Assessment of Cannabinoids Content in Micropropagated Plants of Cannabis sativa L. and their Comparison with Vegetatively Propagated Plants and Mother Plant at Different Stages of Growth

True- to- type clonal fidelity is one of the most important prerequisites for rapid multiplication of plant species. However, there is always a concern of potential differences due to mutation and their effect on the chemical constituents of in vitro propagated (IVP) and vegetatively propagated (VP) plants from same source (MP). Clonal fidelity was tested among the three groups of plants (MP-indoor, IVP and VP). After the plants were well established in the soil [1,2] samples from all three groups of plants, were periodically analyzed for their cannabinoids content to determine if differences in secondary metabolites exist within and among these groups of plants. The content of six major cannabinoids: D⁹-THC, THCV, CBD, CBC, CBG and CBN were identified and analyzed using gas chromatography/flame ionization detection (GC/FID). In general, THC content in all groups increased with plant age up to a highest level during budding stage where the THC content reached a plateau before the plants were harvested. The pattern of changes occurred in the concentration of other cannabinoids content relative to the plants age and has followed a similar trend in all groups. Minor differences observed in cannabinoids concentrations within and among the groups were found statistically insignificant. These results confirm the clonal fidelity of tissue culture raised plants of Cannabis sativa and suggest that the biochemical mechanism followed to produce the micropropagated plants does not affect the metabolic content and can be used to produce true-to-type plants of this species for commercial pharmaceutical use. Acknowledgements: The work was supported in part by National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), Contract No. N01DA-0-7707. References: [1] Lata H, et al. (2008) In vitro cellular and developmental biology-Plant (In Press; DOI 10.1007/s11627-008-9167-5). [2] Lata H, et al. (2009) Physiology and Mol Biol of Plants, 15(1): January 2009 (In Press).