Cannabis Leaves Contain Rare Flavoalkaloids, Study Finds — SkimNews
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- Stellenbosch University scientists identified 16 flavoalkaloids in Cannabis leaves for the first time, detecting them among 79 phenolic compounds across three commercially grown South African strains.
- 25 of the 79 phenolic compounds had never previously been reported in Cannabis, and most of the newly detected flavoalkaloids appeared primarily in just one of the three strains studied.
- Dr. Magriet Muller, first author and analytical chemist at SU's Central Analytical Facility, used comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography combined with high-resolution mass spectrometry to separate the rare flavoalkaloids from more abundant flavonoids.
- The findings were published in the Journal of Chromatography A, authored by Muller and Prof. André de Villiers, who leads SU's analytical chemistry research group and called the chromatographic results exceptional.
- Cannabis already contains more than 750 metabolites, making the high variation in phenolic profiles between just three strains unexpected, according to Muller.
- Flavoalkaloids are much rarer in nature than flavonoids, a more common phenolic subgroup already studied for antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-carcinogenic properties.
- De Villiers argued the discovery highlights the medicinal potential of Cannabis plant material currently regarded as waste, redirecting attention beyond THC and other well-known cannabinoids toward non-cannabinoid chemistry.
Why it matters: Cannabis leaves routinely discarded as agricultural waste may carry phenolic compounds with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties relevant to biomedical research, shifting the plant's research value beyond cannabinoids. The strain-specific concentration of flavoalkaloids also suggests breeders and processors could selectively cultivate for these rare compounds.
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