The world of cannabinoids is changing…Researchers have succeeded in modifying algae to produce THC and CBD.
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I just don’t see tanks of algae being scalable the way fields of cannabis is. It works when demand for rare cannabinoids is low and the price is high. But I’ll take a bite out of the phone I’m typing this in if liquid culture of THC is ever economically viable in the current market
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The articles indicate that there are quite a few approaches being researched.
Modified yeast
Modified algae
Modified bacteria
Modified genetics (to make all parts of the plant produce cannabinoids)
Also stated is that the bacterial line of research is promising, due to the bacteria expelling the cannabinoids, rather than internalizing them.
And let’s not forget about hops with their naturally occurring cannabinoids that are now being bred for.
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I thought I remember seeing that they were using modified brewers yeast to focus on capturing rare and uncommon cannabinoids in a short amount of time. At least shorter than a 8 to 10 week flowering process.
I wonder what kind of products this would be limited to making. Tinctures, oils, or amokeable concentrates.
Maybe if a certain cannabinoid was rarely occurring in a plant they could focus on those with the yeast fermentation?
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Any liquid culture really, yeast, algae, bacteria. You have to feed them something and unless the food and maintenance of the tanks are cheaper than planting and refining I just don’t see it.
The bacteria expelling cannabinoids into what, water? They aren’t growing in ethanol. At what concentration does it just turn into paste and gum up filters?
Then you still have to purify from the sludge…
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Yeah the filtration of the algae seems like it would sludge up and clog quick.
Very interesting. I didn’t read this article but have about the yeast cultures creating cannabinoids. It would have to depend on how effective the yeast or bacteria is at producing. I can tell you that if they are efficient at producing it would be so much easier to scale than farm ground. However I think the consumer would take a great deal of time to make the transition and flower will ALWAYS be power 
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Full spectrum is what cannabis L. Sativa is all about. Not going to happen with any of the above approaches. But that’s not what this discussion is all about…
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how so? A quick google search turned up an article from 2017 saying the biggest industrial microbio is what, 290 cubic meters and built by GEA in denmark or somehting
Say each liter produces a kg per 3 days…
So every year thats the equivalent of ~520,000 acres of hemp each at 2,000 lbs per acre… There was over 90,000,000 acres of just corn planted in the US alone…
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I’m just saying with advances that it could be more efficient but not sure. I am pretty sure however that you are not a farmer of mass scale. Acres of corn planted has nothing to do with this. Farm ground is being destroyed faster then it can be replenished without a doubt. How long can we knife in anhydrous Ammonia for nitrogen while destroying topsoil microbiology that took millions of years to create? There is so much more work to keeping farm ground truly viable and beneficial for years to come then most realize. It’s just a possibility is all.
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Yeast can be scaled to produce enormous amounts with high purity. I don’t know anything about algae but yeast can turn an entire industry upside-down.
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Does it have to be grown in a bioreactor? How about a lake?
This is false, hops does not produce cannabinoids. The guy making that claim was proven to be a fraud.
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I just found out that the cannabis plant is in fact related to the hops plant. This was news to me, but explained why there are terpenes and terpenoids (thc) in hops aswell as other plants
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Have proof?
Opioids are a key example of a biologically derived substance being more profitable to grow then be produced by microorganisms
If it’s more profitable to harvest a plant with A maximum 1% active compound(most .5-.6%) then it is to produce from microorganisms, why would it be profitable for cannabis, a plant capable of producing 25% active compound?
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There are no cannabinoids in Hops
Fo sho. Should have written terpenes and terpenoids (which thc apparently is). Look it up.
Yes Thc is a terpenoid, so is salvinorin A(Salvia divinorum) and they are completely unrelated in affect. The vast majority of plants produce terpenoids.
Cannabis isn’t derived from hops either, they are in the same family but evolved separately from a common ancestor.
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Hops and cannabis are both members of the Cannabaceae family and are a lot more closely related than people think. There is actually a company (Isodiol) that claims they have successfully gotten hops to produce CBD.
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