Improvement of the breeding process in hemp growing to saturate the varieties with useful cannabinoids

Abstract

Today the group of companies “Arnika”, Hlobyne town, Poltava region, is one of the largest companies in Ukraine and in the world that grows agricultural crops using organic farming technologies. It is clear that in the transition from classical technologies to organic production there were a number of problems to solve which had to use both existing experience and new research. One of the branches of agriculture in Ukraine, which best meets the requirements of organic farming, is hemp growing. The biological properties of the crop play an important role in this matter, namely that they require almost no chemical protection against pests and diseases. The scope of raw materials from hemp is significantly expanding. Besides the traditional use in light, construction, pulp and paper, automotive and aircraft, chemical industries, hemp products began to be used for the manufacture of medicines, perfumes, cosmetics, high-quality oil, additives to many foods and others. It is the latest uses of hemp that require the use of environmentally friendly products that would be of high quality, greater demand and cost. The creation of varieties and hybrids of plants that meet the needs of the market is devoted to the research conducted during 2014-2020 and still currently continues. In this article, we have tried to show our research, achievements and conclusions. Initially, the plants with a reduced content of THC (0.01-0.001%) and an increased content of CBD (0.50-1.50%) and CBG (0.02-0.70%) in the variety Zolotoniski 15 were selected, and later the breeding work was continued with the varieties Globa, Lara, Sula and a number of future varieties that will be submitted for the state variety testing. In the first three years, the targeted selection in the direction of increasing the content of CBG in cannabis plants proved to be quite effective. But life sets new challenges and our search continues. Key words: cannabinoids, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabinol (СBN), cannabidiol (CBD), cannabigerol (CBG), cannabichromene (CBC), enzymes, precursors, breeding, technical hemp, variability, correlation.