Naisheng Bai1,* and Shengrong Zhang2
1College of Chemical Engineering, Department of Pharmaceutical Engineering, Northwest University, Taibai North Road 229, Xi’an, Shaanxi, 710069, China
2Department of Medicinal Chemistry, School of Pharmacy, Fourth Military Medical University, 169 Changle Road, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710032,China
Cannabis sativa L. is an annual dioecious plant belonging to the family of Cannabaceae and originating from Central Asia. It has been cultivated as an important source of food, fiber, and medicinal products throughout record history. As a hot topic for chemical and medicinal research, cannabinoid medicine such as dronabinol (Marinol) and nabilone (Cesamet) are already approved to treat nausea and vomiting caused by cancer chemotherapy and as appetite stimulant in AIDS patients. SativexTM, a combination of natural cannabinoids, is approved as a prescription medicine in UK, Spain and Canada for the symptomatic treatment of multiple sclerosis. Meanwhile, various of hemp-based food products are commercially available since the demand for nutritional supplements and functional food is steadily growing, such as hemp protein powder, hempseed oil, hemp milk, hemp tea and hemp beer.
We report herein the isolation and identification of two new spirans (1 and 2), along with fifteen known spirans (3 and 4), 9.10-dihydrophenanthrenes (5 and 6), flavonoids (9-17), and other compounds (7 and 8) were isolated from the leaves of Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.). Also, three new stilbenoids (18-21), and sixteen known stibenoids (22-26) and cannabinoids (27-36) were isolated from the leaves of Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.). In this paper, the isolation and structure elucidation of the new compounds, as well as the cytotoxicity evaluation against several human tumor cell lines (MCF-7, A549, HepG2 and HT-29 cells) of the isolated products (1-36), are reported. The HPLC analysis method was established and validated. It was forecasted that this study would furnish a comprehensive investigation on phytochemical constituents and biological activities of hemp extracts and provide the possibility of their application as food additives, medicine and health products in the future.
