Ultrasound-Assisted Extraction of Cannabinoids from Cannabis Sativa for Medicinal Purpose

Over the past 20 years, the interest in Cannabis oily extracts for medicinal use compounded in pharmacy has consistently grown, along with the need to have preparations of adequate quality. Hot maceration (M) is the most frequently used method to compound oily solutions. In this work, we systematically studied the possibility of using an ultrasonic homogenizer and a sonotrode (US) as an alternative extraction method. Oily solutions were prepared using two available varieties of Cannabis for medicinal use, called FM2 and Bedrocan. All preparations resulted with an equivalent content in CBD and THC, with the advantage of a faster process using US. In particular, 10 min sonication at the amplitude optimized for the sonotrode used (2 or 7 mm) provides not statistically different total Delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (M-FM2: 0.26 +/- 0.02 % w/w; US-FM2: 0.19 +/- 0.004 % w/w; M-Bedrocan: 1.83 +/- 0.17 % w/w; US-Bedrocan: 1.98 +/- 0.01 % w/w) and total cannabidiol (M-FM2: 0.59 +/- 0.04 % w/w; US-FM2: 0.58 +/- 0.01 % w/w) amounts extracted in refined olive oil. It can therefore be confirmed that sonotrode is an efficient and fast extraction technique and its use is without negative consequence on the solvent properties. Despite DSC evidencing that both maceration and sonication modify the T-onset and enthalpy of the event at about -10 degrees C, the qualitative characteristics of the oil remained constant for the two treatments and similar to the starting material.

Automated summary

In the past 20 years, the interest in medicinal cannabis oily extracts has grown, leading to the need for high quality preparations. This study systematically investigated the use of an ultrasonic homogenizer as an alternative extraction method and found that it can provide equivalent content in CBD and THC compared to the traditional hot maceration method, with the advantage of a faster process. The qualitative characteristics of the oil remained constant for both treatments.