Brownstein Korey J, Nieukirk Grace E, Edwards Jackson, Thomas Maria, Nguyen Thu Hien, de Alarcón Pedro A, Vermillion Karl E, Gnanamony Manu
USDA, ARS, NCAUR, Functional Foods Research Unit, Peoria, IL, 61604, USA.
U.S. Department of Energy, Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) appointment, Oak Ridge, USA.
J Cannabis Res. 2025 Aug 16;7(1):58. doi: 10.1186/s42238-025-00316-5.
The 2018 Farm Bill states that cultivars of Cannabis sativa L. (industrial hemp) are legal for industrial use if total tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) concentrations are less than 0.30%. Due to this legislation, hemp cultivars with low total THC have found a wide range of uses, from animal feed to paper production. Although cannabinoids are the most widely studied compounds in hemp, hemp produces numerous other compound classes as well, and these phytochemicals may have uses in the functional food and pharmaceutical industry.
Initial liquid chromatography profiling of hemp root samples revealed a group of uncharacterized peaks, and these peaks were tentatively identified as neolignans by Oribitrap ID-X high resolution mass spectrometer. To further elucidate the structure of these neolignans, we used techniques in liquid-liquid extraction, as well as flash chromatography to isolate them in preparation for NMR analysis. We then tested their inhibitory concentration 50 (IC50) in a variety of cancer cell lines.
Four neolignans were isolated from hemp roots and each differed in their molecular weight by 30 daltons. Two of the compounds were identified as dadahols A and B. We tested fractions of various purities containing neolignans against neuroblastoma cell lines CHLA15 and LAN5, hepatoblastoma cell line Hep3B, and Hodgkin's lymphoma cell line L428. We found that semi-pure fractions containing dadahol A and/or dadahol B had the highest cytotoxic activity. We then tested pure dadahol A and dadahol B, and this revealed dadahol A exhibited the lowest IC50 values in all the cell lines.
2018年农业法案规定，如果大麻（工业大麻）品种的总四氢大麻酚（THC）浓度低于0.30%，则其用于工业用途是合法的。由于这项立法，低总THC含量的大麻品种已发现了广泛的用途，从动物饲料到纸张生产。尽管大麻素是大麻中研究最广泛的化合物，但大麻还产生许多其他化合物类别，并且这些植物化学物质可能在功能性食品和制药行业中有用途。
大麻根样品的初始液相色谱分析揭示了一组未鉴定的峰，这些峰通过Oribitrap ID-X高分辨率质谱仪初步鉴定为新木脂素。为了进一步阐明这些新木脂素的结构，我们使用液液萃取技术以及快速色谱法对它们进行分离，以准备进行核磁共振分析。然后我们在多种癌细胞系中测试了它们的半数抑制浓度（IC50）。
从大麻根中分离出四种新木脂素，每种的分子量相差30道尔顿。其中两种化合物被鉴定为dadahols A和B。我们测试了含有新木脂素的不同纯度级分对神经母细胞瘤细胞系CHLA15和LAN5、肝母细胞瘤细胞系Hep3B以及霍奇金淋巴瘤细胞系L428的作用。我们发现含有dadahol A和/或dadahol B的半纯级分具有最高的细胞毒性活性。然后我们测试了纯的dadahol A和dadahol B，结果表明dadahol A在所有细胞系中表现出最低的IC50值。
