Cannabis in vitro

2009.06.28

The alternatives of hemp use in the production of fibers, oils and medicines have awake interests from different countries of Europe and of the North of the American continent about the cultivation of cannabis sativa in their territories. In a certain way the countries of first world have developed techniques of selective cultivation of hemp with the purpose to improve the quality of the material that this plant can provide for the industry and put the levels of the psycho actives substances in the norms provided by the constitutions of those countries.

The advancement of biotechnology have permitted to develop a upgrading of the cultivations, making more resistant plants, to the diseases and the climate alterations, and improving the quality of the products like fibers and oil. Besides, the techniques developed allow the manipulation of the psycho active cannabinoid, for the adaptation of the level to the constitutionals standards, as well as, in exchange, in the field of medicine, for the improvement of cannabis psycho active potentialities in the sense of treating diseases.

The method of improvement is based, mainly, in the monoecious cultivation by the selection of plants with favorable characteristics to the production. The preoccupation that still persists on the cultivation of hemp with therapeutic and industrial purposes is that those genetically modified can, in a few generations, change naturally its levels of substances, because of the climatic conditions. Another great preoccupation is about the space of cultivation of those vegetables. In this context, the proposition of in vitro cultivation of cannabis sativa is proposed; what could permit to cultivate only the cells and tissues of the plant, the ones utilized by the industry of fibers, oils and medicines, reducing the necessity of big zones of cultivation in the same time that turns possible a more effective control on the influences of the climatic conditions in the biochemical composition of the vegetable.

The technique of plantation in vitro consists in the cultivation of cannabis or only a part of its cells and tissues in laboratory controlled conditions. The benefits of the culture in vitro are beyond of the health of the plants and of the environment of cultivation, once this technique allow too the massive production of identical to the mother plants in a short space of time and throughout the year, because they do not need the climatic conditions external to the laboratory. Furthermore, the genetic alterations of the plants are not irreversible like in animals; when they are subjected to the conditions of the natural environment they come back to its normal level of substances after a few generations.

The impediments for the development of this cultivation are the high costs of this work, considering that advanced researches and very precise methodologies are needed to arrive to a good result. Therewith, countries like the United States have prohibited the cultivation of cannabis with industrial and therapeutic purposes based on the difficulty of recognition of the modified plants with this purposes and the psycho actives prohibited by the legal rules of this country.