The industrial hemp industry has grown rapidly due to demand for cannabidiol (CBD) products. CBD processing produces solvent-extracted flower that is discarded or burned. Prior extraction makes hemp flower a potentially useful chemical feedstock. We are interested in pectins, and since plant pectins are structurally variable there is value in studying their properties. As poly(galacturonic acids), pectins might be interesting rheological additives for alkaline-phenolic resols. We obtained hemp flower from local CBD producers; solvent extracted it; isolated the pectins using pH 3.5 aqueous extraction followed by isopropanol precipitation producing a yield of 4.6%. Infrared spectroscopy revealed a methyl esterification level of 46%, designating these as low methoxyl pectins. The sugar composition was 76% galacturonic acid, and the remainder in order of decreasing concentration were galactose, arabinose, glucose, mannose, rhamnose, xylose, and fucose. Rheology of pectins in phenolic resol resins revealed that pectins introduced non-Newtonian shear-thinning behavior. In this study, Cannabis pectins looked potentially valuable as rheological additives for resol resins; more study is warranted.

Isolation and characterization of <i>Cannabis</i> pectin

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Isolation and characterization of Cannabis pectin