Therapeutic Potential of Cannabinoid Profiles Identified in Cannabis L. Crops in Peru

Abstract

Cannabis is a plant that is cultivated worldwide, and its use is internationally regulated, but some countries have been regulating its medicinal, social, and industrial uses. This plant must have arrived in Peru during the Spanish conquest and remains widely cultivated illicitly or informally to this day. However, new regulations are currently being proposed to allow its legal commercialization for medicinal purposes. Cannabis contains specific metabolites known as cannabinoids, some of which have clinically demonstrated therapeutic effects. It is now possible to quantitatively measure the presence of these cannabinoids in dried inflorescences, thus allowing for description of the chemical profile or “chemotype” of cannabinoids in each sample. This study analyzed the chemotypes of eight samples of dried inflorescences from cannabis cultivars in four different regions of Peru, and based on the significant variation in the cannabinoid profiles, we suggest their therapeutic potential. The most important medical areas in which they could be used include the following: they can help manage chronic pain, they have antiemetic, anti-inflammatory, and antipruritic properties, are beneficial in treating duodenal ulcers, can be used in bronchodilators, in muscle relaxants, and in treating refractory epilepsy, have anxiolytic properties, reduce sebum, are effective on Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, are proapoptotic in breast cancer, can be used to treat addiction and psychosis, and are effective on MRSA, in controlling psoriasis, and in treating glioblastoma, according to the properties of their concentrations of cannabidiol, cannabigerol, and Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol, as reviewed in the literature. On the other hand, having obtained concentrations of THC, we were able to suggest the psychotropic capacity of said samples, one of which even fits within the legal category of “non-psychoactive cannabis” according to Peruvian regulations.