Chapter 7
Natural Cannabinoids of Cannabis
and Methods of Analysis
Mohamed M. Radwan, Amira S. Wanas, Suman Chandra
and Mahmoud A. ElSohly
Abstract Cannabis has gained a lot of popularity in last few years not only because
of its use as illicit drug but due to its use as food,fiber and medicine. It is a complex
mixture of constituents which contain a unique class of secondary metabolites
called phytocannabinoids. In general, so far a total of 565 constituents including
120 phytocannabinoids have been reported inCannabis sativa. This chapter dis-
cusses the chemistry of phytocannabinoids in the plant with particular emphasis on
theD^9 -THC type of cannabinoids and different analytical methods available for
cannabinoids analysis in cannabis plant and cannabis products.
7.1 Introduction
Cannabis is one of the oldest plants used for food,fiber and medicine. It belongs to
the familyCannabaceae. Its earliest cultivation forfiber crop is documented in
China, wherefrom the crop spread to the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas
during the early 16thCentury. Its early medical use is documented by Emperor Shen
Neng of China around 12,000 BCE (Joyce and Curry 1970 ).
As a plant, Cannabis is a highly variable species which is wind pollinated and
highly allogamous in nature. Cannabis is a dioecious plant, with male and female
flowers developing on separate plants if grown from seed. It occasionally exhibits
monoecious (hermaphrodite) nature. The number of species in cannabis is a con-
tinuing matter of debate. The taxonomic disagreement revolves around how to
assign scientific names to different cannabis strains with different morphological
and chemical profiles, specifically the modern hybrid varieties. In recent reports,
M.M. RadwanA.S. WanasS. ChandraM.A. ElSohly
National Center for Natural Products Research, School of Pharmacy,
University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677, USA
M.A. ElSohly (&)
Department of Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery, School of Pharmacy,
University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677, USA
e-mail: [email protected]
©Springer International Publishing AG 2017
S. Chandra et al. (eds.), Cannabis sativaL. - Botany and Biotechnology,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-54564-6_7
161