Historically, the main parts of the cannabis plant that many people focused on were the buds for making medical and recreational consumable products, and the stalks for making textiles and other fiber-based end products. The remaining parts of the cannabis plants, including the leaves, were typically discarded.

However, new research is finding that the leaves of cannabis plants can also be useful. A team of researchers affiliated with Purbanchal University recently examined cannabis leaves’ antioxidant and antibacterial properties, with their findings being published in the academic database ResearchGate.

“The study focuses on extracting and analyzing bioactive compounds from the plant’s leaves, particularly cannabinoids and flavonoids, known for their antibacterial and antioxidant properties.” the researchers wrote.

“This study extracts bioactive compounds from Cannabis sativa using Soxhlet extraction with methanol and petroleum ether. The extracts are screened for phytochemicals and tested for antibacterial activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, as well as antioxidant activity using the DPPH assay, to assess its potential medicinal properties.” the researchers wrote about their methodology.

“Cannabis sativa leaves exhibit notable antioxidant and antibacterial properties. The methanolic extract, with the highest antioxidant activity (IC50 = 98.1 µg/ml) and effective antibacterial action.” the researchers concluded.

The scientific findings from the researchers affiliated with Purbanchal University build on other recent leaf-based research conducted in South Africa, which found that cannabis leaves contain “rare compounds.”

Two researchers affiliated with the Department of Chemistry and Polymer Science at the University of Stellenbosch conducted a “comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatographic analysis of cannabis phenolics,” with their findings being published in the Journal of Chromatography A.

“Compared to the well-studied cannabinoids and terpenoids, characterization of the phenolic composition of Cannabis has received little attention.” the researchers stated about their investigation. “With studies reporting synergistic effects in Cannabis, the importance of investigating polyphenols in Cannabis is becoming more apparent.”

“We report an on-line comprehensive 2D HILIC × RP-LC method hyphenated to high resolution (HR) MS for the detailed characterization of polar phenolics in Cannabis inflorescence and leaf samples of three commercial strains.” the researchers wrote. “Optimal HILIC × RP-LC conditions were derived using an automated method optimization program, and provided excellent separation performance (peak capacity > 3000) and high orthogonality. Diode array and HR-MS data enabled tentative identification of 79 compounds, comprising mainly flavone and (hydroxy)cinnamic acid derivatives.”

“The presence of three C-glycosylated flavones, as well as several of their O-glycosylated derivatives, distinguished one of the strains from the other two. In the same strain, flavoalkaloids were detected, mainly in the leaf extracts. The structures of the alkaloid moieties could not be unambiguously assigned based on the available HR-MS data, but four classes of flavoalkaloids comprising 16 flavone derivates could be tentatively identified.” the researchers found.

“This is the first time that this relatively rare and chemically interesting class of compounds has been detected in Cannabis. These findings highlight the diversity of Cannabis, and the utility of HILIC × RP-LC-HR-MS for the in-depth study of its phenolic composition.” the researchers concluded.

The results of both studies demonstrate that while humans know more about the cannabis plant now than ever before, there is still a lot left to be discovered, and that is true for the leaves of cannabis plants just as much as it is for other parts of the plant.