Question

Over the last few years, hemp seems to be a growing social and medical topic. The primary active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) in hemp plant and associated extracts is the general class of chemical compounds called cannabinoids. The most notable cannabinoid in hemp is cannabidiol (CBD). The majority of cannabinoids produced from the hemp plant are found in a carboxylic acid form. This includes CBD, which is actually found as cannabidiolic acid (CBDA) in living hemp plants. The process of going from CBDA to CBD is decarboxylation. To date, the thermodynamics and kinetics of decarboxylation in CBD has not been studied rigorously. However, the great thing about thermodynamics of such a common reaction, like decarboxylation, is that it is still possible to estimate the expected thermodynamics energies based on (i) computational analysis, (ii) arithmetic methods or based on (iii) comparison to decarboxylation reaction trends in similar classes of compounds. Using one or more of the methods mentioned above (or a novel method of your own choosing), (A) estimate the temperature at which you would expect decarboxylation of CBDA to be thermodynamically favorable. (B) Decarboxylation reactions in organic compounds are known to often have high activation barriers. Hence, the thermodynamics can often be hindered by kinetics. Suggest one or more potential catalysis to would potentially speed up this reaction.

Answer 1