Liposomal CBD
Delivering higher standards in food and health technology
Why CBD?
Cannabidiol (CBD) is one of the several natural active ingredients of the Cannabis plant. It differs from tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in that it lacks the well-known psychoactive effects [1]. Instead it has a range of beneficial effects at the level of anxiety [1-3], inflammation [1,3], cognition, movement disorders, and peripheral pain [4]. It is currently applied as a drug treatment for some forms of epilepsy (Dravet and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome) [5,6].
Why Liposoma’s Liposomal CBD instead of a conventional CBD oil?
CBD is completely insoluble in water, poorly dissolves in alcohol and only dissolves well in oil. Indeed, most products on the market are oil solutions of CBD. While this seems a logic choice, as a matter of fact the use of oils for formulating CBD supplements is far from ideal.
To be optimally absorbed in the intestines, CBD must be presented as individual molecules to the intestinal epithelial cells responsible for uptake of nutrients. In theory products with oily solutions could achieve this, but in practice the break up of an oil by the intestinal fluid and the process of dispersing it into tiny droplets ready for absorption is not straightforward and there are reports of poor bioavailability and high variability in uptake of CBD from oil products [7].
Liposomal CBD
Emulsions and dispersions of CBD in water have been developed but these are often of questionable quality. A better solution is to incorporate CBD in liposomes, which are small, carefully designed phospholipid vesicles that form very stable dispersions in water [8]. The phospholipids constitute a bilayer structure in which the CBD molecules can be safely kept dissolved, while at the same time they act as surfactants that help present them to the intestinal epithelial cells in the most optimal manner.
What is more, the liposomal supplements that are engineered by Liposoma contain specific additives based on Vitamin E in the bilayer that further increase liposome stability and help protect its vulnerable contents against oxidation as well as attack of gastric fluids and enzymes. This ensures maximal efficiency in body uptake and eventual patient benefit.
Sources
[1] Izzo, A. A., Borrelli, F., Capasso, R., Di Marzo, V., & Mechoulam, R. (2009). Non-psychotropic plant cannabinoids: new therapeutic opportunities from an ancient herb. Trends in pharmacological sciences, 30(10), 515-527.
[2] Blessing, E. M., Steenkamp, M. M., Manzanares, J., & Marmar, C. R. (2015). Cannabidiol as a potential treatment for anxiety disorders. Neurotherapeutics, 12(4), 825-836.
[3] Mechoulam, R., Parker, L. A., & Gallily, R. (2002). Cannabidiol: an overview of some pharmacological aspects. The Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 42(S1), 11S-19S.
[4] Donvito, G., Nass, S. R., Wilkerson, J. L., Curry, Z. A., Schurman, L. D., et al. (2018). The endogenous cannabinoid system: a budding source of targets for treating inflammatory and neuropathic pain. Neuropsychopharmacology, 43(1), 52.
[5] Devinsky, O., Cross, J. H., Laux, L., Marsh, E., Miller, I., et al. (2017). Trial of cannabidiol for drug-resistant seizures in the Dravet syndrome. New England Journal of Medicine, 376(21), 2011-2020.
[6] Devinsky, O., Patel, A. D., Thiele, E. A., Wong, M. H., Appleton, R., Harden, C. L., .et al. (2018). Randomized, dose-ranging safety trial of cannabidiol in Dravet syndrome. Neurology, 90(14), e1204-e1211.
[7] Zgair, A., Wong, J. C., Lee, J. B., Mistry, J., Sivak, O., et al. (2016). Dietary fats and pharmaceutical lipid excipients increase systemic exposure to orally administered cannabis and cannabis-based medicines. American journal of translational research, 8(8), 3448.
[8] Akbarzadeh, A., Rezaei-Sadabady, R., Davaran, S., Joo, S. W., Zarghami, N., et al. (2013). Liposome: classification, preparation, and applications. Nanoscale research letters, 8(1), 102.