Smith et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Smith, Christiana J.
Vergara, Daniela
Keegan, Brian
Jikomes, Nick
The phytochemical diversity of commercial Cannabis in the United States
title The phytochemical diversity of commercial Cannabis in the United States
title_full The phytochemical diversity of commercial Cannabis in the United States
title_fullStr The phytochemical diversity of commercial Cannabis in the United States
title_full_unstemmed The phytochemical diversity of commercial Cannabis in the United States
title_short The phytochemical diversity of commercial Cannabis in the United States
title_sort phytochemical diversity of commercial cannabis in the united states
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9119530/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35588111
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0267498
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