ESTUDO DAS PROPRIEDADES FÍSICO-QUÍMICAS E TERAPÊUTICAS DO ÓLEO DE CANABIDIOL EXTRAÍDO DA PLANTA Cannabis Sativa

Abstract

Cannabis refers to a genus of plants that belongs to the Cannabaceas, a Rosales plant family (flowering plants) that contain aromatic substances and cannabinoids, with records of its use on the Asian continent for therapeutic purposes dating back to around 2500 BC., but which in the 20th century also began to be used for recreational purposes. Delta 8 tetrahydrocannabinol (∆8-THC), delta 9 tetrahydrocannabinol (∆9-THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) are its main cannabinoid compounds, the first two with psychotropic properties that can lead to dependence, while CBD does not present this property, which gives it preference for medicinal use. There are already medicines produced in the world based on cannabis sativa, but in Brazil the legislation is still strict regarding its application, allowing the importation of medicines based on CBD that do not contain more than 0.2% of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which may be higher, exclusively for patients who do not have treatment alternatives. For a better understanding of its therapeutic potential and its physicochemical properties, this work sought through computational calculations using molecular docking methodology, to study the physicochemical properties of CBD, to understand how cannabinoid compounds, ∆9-THC and CBD, interact with their CB1 and CB2 receptors, which will encourage further studies on this topic. For this, the methodology was based on both qualitative and quantitative research, in which, firstly, a review of the literature was carried out on the characteristics and properties of the cannabis sativa plant and on the methods available in computational chemistry, especially in molecular docking, which allows molecular modeling before going into laboratory tests, saving resources and time in research. Then, theoretical calculations were performed to obtain the physicochemical properties of the compounds under study, such as charges and energy, and finally, docking calculations were performed to understand the interactions between the compounds and their receptors. It was possible to observe that the value of the RMS Gradient Norm for CBD was four times greater than that of ∆9-THC, and that CBD performs hydrogen bonds with the CB2 receptor, in greater amounts than the other endocannabinoids, and also to observe the power of computational chemistry tools, such as molecular optimization and docking.