Cannabis sativa: From Therapeutic Uses to Micropropagation and Beyond

Abstract

The development of a protocol for the large-scale production of Cannabis and its variants with little to no somaclonal variation or disease for pharmaceutical and for other industrial use has been an emerging area of research. A limited number of protocols have been developed around the world, obtained through a detailed literature search using web-based database searches, e.g., Scopus, Web of Science (WoS) and Google Scholar. This article reviews the advances made in relation to Cannabis tissue culture and micropropagation, such as explant choice and decontamination of explants, direct and indirect organogenesis, rooting, acclimatisation and a few aspects of genetic engineering. Since Cannabis micropropagation systems are fairly new fields, combinations of plant growth regulator experiments are needed to gain insight into the development of direct and indirect organogenesis protocols that are able to undergo the acclimation stage and maintain healthy plants desirable to the Cannabis industry. A post-culture analysis of Cannabis phytochemistry after the acclimatisation stage is lacking in a majority of the reviewed studies, and for in vitro propagation protocols to be accepted by the pharmaceutical industries, phytochemical and possibly pharmacological research need to be undertaken in order to ascertain the integrity of the generated plant material. It is rather difficult to obtain industrially acceptable micropropagation regimes as recalcitrance to the regeneration of in vitro cultured plants remains a major concern and this impedes progress in the application of genetic modification technologies and gene editing tools to be used routinely for the improvement of Cannabis genotypes that are used in various industries globally. In the future, with more reliable plant tissue culture-based propagation that generates true-to-type plants that have known genetic and metabolomic integrity, the use of genetic engineering systems including “omics” technologies such as next-generation sequencing and fast-evolving gene editing tools could be implemented to speed up the identification of novel genes and mechanisms involved in the biosynthesis of Cannabis phytochemicals for large-scale production.

Understanding Cannabis sativa L.: Current Status of Propagation, Use, Legalization, and Haploid-Inducer-Mediated Genetic Engineering

“…To minimize the limitations of clonal propagation, tissue culture methods are alternatively used. Several studies in the past decades have been conducted to determine the optimal conditions for tissue culture propagation of Cannabis [47,48]. Most in vitro studies have achieved successful callus induction (Figure 3E) of various Cannabis explants using different combinations of cytokinins and auxins [10,44].…”

Immunostimulatory and Antibacterial Effects of Cannabis sativa L. Leaves on Broilers

“…Hemp is a highly relevant crop with huge social and economic value since it can be used for the production of food, textiles, clothes, biodegradable plastics, paper, dyes, biofuels, animal feed, and lighting oil. The phytochemical components found in hemp are very complex, representing various chemical classes of primary metabolites such as amino acids, fatty acids, alkaloids, and lignans [19][20][21]. Cannabis contains about 600 identified and numerous as yet unidentified but potentially useful compounds.…”

Attitudes and Knowledge of Medical Students in South of Israel Toward Medical Cannabis

“…9 Medical cannabis can be consumed by smoking, vapor, drops, in food, sublingual spray, sucking pills, and skin patches. 4…”

“…Many studies have documented its widespread use in the treatment of anxiety, depression, insomnia, pain, asthma, diarrhea, epilepsy, and malaria. 4 In addition, it helps alleviate chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, 1 increases appetite in AIDS patients, and helps reduce chronic pain and muscle contraction. 5,6 However, tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabinoids are associated with a sense of anxiety, dizziness, depressed mood, stress, and even psychosis.…”

“…9 Medical cannabis can be consumed by smoking, vapor, drops, in food, sublingual spray, sucking pills, and skin patches. 4 The results of a study conducted in a medical school faculty in southern Israel showed that most family physicians who participated in the study (84%) believed that medical cannabis could help patients with cancer pain and patients with chronic pain syndromes. Furthermore, most of them (78%-82%) were aware of the adverse effects associated with the use of medical cannabis.…”