Producing Cannabis Without Growing The Plant: Sci-Fi Or Futuristic Technology?

By Nicolas Jose Rodriguez

BioHarvest Sciences Inc. (CSE: BHSC), a biotech company with offices in Canada and Israel, recently announced that it has produced approximately 22 pounds of full-spectrum cannabis biomass on a commercial scale without growing the plant itself.

This is the first time a group, whether in industry or academia, has successfully done so. The non-GMO cannabis biomass was produced using BioHarvest’s proprietary BioFarming technology platform, which grows plant cells in their natural structure in proprietary bioreactors, the company said in a press release.

Photo by Olena Ruban/Getty Images

The result of the Canadian-Israeli biotech company’s breakthrough is a cannabis biomass that is uniquely consistent and clean, solving two key product quality issues in the medical cannabis industry – product variability and contamination.

“The legal cannabis industry has waited for this moment as many of the challenges it has faced will be solved with BioHarvest’s technology and capabilities,” said Ilan Sobel, CEO of BioHarvest. “With this milestone, we are ready to work with the key players in the global cannabis industry for the right partnerships ahead of the launch of our new cannabis products.”

The biomass consists of cannabis cells, including cannabis trichomes, which contain cannabinoids such as CBD, THC, as well as other compounds naturally found in the cannabis plant.

BioHarvest’s cannabis trichome cells are amalgamated in a proprietary high-density coral-like structure, allowing for a trichome density – the number of trichomes per unit surface area – that is up to 200 times greater than conventional farming.

The result of the study is a “profit for global sustainability,” emphasized the company. For starters, BioHarvest’s production facilities require about 95% less physical space than traditional farming: a two-meter-long bioreactor produces what would require 240,000 square meters of land annually.

The 5 C’s

Its key benefits over conventionally grown cannabis can be summed up in the 5 Cs the company lists: Consistency, Cleanliness, Cost, Composition, and Climate.

Third-party assessments confirm that BioHarvest’s growing process produces no direct greenhouse gas emissions, no hazardous waste and only 100% biodegradable wastewater while using less than 10% of land resources and significantly less energy compared to conventional farming.

Photo by Kamonrat Meunklad/EyeEm/Getty Images

“Because of its therapeutic qualities, hemp-based CBD holds significant potential for the food and beverage industry, to which we have been supplying ingredients for over 40 years,” said Vince Pinneri, president of Batory Foods, a leading distributor of ingredients to the U.S. food industry .

“That’s why we decided to work with BioHarvest to guarantee the F&B industry the highest quality CBD with fingerprint consistency and ultimate purity that their BioFarming technology can produce,” added Pinneri.

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BioHarvest has a market capitalization of approximately $152 million and has raised approximately $57.3 million to date. The company’s next stage is the production of cannabis biomass in industrial-scale bioreactors. The offering will consist of multiple strains that will be carefully selected based on specific indications and B2B customer needs.

“This major scientific and technological achievement is unprecedented in the cannabis world and is a strong endorsement of the superiority of BioFarming technology,” said Yochi Hagay, CTO of BioHarvest. “BioHarvest’s global leadership in plant cell biology is now being demonstrated in a variety of applications.”

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Given the breadth of potential applications, earlier this month BioHarvest appointed renowned astronaut Chris Hadfield to its Advisory Board to leverage its biotechnology platform to develop products that address the challenges of space exploration.

This article originally appeared on Benzinga and has been republished with permission.