Challenges towards Revitalizing Hemp: A Multifaceted Crop

Abstract

Hemp has been an important crop throughout human history for food, fiber, and medicine. Despite significant progress made by the international research community, the basic biology of hemp plants remains insufficiently understood. Clear objectives are needed to guide future research. As a semi-domesticated plant, hemp has many desirable traits that require improvement, including eliminating seed shattering, enhancing the quantity and quality of stem fiber, and increasing the accumulation of phytocannabinoids. Methods to manipulate the sex of hemp plants will also be important for optimizing yields of seed, fiber, and cannabinoids. Currently, research into trait improvement is hindered by the lack of molecular techniques adapted to hemp. Here we review how addressing these limitations will help advance our knowledge of plant biology and enable us to fully domesticate and maximize the agronomic potential of this promising crop.

Influence of Altitude on Phytochemical Composition of Hemp Inflorescence: A Metabolomic Approach

“…Multi-targeted applications of industrial hemp with the environmental benefits related to its cultivation, have raised interest in its production. Special attention has been paid to C. sativa inflorescences that represent a promising added-value product with remarkable pharmacological and nutraceutical effects [13,16,22,23]. The phytochemical composition of inflorescences has been studied intensively, but there is not substantial information that regards the differences that may rise due to geographical/microclimate factors.…”

Evaluating herbicide tolerance of industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L.)

“…In the United States, farmers can now grow hemp after the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill (Schluttenhofer & Yuan, 2019). Hemp is cultivated in 47 countries as of 2017, and the global market is predicted to double between 2016–2020 (Schluttenhofer & Yuan, 2017).…”

The Microbiology of Hemp Retting in a Controlled Environment: Steering the Hemp Microbiome towards More Consistent Fiber Production

“…Since the passing of the 2014 Farm Bill, opportunities for both growers and researchers interested in the potential of industrial hemp have increased in the US, although many obstacles remain. Specifically for fiber use, problems hinge around issues of scale and economy, in which the retting and decortication process has been described as a "bottleneck" for supplying consistent product to industry manufacturers [2,4,20,21]. Research addressing this problem has focused broadly on two areas: alternatives to field-retting such as solid-state fermentation with specific organisms and post-harvest treatments that focus on improving the end product without regard to the logistical and economic considerations, or adjusting agronomic practices such as timing of planting and harvest, turning in the field, and variety selection [6,15,17,[22][23][24].…”

“…Fungal species are predicted to play a role in retting, by both their own degradation abilities and the process by which they facilitate entry of surface microorganisms past the cuticle, and have been a target for attempts to manipulate retting outcomes [17,25]. These efforts have all contributed useful information, but moving towards cost-effective retting practices that result in consistent fiber production with the specific qualities required by industry will require substantially more research from a variety of directions, such as traditional plant breeding for desirable field retting qualities (high cellulose, low lignin and pectin), molecular research into genes that affect fiber yield and quality, and microbiological investigations into specifically how the microbial profile associated with bast fiber crops is recruited and maintained throughout the plant's life as well as the retting process [20,[26][27][28][29].…”