Can cannabis roots be used as a source of active ingredients?

The most precious end product of a cannabis plant are of course the flowers. All cultivation efforts are made to consistently obtain high-quality flowers as they contain the desired compounds to make medicines. Nevertheless, the cannabis plant has always proven to be very flexible in use, whereby it is good to also look at the cannabis roots of the plant.

For example, cannabis roots also contain health-promoting substances that can be used as active ingredients. That is why the potential of exploiting cannabis roots grown under aeroponic cultivation has been explored. But like cannabis research in general, researchers point out that “few studies have explored the composition of C. sativa roots and their full medical potential.” But if one wants to go further with what is missing such as “alternative methods for the production of C. sativa roots or to increase their content of biologically active molecules.” Thus, the research arose from the need to pay attention to an often neglected source of bioactive substances.

Aeroponic cultivation for cannabis root research

According to the researchers, the main compounds in cannabis roots are phytosterols, campesterol, stigmasterol, β-sitosterol, triterpenes, epi-friedelanol and friedelin. To test the hypothesis, plants have been grown in aeroponics or in soil to understand the yield of 'beneficial' compounds.

The choice for aeroponic cultivation of such plants lies in the fact that “aeroponics promote considerably faster and more intense growth of both the aerial parts and the root system”, it is stated. Other positive features of aeroponic cultivation include the ability to modulate the yield of bioactive compounds “by simply varying the composition of the nutrient sprayed on the roots by adding specific elicitors”, but in addition, aeroponic cultivation can meet the organic cultivation standards, because roots are hardly or not at all infected by pathogens.

When analyzing the roots, the researchers stated that “the properties of the bioactive compounds identified in C. sativa roots largely justify their use for the preparation of health-promoting products.” Namely, they identified that the most abundant components were phytosterol, and in particular β-sitosterol.

Paving the way for root development

Although researchers noted that some compounds were more present in soil-grown cannabis than in aeroponic cannabis and vice versa, ultimately claiming that “extensive oxygen availability is probably the main advantage of the aeroponic growing method over conventional ones.”

Also given the ease of directing root growth in an aeroponic system, the study authors say that findings could pave the way for the implementation of aeroponic cultivation based on the development of “specific elicitors to increase the yield of bioactive root constituents.” to increase and optimize.”

Sources ao MMJDaily (EN), Maximum Yield (EN), MDPI (EN)