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ANALYTICAL CANNABIS EXPO EUROPE 2019 EXTRACTION. SCIENCE. TESTING.

Source: www.acexpo.co

Dr Nikos Xynos  Thumbnail

Dr Nikos Xynos

Founder & Managing DirectorNomad LabsNikos is a Dr. in pharmaceutical sciences & an entrepreneur. His expertise lies in natural products chemistry focusing on green & novel extraction/purification technologies. He also has an MSc in formulation for the cosmetic, nutraceutical and pharmaceutical sector. Nikos is the founder & Managing Director of, Nomad Labs, an expert consultancy firm & technology transfer body that specializes in phytochemistry & botanical extraction processes. They act as a scientific expert & innovation partner in various industrial sectors, including hemp & cannabis, for the extraction and purification of natural compounds with green & efficient chemistry. Project success is ensured through IP development, R&D cooperation, and technology distribution. Nomad Labs is partnering with major & reliable equipment manufacturers in the field of botanical extraction, in order to provide full technology transfer. Thus, they operate at various levels within the botanical extraction & legal cannabis industry. Nikos is keen to participate in planning and implementing multitask R&D projects and integrating novel technologies. He has long worked in the field of botanical extracts and pure natural compounds for the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, phytotherapeutic and cosmetics sectors. His most important experience lies in the project management of R&D projects from biomass sourcing to technology selection, process development and producing formulated products for key players in pharma, cosmetics, nutraceutical, and phytotherapy. His entrepreneurial efforts focus on active engagement in a few innovative start-ups in the phytochemistry research & production domain.

SESSIONS

Tue Nov 12 – 11:50 AM – 12:20 PM ( 30 Min )Cannabis Processing: A Journey into Phytomedicine Development – SpeakerThe use of cannabinoids from Cannabis sativa L. in therapeutics is known since a long time in history. It involves various ways of administration and forms such as raw herbal material, cannabis extracts, natural cannabinoid-based medicines and synthetic cannabinoids as APIs. Cannabis crude extracts contain more than 500 identified metabolites with more than 100 being the so-called phytocannabinoids1. A few of these phytochemicals, mainly Cannabidiol (CBD) and Δ9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) are used especially in epilepsy, cancer palliation and primary treatment, chronic pain, Parkinson disease, metatraumatic stress, multiple sclerosis, anxiety, irritable bowel syndrome, neurodegenerative and other diseases2. The processing strategy that should be followed in order to extract, enrich, purify and formulate these substances, must involve various extraction steps and technologies. A few parameters to consider for defining this strategy is efficiency, cost-effectiveness, required purity, impurities tolerance, cost-effectiveness, available technologies at required scale and more. All that is related to the classification of final products, i.e. medicines, supplements, food, cosmetics, medical devices etc., as well as on drugs legislation. Because concentration of active substances is not the only parameter to respect, as there are limitations in terms of psychoactive compounds (THC, in some countries CBN as well) concentration limits which are usually different in various jurisdictions3. Generally, clear regulation and concrete limits in different products is still missing in most of the countries. All the above, as well as the diversity of techniques & technologies render the project of defining the optimal processing strategy, a rather complicated puzzle to solve, where there exist no single ways. The cannabis industry, as it is developing rather fast today, demands for fast answers and valorization of existing know-how. Nevertheless, there is area of improvement in the R&D through broader osmosis with the knowledgeable botanical extraction Industry and Academia. An overview of the state-of-the-art technologies and proposed processing steps will be presented. Nomad Labs is an expertise consultancy & technology transfer body that focuses on developing customized solutions for botanicals & cannabis processing strategies at R&D as well as commercial production level.


1  Cannabis and Its Secondary Metabolites: Their Use as Therapeutic Drugs, Toxicological Aspects, and Analytical Determination, Joanna Goncalves et al. Medicines, Vol. 6, 2019

2  Cannabis Pharmacology: The Usual Suspects and a Few Promising Leads, Ethan B. Russo et al. Advances in Pharmacology, vol. 80, 2017

3  Medical use of cannabis and cannabinoids containing products – Regulations in Europe and North America, Ran AbuhasiraLiat Shbiro, Yuval Landschaft, European Journal of Internal Medicine, vol. 49, 2018