RESUMO
The major cannabinoids present in Jamaican samples of herbal cannabis and derived resin were determined by gas-liquid chromatography. Their qualitative and quantative profiles were not unusual, but in 3 of the 4 samples, there was an unexpectedly low content of 1 tetrahydrocannabinol, the main psychoactive ingredient (AU)
Assuntos
Cannabis/análise , Cromatografia Gasosa , JamaicaRESUMO
We investigated the metabolic origin of certain dicarboxylic acids which appears in urine of hypoglycin poisoned subjects (Jamaican vomiting sickness). These include hexanedioic (adipic), octanedioic (suberic) and decanedioic (sebacic) acids which, with unsaturated variants, are also excreted in some rare congenital diseases (glutaric acidaemia Type II, generalized dicarboxlic acidaemias), and in ketosis. Long-chain fatty acids have been established as precursors only in the case of diabetic, ketotic rats. In one report, evidence for this origin was negative for the case of hypoglycin poisoning, but no alternative precursors appear likely and the problem has remained unresolved since 1972. The present work utilized palmitic acid labelled either with Tritium, or with 14c at various atoms of the molecule as a tracer in hypoglycin-treated rats. Suberate and sebacate, isolated from urines by gas liquid chromatography, were found to be radioactively labelled, and hence, significant conversion of fatty acid to dicarboxylic acid was demonstrated. A further conclusion emerged from the relative labelling yielded by [1-14C] - and [16-14C] palmitic acid. After chain shortening by 3 -4 cycles of fatty acid á-oxidation, w-oxidation appears to intervene as a consequence of inhibition of the former process by the hypoglycin metabolite methylenecyclopropylacetyl-CoA. This sequence is in contrast to the ketotic animal, in which initial w-oxidation of fatty acid apparently precedes bilateral á-oxidation. In fasted hypoglycin-poisoned rats, excretion of each of these compounds is not insignificant, being about 7 - 33 mg/24 hr(1 - 4 mg/mg creatinine) (AU)