Hemp Roots Offer New Opportunities for Farmers and Cancer Research

Farmers already use the upper parts of industrial hemp for fiber and for grain that supplies protein and oil. The roots themselves have usually gone unused because they were not thought to be valuable. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture have now given new importance to these roots.

Dr. Korey Brownstein, a research chemist in Peoria, Illinois, noticed an unexpected material while studying hemp roots. He led a group that separated the material and determined its structure. Tests showed that the material was made of four compounds. Using models, the researchers predicted that the compounds are neolignans. Neolignans are natural products formed in the plant that share similar structures. Similar molecules have also been found in other plants, including paper mulberries and a tree that grows in Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula. Scientists had not isolated these molecules from hemp roots before, and the process took three years.

The chemists also worked with scientists at a children's cancer laboratory at the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Peoria. In laboratory tests, those researchers found that the molecules had a moderate effect that could harm children's cancer cells. Understanding this effect more fully could create new options for childhood cancers that do not respond to existing treatments.

Brownstein said the discovery could create income for hemp farmers from a part of the plant that had been ignored. Crops like corn and soybeans already serve many purposes, but hemp has had a narrower role. If hemp is used for paper, grain, fiber, and possibly medicines from the roots, the crop could become more valuable. The authors present the work as the first isolation of these neolignans from hemp and the first link between those compounds and effects on children's cancer cells. Next, the team plans to extract the compounds on a larger scale and test many cancer cell lines. By making the roots more valuable, researchers hope to offer farmers greater stability and more reason to grow hemp.

Why could hemp roots become valuable for both farmers and cancer research?