Our first project involves horticultural research and cannabis production, in collaboration with McGill University professor Mark Lefsrud. Medical cannabis is a developing field, but little information has been published on the production, harvesting, post-harvest processing (drying, grinding, storage) and extraction of the cannabis plant. The factors influencing the accumulation of terpenes, cannabinoids and other secondary metabolites in cannabis are poorly understood. Understanding the environmental factors that influence the synthesis of these compounds will enable the development of production methods that optimize the production and ratios of these compounds. Similarly, methods need to be developed to maximize the extraction and purification of these compounds for medical applications.
Post-harvest processing of medical cannabis is an important part of the production process, but publicly available knowledge about optimal extraction technologies is very limited, as most knowledge is anecdotal or kept as trade secrets. The retention of trade secrets has limited the development of this field and led to contradictory methods and a lack of standards for the production of medical cannabis. This lack of standards has led to significant variations in the yield and quality of the final product. This project, which has already got off the ground, has been designed to find answers to these questions. In March 2020, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) awarded a $500,000 grant for this project ($100,000 per year from 2019 to 2023). EXKA will supplement this grant with an annual contribution of $50,000, bringing the total for this research project to $750,000 over five years.