Abstract
The traditional Cannabis plant as a medicinal crop has been explored for many thousands of years. The Cannabis industry is rapidly growing; therefore, optimising drying methods and producing high-quality medical products have been a hot topic in recent years. We systemically analysed the current literature and drew a critical summary of the drying methods implemented thus far to preserve the quality of bioactive compounds from medicinal Cannabis. Different drying techniques have been one of the focal points during the post-harvesting operations, as drying preserves these Cannabis products with increased shelf life. We followed or even highlighted the most popular methods used. Drying methods have advanced from traditional hot air and oven drying methods to microwave-assisted hot air drying or freeze-drying. In this review, traditional and modern drying technologies are reviewed. Each technology will have different pros and cons of its own. Moreover, this review outlines the quality of the Cannabis plant component harvested plays a major role in drying efficiency and preserving the chemical constituents. The emergence of medical Cannabis, and cannabinoid research requires optimal post-harvesting processes for different Cannabis strains. We proposed the most suitable method for drying medicinal Cannabis to produce consistent, reliable and potent medicinal Cannabis. In addition, drying temperature, rate of drying, mode and storage conditions after drying influenced the Cannabis component retention and quality.
Highlights
This review shows that the knowledge for the optimal benefit from the post-harvest process is standardised to produce therapeutically stable Cannabis products for patients by a deeper understanding of its chemical space, outlining major phytochemicals in Cannabis and reviewing the current drying techniques and optimum methods which have been applied for Cannabis-derived phytochemicals
The Cannabis industry has been flourishing in recent years due to its legalisation and depenalisation as a medicinal product by many countries around the world
New advances such as fully automated operations should be trialed to Cannabis productions to produce good quality, safe products with increased process efficiency in a sustainable manner
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. C. Sativa species regulated the cell cell death in the plant via accumulated cannabinoids in the glands above the leaf [35]. Another during the initial and late thelate leaf stages senescence [36,37] Another significant benefit is to fulfil the requirement for the completed growth cycle and eventually develop the seeds in the medicinal Cannabis [36]. CBD is at risk of oxidative degradation, and is stable over time [47], since Cannabis is a plant-based drug that, unlike cocaine or heroin, requires no plant processing to produce the active constituents in the administered drug [48]. Post-harvest reports optimising the drying techniques and factors to recover bioac-tive compounds such as terpenes, cannabinoids and phenolic compounds from the medicinal marijuana are limited in the literature, so there is a need to understand the post-harvest handling of Cannabis that optimise yield and control high-quality medical-grade product.
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