Medicinal use of the cannabis plant dates back to 2700 BC in ancient China. We now have an understanding of the chemical profile of these plants and what molecules are responsible for their observed therapeutic effects. Δ<sup>9 </sup>Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) have been identified as the main cannabinoids that contribute to the myriad of effects such as anti-parasitic, antibacterial, analgesic and anti-anxiety effects. It has been recently discovered that these natural derived cannabinoids may play a role in Alzheimer’s disease by disrupting the formation of β-amyloid plaques. Our interest is to probe the therapeutic potential of this class of compounds and to this end we developed a practical modular synthesis of the cannabinoids. A chemoenzymatic approach to access a chiral building block used to control the stereochemistry found in the cannabinoids was successfully employed. This route allows for a scalable and efficient platform for analog development of both natural and unnatural cannabinoid isomers.

Development of a practical synthesis of THC and CBD enabling access to novel analogs

255th National Meeting (2018)

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