My bachelors thesis deals with the conversion of cannabidiol (CBD) to cannabinol (CBN). In recent times cannabinoids have been the subject of many scientific studies, which have shown that they have many beneficial effects on the functioning of the human body. Many studies have examined the effects of cannabinoids from industrial hemp on the human body. It is difficult to obtain certain cannabinoids from the plant itself because of their low concentrations. Therefore, there is a great interest of discovering different synthetic pathways for converting one cannabinoid into another.
As part of the thesis, we successfully converted the starting cannabidiol into cannabinol. We used reagents and solvents that are commercially available and affordable, which makes the transformation suitable for use on an industrial level. The resulting product was isolated, purified and characterized by 1H NMR, 13C NMR, HRMS analysis and IR spectroscopy, and its purity was also determined by HPLC analysis. Based on the obtained results, we determined that CBD can be readily converted to CBN in high and reproducible yields.
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