Scientists have discovered cannabidiol, a compound in cannabis known as CBD, in a common Brazilian plant, opening potential new avenues to produce the increasingly popular substance.

The team found CBD in the fruits and flowers of a plant known as Trema micrantha blume, a shrub which grows across much of the South American country and is often considered a weed, molecular biologist Rodrigo Moura Neto of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro told AFP in 2023.

  • deegeese@sopuli.xyz
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    2 days ago

    Thanks, that’s really really low. More than 1000x lower than C.Sativa. 1kg of plant leaves yields 4mg of CBD if my math is right.

    • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      We’ve been cultivating weed for generations to increase the potency. It’ll take time for this other plant to catch up, but not long.

      • remotelove@lemmy.ca
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        2 days ago

        Cannabis is ideal because of those tasty trichomes which are essentially balls of THC goo on the outside of the plant. The plant is basically a resin factory anyway, which makes extraction relatively easy. Potency is one aspect, but availability may take a bit more to work on.

      • whotookkarl@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Extracting oils from plants is commonly called cooking or more technically extracting. It includes a step of boiling, but that’s not the whole process (decarboxylate, grind, boil, strain).