Clean synthesis method for CBD developed

Dr Shangjin Yang announced today that a new route to cannabidiol had been discovered, meaning cannabidiol (CBD) can now be synthesised economically in industrial quantities to a very high level of purity without relying on agriculturally grown cannabis plants.

Dr. Yang, a medicinal chemist with a long history of developing elegant synthesis for pharmaceuticals has also contributed to patents for cancer treatments and worked on patents for hundreds more potential medicines targeting the cannabinoid receptor sites.

Colleague Mr Matt Bowden said today “regardless of what people think of cannabis and how it is used by recreational smokers, it is clear that CBD is a preferable solution to most other medications for children with certain forms of epilepsy, along with a host of other therapeutic and health applications.”

“We thought about making pharmaceutical CBD in the lab years ago but we assumed that it would always be more economical to simply extract CBD from hemp, but after seeing the crippling prices that families are expected to pay for their medicines, and then the quality control problems with hemp based CBD, we went back to the drawing board and thought about it again.”

Standardised pharmaceutical CBD is fast becoming the preferred option for medical applications, with doctors hesitant to recommend hemp products after federal regulators and consumer watchdogs reporting that pesticides and environmental toxins are often concentrated in CBD from hemp farms.

Mr. Bowden said that the pair are hopeful that the technology will be patentable and practical for supplying clean affordable medicines in the future.