Medicinal cannabis: Pharmaceutical forms and recent analytical methodologies

Abstract

The use and study of medicinal cannabis is growing in accordance with the changes in the laws of many countries, along with the technological advances that allowed expanding the knowledge about its multiple pharmacological properties. Exhaustive studies on the pharmacological effects of the different Cannabis sativa constituents are of great importance due to the high impact that this ancient plant has on biological systems. Besides, the pharmaceutical form used for their administration is one of the relevant factors determining the absorption of phytocannabinoids by the human body, the physiological effects and their behaviour in relation to the nature of the analysed organic matrices, either for medicinal or legal purposes. This chapter summarizes the activity of phytocannabinoids on their specific receptors in mammals and the processes that they undergo in the body. The traditional and novel pharmaceutical formulations and the analytical methodologies to evaluate the organic matrices exposed to cannabis are also reviewed.