Proponents of the many uses of marijuana often tout their favorite drug by noting that it comes from an all-natural source: the cannabis plant. But that might soon change, after scientists at the University of California at Berkeley managed to produce the psychoactive compounds found in cannabis entirely in the lab, without any plants needed, reports Business Insider.
It's a breakthrough that could transform the cannabis industry, both in legal and illegal markets. If this experiment can be proven to scale, marijuana's therapeutic components could be streamlined into pharmaceuticals for a fraction of the cost associated with growing and processing the plant.
Researchers accomplished the feat by first genetically engineering yeast that can produce the chemical components of marijuana's two best known compounds: THC and CBD. THC, which is short for tetrahydrocannabinol, is the principal psychoactive component in cannabis. Meanwhile, CBD, or cannabidiol, is typically understood to have more therapeutic value. Once the components of these compounds were isolated, it was simple chemistry to assemble them synthetically.
"There could be whole host of new products that could come from this," said Jay Keasling, team leader on the study.
Read more at mnn.com