Assessment of the free radical scavenging potential of cannabidiol under physiological conditions: Theoretical and experimental investigations

Abstract

Cannabidiol (CBD) is one of the most important cannabinoids found in cannabis with well-characterized biological effects. The radical scavenging activity is one of these activities that has received much attention in recent years; experimental studies however regularly use environments that do not reflect physiological conditions. Here we describe a systematic study of the radical scavenging activity of CBD under physiological conditions using theoretical and experimental methodologies. The results suggest that CBD can be an effective radical scavenger in aqueous solution; however, it exhibits only weak radical scavenging activity in pentyl ethanoate solvent. Data on the impact of CBD on basal intracellular ROS levels of a human non-cancer cell line and a human cancer cell line also indicates that CBD does not show any statistically significant antiradical activity at non-toxic concentrations in the living environment. This suggests that CBD is not a good radical scavenger in basal cell conditions.