{"id":543665,"date":"2025-03-20T18:02:57","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T21:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=543665"},"modified":"2025-03-20T18:02:57","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T21:02:57","slug":"the-cannabinoid-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/the-cannabinoid-tree\/","title":{"rendered":"The cannabinoid tree"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_543666\" style=\"max-width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright vertical\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-543666 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/RPF-notas-canabinoide-2024-08-800.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"476\" srcset=\"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/RPF-notas-canabinoide-2024-08-800.jpg 800w, https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/RPF-notas-canabinoide-2024-08-800-250x149.jpg 250w, https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/RPF-notas-canabinoide-2024-08-800-700x417.jpg 700w, https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/RPF-notas-canabinoide-2024-08-800-120x71.jpg 120w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"media-credits-inline\">Alex Popovkin\u2009\/\u2009Flickr<\/span>The leaves, stem, and flowers of the capulin produce compounds similar to those found in cannabis<span class=\"media-credits\">Alex Popovkin\u2009\/\u2009Flickr<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<p>Cannabis (<em>Cannabis sativa<\/em>) is not the only plant to produce cannabinoids, a group of compounds that includes cannabidiol (CBD), which is used as a medicine, and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is a hallucinogen. The leaves, stem, and flowers of the tree known as the Jamaican nettletree or capulin (<em>Trema micrantha<\/em>), a native species found throughout Brazil, also produce the compounds, according to a study by a team of researchers from the Ribeir\u00e3o Preto School of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (FCFRP-USP), the Botucatu Institute of Biosciences at S\u00e3o Paulo State University (UNESP), and the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden. They identified and characterized the cells that produce cannabinoids: just like in <em>C. sativa<\/em>, they are hair-like surface glands called trichomes, which help defend against microorganisms and insects. \u201cMy colleagues here at the college are now working to identify and isolate the cannabinoids from this plant,\u201d says FCFRP botanist Simone P\u00e1dua Teixeira, who led the study. In 2021, a team from Thailand reportedly identified cannabinoids in the leaf extract of a closely related species, <em>T. orientalis<\/em>. The Brazilian variety, which grows up to 10 meters tall, is a common invasive plant in pasture areas and along roadsides. The fruits are used as feed for parakeets and parrots. If ingested, the leaves are toxic (<em>PeerJ<\/em>, May 2021; <em>Protoplasm<\/em>, May 2024).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jamaican nettletree produces cannabinoids, like cannabis","protected":false},"author":475,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1651],"tags":[213,232],"coauthors":[785],"class_list":["post-543665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-notes","tag-botany","tag-pharmacology"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/475"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543665"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":543670,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543665\/revisions\/543670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543665"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=543665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}