In a secluded lab on a sprawling university campus in Rio de Janeiro, Brazilian molecular biologist Rodrigo Moura Neto conducts experiments on seemingly ordinary plants with powerful secrets.
A fast-growing domestic plant, Trema micrantha bloom is native to the Americas, widely distributed and often considered a weed.
But Moura Neto recently discovered that the fruit and flowers contain cannabidiol (CBD), one of the active ingredients in marijuana. CBD has shown promise as a treatment for epilepsy, autism, anxiety, chronic pain, and more.
Importantly, he also found that it did not contain tetrahydrocannabinol or THC (the psychoactive substance that gets you high), the other main ingredients in cannabis.
This opens up the potential for a wealth of new CBD sources without the complications that cannabis, which is still illegal in many places.
This discovery made Dr. Moura Neto an overnight star in the academic world. The amiable, silver-haired 66-year-old currently juggles a busy schedule of meetings with patent experts and companies eager to tap into the multi-billion dollar CBD market. .
“It was great to find a plant without THC[that contains CBD]because it avoids all the confusion around psychotropic drugs,” says the small research institute in the Federal Republic of Rio de Janeiro. Moura Neto, who has spent the better part of 50 years researching University.
“That means the potential is huge,” he told AFP.
His 10-member team recently won a public grant of R$500,000 ($104,000) to expand his project. The next step will be to identify the best way to extract CBD from ‘trema’ and study its effectiveness as an alternative to medical cannabis.
～The sought-after man～
Many of CBD’s touted medical uses are still under investigation.
The compound is controversial, with patients suing in Brazil to win the right to use it. Considering medical cannabis cultivation is still illegal, they often have to import it at mind-boggling prices, but a bill has been introduced in Congress to change that.
Arguments aside, the demand for CBD is skyrocketing.
Last year, the global market for CBD was estimated at nearly $5 billion. Analytics firm Vantage Market Research predicts it will grow to more than $47 billion by 2028, largely driven by health and wellness use.
The interest in Moura Neto’s research is “huge,” says Rozan Silva, director of his lab at the end of a corridor bustling with students and researchers in white coats.
Standing by the plant, which she calls a “magic plant,” Silva said “many companies have been calling to work with us” on non-cannabis-based CBD medicines.
A member of the cannabis family, ‘trema’ can grow up to 20 meters (66 feet) tall.
Moura Neto said he and the university could consider patenting an innovation to extract CBD from its tiny fruits and flowers.
But he was quick to add that he would not patent Trema itself. He wants scientists around the world to be able to study it.
“If I had dreamed of becoming a millionaire, I wouldn’t have become a professor,” he says.
– From security to production? –
Moura Neto started researching CBD for a completely different reason. A trained forensic geneticist, he intended to analyze the DNA of marijuana seized by police so investigators could trace the source of the marijuana.
When he came across a study that identified CBD from a related plant in Thailand (another cannabis plant), he had the idea to test CBD in ‘Trema’.
He said it would take five to 10 years of research and clinical trials, if possible, to turn unpublished research into a marketable drug.
Cannabis was first cultivated in China over 10,000 years ago and has been cultivated for thousands of years for its mind-altering and medicinal properties.
The CBD in Trema may not work as well or may not work at all, says Moura Neto.
In the meantime, it is useless to smoke plants for uplifting.
“It certainly won’t do you any good,” he laughed.
JHB/MLM/JH
