According to a scientific article published in Science Daily last September, 79 phenolic compounds were found in three different phenotypes/cultivars, "25 of which had never been recorded in cannabis" and 16 identified as flavoalkaloids. These were mainly in the leaves of only one of the phenotypes studied. For this purpose, researchers used mass spectrometry and advanced two-dimensional chromatography.

"Phenolic compounds, especially flavonoids, are well known and sought after in the pharmaceutical industry for their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer properties," the same document reads.

Flavoalkaloids, on the other hand, are compounds with a molecular structure that combines a flavonoid and an alkaloid or, in other words: they are those that contain a flavonoid structure and also have one or more nitrogen atoms. These are mainly studied in tea leaves for their antioxidant properties and are already being tested for the treatment of diabetes and Alzheimer's.

The author of the current study, Magriet Muller, an analytical chemist at the LC-MS Laboratory of the Central Analytical Facility (CAF) at Stellenbosch University, expressed her surprise: "We know that cannabis is extremely complex – it contains over 750 metabolites – but we did not expect such a large variation in phenolic profiles among just three strains, nor did we expect to detect so many compounds for the first time in the species. Especially, the first evidence of flavoalkaloids in cannabis was very exciting."

Muller further explained that "most plants contain highly complex mixtures of phenolic compounds, and although flavonoids occur widely in the plant kingdom, flavoalkaloids are very rare in nature." Furthermore, they have enormous pharmacological value.

For the authors, this is a "surprising discovery" that highlights the complexity of the cannabis plant "and its unexplored biomedical potential beyond cannabinoids, opening new doors for research and medicine."

The findings of this study could revolutionize the pharmaceutical industry and the cannabis industry itself – which usually treats leaves as waste; but interestingly, they also confirm and perhaps explain what many ancient cultures and other scientists throughout history have recorded: that the plant's leaves have medicinal properties beyond the nutritional value of chlorophyll and the (few) cannabinoids they produce.

When science provides answers to what was already known
The use of cannabis leaves is recorded in various texts of pre-modern Chinese medicine (called bencao), which mention the application of various parts of the plant for the treatment of various ailments, especially the flowers and leaves.

As researchers E Joseph Brand and Zhongzhen Zhao, from the School of Chinese Medicine at Hong Kong Baptist University, recount in this scientific article published in "Frontiers in Pharmacology" in 2017, the Tang dynasty physician Sun Simiao (581–683 AD) recorded "the use of crushed leaves, from which juice was extracted, which was used to cure the lancinating pain of broken bones (Chen and Huang, 2005)". And in the Compendium of Materia Medica, a document from the 16th century, the author Li Shizhen stated that the cannabis leaf was indicated for treating malaria, claiming that it induced [patients] into a state of intoxication (Liu et al., 2009)".

Other cultures used them in teas or to make healing poultices, and the leaves are still one of the main ingredients of bhang in India – a decoction in milk of spices and cannabis leaves, still served in temples and festivals dedicated to Shiva, the lord of ganja. From those ancient times to the psychologists and bohemians of the Club des Hashishins (Moreau de Tours, Charles Baudelaire, etc.) and the group of Irish doctors from the 19th century, the cannabis plant and its effects have been studied by various individuals.

Perhaps the most notable body of study is that of the famous Irish professor, chemist, and toxicologist William Brooke O’Shaughnessy (1809–1889), who recorded his experiences and results with the use of cannabis for the treatment of various diseases such as cholera, delirium tremens, rheumatic affections, or infantile convulsions, obtaining surprising results and leaving an important legacy for pharmaceutical science.

As Professor Ethan Russo points out in this chapter of the book "Cannabis sativa L. – botany and biotechnology", which correlates the findings of those 19th-century doctors with those of today, many of the results they obtained over a century ago are currently being verified by "modern science".

According to Professor André de Villiers, supervisor and lead author of the current study at Stellenbosch University, "our analysis once again highlights the medicinal potential of cannabis plant material (...). Cannabis presents a rich and unique non-cannabinoid phenolic profile, which may be relevant from a biomedical research perspective".

The discovery of flavoalkaloids in cannabis plant leaves thus adds another path for research with the plant and opens another window of hope for many Alzheimer's, cancer, and other patients.

Content originally published on CannaReporter