Antibacterial Cannabinoids from Cannabis sativa
Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008 at 11:24 am | By: Radical Russ
Antibacterial Cannabinoids from Cannabis sativa: A Structure?Activity StudyMarijuana (Cannabis sativa) has long been known to contain antibacterial cannabinoids, whose potential to address antibiotic resistance has not yet been investigated. All five major cannabinoids (cannabidiol, cannabichromene, cannabigerol, ?9-tetrahydrocannabinol, and cannabinol) showed potent activity against a variety of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains of current clinical relevance.
… [P]reparations from C. sativa were investigated extensively in the 1950s as highly active topical antiseptic agents for the oral cavity and the skin and as antitubercular agents. Unfortunately, most of these investigations were done at a time when the phytochemistry of Cannabis was still in its infancy, and the remarkable antibacterial profile of the plant could not be related to any single, structurally defined and specific constituent.
… There are currently considerable challenges with the treatment of infections caused by strains of clinically relevant bacteria that show multidrug-resistance (MDR), such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and the recently emerged and extremely drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis XDR-TB. New antibacterials are therefore urgently needed, but only one new class of antibacterial has been introduced in the last 30 years.
These considerations, as well as the observation that cross-resistance to microbial and plant antibacterial agents is rare, make C. sativa a potential source of compounds to address antibiotic resistance, one of the most urgent issues in antimicrobial therapy.
This MRSA bug is serious stuff – it kills more people every year than does AIDS! Now, don’t you think that if researchers had discovered that any other substance but pot was going to be the new cure for the “Superbug”, that it would have been front page news? Or that if they found pot led to higher rates and deaths from MRSA that it would have been splashed all over the headlines?
Our government’s continued suppression and willful ignorance of the overwhelming and mounting evidence that cannabis has medical efficacy is nothing short of a crime against humanity. Our government is willing to let its citizens suffer and die rather than relent on marijuana rescheduling. Our government is putting politics over science (again) so that our elected officials (many of whom smoked weed) won’t “send the wrong message” about pot.
(Listen in to the Stash later today for my interview with NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano on this subject and Congress’s failure to act.)
