PRELIMINARY GENOTYPE SCREENING OF CANNABIS SATIVA L. FOR THE SELECTION OF NEW VARIETIES FOR THERAPEUTIC USE WITH LOW THC AND HIGH CONTENT OF “GOOD” CANNABINOIDS

In recent years, in Italy more and more farms, research organizations and institutions have shown a new interest in the cultivation of Cannabis sativa L. low in THC (industrial hemp), because of its innovative applications in different fields such as food, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals [1,2,3]. In fact, after the law 242/2016 on the Chain of Hemp, that promotes the cultivation and the agro-industrial application of hemp, in Italy it is possible to grow hemp using UE registered seeds that have a maximum certified THC content of 0.2%; the percentage of THC in the analyzed plants can fluctuate from 0.2% to 0.6% without causing any problem for the farmer. In the event that the percentage of THC exceeds the threshold of 0.6%, the judicial authority may order the seizure or destruction of the crop. The purpose of this work is to extract bioactive compounds from industrial hemp crops of the Abruzzo territory, to identify the best genotype and to constitute a stable variety, for their use in the agricultural, food and pharmaceutical sectors. The samples of Cannabis sativa L. analyzed from a farm in the territory of Abruzzo are different genotypes resulting from the crossing of a female plant of CBD therapy variety with two male varieties of Carmagnola and Villanova, were grown in a greenhouse with a substrate consisting of peat, clay and perlite in 18 liters pot, with a life cycle of 1 month of vegetative at 18 hours of light and about 2 of flowering at 12 hours of light [3]. For the sample treatment a fast and effective method was used, which consists in the first homogenization phase of the sample, by shredding with a 1 mm sieve and sieving with a sieve, followed by extraction in ethanol, and analysis by means of UHPLC-MS/MS after suitable dilution. The analytical results were submitted to multivariate data analysis: the great variability of the cannabinoid amount in the samples allowed the identification of some interesting genotypes with low content of THC and high CBD, which can be further explored in the future by a study of their biological potential.