Hazekamp Arno
Head of Research and Education, Bedrocan International BV Veendam, Netherlands.
Front Pharmacol. 2016 Apr 27;7:108. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2016.00108. eCollection 2016.
In several countries with a National medicinal cannabis program, pharmaceutical regulations specify that herbal cannabis products must adhere to strict safety standards regarding microbial contamination. Treatment by gamma irradiation currently seems the only method available to meet these requirements. We evaluated the effects of irradiation treatment of four different cannabis varieties covering different chemical compositions. Samples were compared before and after standard gamma-irradiation treatment by performing quantitative UPLC analysis of major cannabinoids, as well as qualitative GC analysis of full cannabinoid and terpene profiles. In addition, water content and microscopic appearance of the cannabis flowers was evaluated. This study found that treatment did not cause changes in the content of THC and CBD, generally considered as the most important therapeutically active components of medicinal cannabis. Likewise, the water content and the microscopic structure of the dried cannabis flowers were not altered by standard irradiation protocol in the cannabis varieties studied. The effect of gamma-irradiation was limited to a reduction of some terpenes present in the cannabis, but keeping the terpene profile qualitatively the same. Based on the results presented in this report, gamma irradiation of herbal cannabis remains the recommended method of decontamination, at least until other more generally accepted methods have been developed and validated.
在几个设有国家药用大麻计划的国家，药品法规规定草药大麻产品在微生物污染方面必须遵守严格的安全标准。目前，伽马射线辐照处理似乎是满足这些要求的唯一可用方法。我们评估了辐照处理对四种化学成分不同的大麻品种的影响。通过对主要大麻素进行定量超高效液相色谱分析以及对完整大麻素和萜烯谱进行定性气相色谱分析，比较了标准伽马射线辐照处理前后的样品。此外，还评估了大麻花朵的含水量和微观外观。本研究发现，处理并未导致四氢大麻酚（THC）和大麻二酚（CBD）含量发生变化，这两种成分通常被认为是药用大麻最重要的治疗活性成分。同样，在所研究的大麻品种中，标准辐照方案并未改变干燥大麻花朵的含水量和微观结构。伽马射线辐照的影响仅限于减少大麻中存在的一些萜烯，但萜烯谱在质量上保持不变。根据本报告中的结果，草药大麻的伽马射线辐照仍然是推荐的去污方法，至少在开发和验证其他更被广泛接受的方法之前是如此。
