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Review
. 2021 Nov 6;26(21):6723.
doi: 10.3390/molecules26216723.

Cannabinoids-Characteristics and Potential for Use in Food Production

Joanna Kanabus  1 , Marcin Bryła  1 , Marek Roszko  1 , Marta Modrzewska  1 , Adam Pierzgalski  1
Affiliations
Review

Cannabinoids-Characteristics and Potential for Use in Food Production

Joanna Kanabus et al. Molecules. .

Abstract

Scientific demonstrations of the beneficial effects of non-psychoactive cannabinoids on the human body have increased the interest in foods containing hemp components. This review systematizes the latest discoveries relating to the characteristics of cannabinoids from Cannabis sativa L. var. sativa, it also presents a characterization of the mentioned plant. In this review, we present data on the opportunities and limitations of cannabinoids in food production. This article systematizes the data on the legal aspects, mainly the limits of Δ9-THC in food, the most popular analytical techniques (LC-MS and GC-MS) applied to assay cannabinoids in finished products, and the available data on the stability of cannabinoids during heating, storage, and access to light and oxygen. This may constitute a major challenge to their common use in food processing, as well as the potential formation of undesirable degradation products. Hemp-containing foods have great potential to become commercially popular among functional foods, provided that our understanding of cannabinoid stability in different food matrices and cannabinoid interactions with particular food ingredients are expanded. There remains a need for more data on the effects of technological processes and storage on cannabinoid degradation.

Keywords: bioactive compound; cannabidiol; cannabinoids; cannabis; food analysis; food safety; hemp food; tetrahydrocannabinol.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Typical cannabinoid structures (e.g., CBD) differ in carboxylic acid, neutral form, and alkyl side chain [13,16,31].
Figure 2
Figure 2
Biosynthesis pathways of selected cannabinoids [13,17,33,39].
Figure 3
Figure 3
Major opportunities and limitations that may have an impact on the potential use of cannabinoids in food production [94,95,96,97,98,99,100].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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