Galenic formulations of Cannabis sativa: comparison of the chemical properties of extracts obtained by simple protocols using lipidic vehicles

Abstract

The growing use of Cannabis sativa as a complementary therapy to allopathic medicine has brought about the modification of laws for its use worldwide. This entails the need to harmonize the methods of galenic preparations in pharmacies and cannabis-specialized non-governmental organizations as well as for self-provision as contemplated in some current legislation, such as that of Argentina. Thus, this work aimed to study simple and efficient methods to produce medicinal cannabis oils that require low-cost equipment and few handling steps. The final formulas allowed the obtaining of preparations of known concentrations of neutral cannabinoids, total polyphenol content, total flavonoid content, and antioxidant capacity. These methods allow for the selection of convenient vehicles and access to safe medicinal products of standardized quality. Our results show that cannabis extraction can be efficiently performed by directly using long-chain lipidic vehicles as extractants, resulting in a formulation with maximized oxidizing capacity and potentially extending its durability.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

Keywords:

• Cannabis oil
• galenic
• HPLC
• cannabinoids
• flavonoids
• polyphenols

Acknowledgments

We thank Mr. Diego Nutter from ONG CBG2000, Gatefosse SAS.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the University of Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina, under project EXA1008/20. MEA, PAS, and CLR are members of the research staff of the National Scientific and Technical Research Council of Argentina (CONICET).