Phytocannabinoids as other natural products have been used as medicine for
millennia. Although the advent of molecular biology and combinatorial chemistry
reduced the use of natural products in drug discovery, nature continues to influence the
design of new drug candidates. Cannabis sativa plant and its phytochemical products
(hashish, marihuana) contain more than 100 cannabinoid compounds establishing an
important family of complex chemical molecules that exert most of their actions by
binding to and activating specific cannabinoid receptors (CB1 and CB2). The
identification of cannabinoid receptors has led to discovery of the endogenous ligands
termed endocannabinoids (eCBs). Cannabinoid receptors, the eCBs and respective
metabolic enzymes comprise an important endogenous system, called endocannabinoid
system (ECS), which is widely distributed in the body and is considered to be
responsible for the regulation of various pathophysiological functions. This makes ECS
a remarkable therapeutic promise in a variety of pathological conditions and supported
the regulatory approval of several cannabinoid molecules of natural and/or synthetic
origin. This emergent interest in cannabinoid properties has been accompanied by a
growth in the number of derived drugs in pharmaceutical development, with the most
actively pursued therapeutic targets being pain, obesity, multiple sclerosis, and
epilepsy.
Keywords: Cannabinoids, Endocannabinoids, Cannabinoid receptors,
Anandamide, Therapy, Pain, Multiple sclerosis, Epilepsy, Antiemetic.
