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2022 Study: Non-cannabis CBD Sources

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A 2022 study entitled "Cannabidiol (CBD) From Non-Cannabis Plants: Myth or Reality?" that was published in the journal Natural Product Communications performed a critical review of the existing reports "on the occurrence of cannabidiol (CBD) in non-cannabis plants."

A photo of an orange Helichrysum umbraculigerum
Helichrysum umbraculigerum makes CBD

Non-cannabis CBD Sources Study

Non-cannabis CBD Sources Study. The study reported that the cannabinoid molecules typically thought to be produced by only marijuana and hemp were first reported to be produced by a non-cannabis botanical species in 1979. At the time, a study reported that CBD and its acidic precursor CBGA were isolated from the Helichrysum umbraculigerum collected in Natal, South Africa.


"CBD and its acidic precursor CBGA were isolated from the Helichrysum umbraculigerum collected in Natal, South Africa."

2012 CBD Study

The researchers reported that another source of CBD was documented in 2012 when the popular cannabinoid was found in trace amounts in the fiber and seeds of flax (Linum usitatissimun L.). "However, the amounts detected were extremely low compared to the ones occurring in cannabis, in the range of 10 ppm in seeds, the richest organ," reported the study's authors.


2021 CBD Study

In 2021, the botanical species Trema orientalis L. (a shrub found in tropical Africa and Asia) was found to produce CBD, CBN, and delta-9 THC. Three collections of cannabis plants from different locations in Thailand were analyzed. Not all of these cannabis samples contained CBD. However, the authors were not able to isolate a pure non-cannabis phytocannabinoid, "something that would have surely strengthened their findings," according to the present study's authors.

A bottle of CBD tincture.
CBD: A popular phytomolecule.

Non-cannabis CBD Sources Study Conclusions

Non-cannabis CBD Sources Study. The study's authors reported the following conclusions:


"In conclusion, despite the non-unicity of the biosynthetic logic underlying the production of phytocannabinoids by C sativa, the nature of the building blocks used for the assembly of the resorcinolic core and for its decoration with isoprenoid residues is responsible for the paucity of reports on the 'ectopic' occurrence of cannabis phytocannabinoids in Nature, with H umbraculigerum remaining the only other plant from which compounds of this type have been isolated.


"H umbraculigerum remains the only other plant from which compounds of this type have been isolated."

"The detection of CBD in flax, in T. orientalis, and in stevia needs additional confirmation studies, while the whole issue of H Kriya is simply a story of greed and scientific forgery."


View the original study.

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