Marijuana (Cannabis sativa) and a number of cannabinoids including its primary psychoactive component, delta9-THC (delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol), show promise for treating pain and cachexia in cancer and AIDS patients. The overall goal of this research program is to develop a natural pharmaceutical grade delta9-THC product for medical use. While delta9-THC can be synthesized, the process is complex and expensive. It is our hypothesis that a natural delta9-THC product can be cost-effectively manufactured by utilizing supercritical fluids and near-critical fluids w/wo polar cosolvents such as alcohols (SuperFluids TM), and that such a process could also produce other bioactive cannabinoids and cannabinoid mixtures for future research and therapeutic use. In Phase I, we plan to establish """"""""best"""""""" conditions for selective SuperFluids extraction and chromatographic purification (CXP) of delta9-THC from Cannabis sativa. The SuperFluids CXP process will be evaluated against conventional organic phase processes in terms of capital and operating costs as well as environmental impact. The results of our Phase I investigation will be used to perform engineering and economic analysis to determine the technical, economic and environmental feasibility of the proposed process. In Phase II, we will scale-up and pilot the process for producing cannabinoids for commercialization by Molecular Delivery Corporation, Pleasanton, CA.
