Nowadays, cannabis (Cannabis sativa L.) is one of the most controversial medicinal
plants. The usage of cannabis and its derived products is based on the biological
activity of the present pharmacologically active compounds; firstly cannabinoids and
then many others: phenols, terpenoids, fatty acids, tocopherols. Today, cannabinoids
are in the focus of scientific and medical research. That is why this research was
focused on phenols and other bioactives in cannabis.
Microwave-assisted extraction was applied for the extraction of phenolic compounds
from areal parts of cannabis, sort Helena. The effects of different extraction
parameters (ethanol concentration (30-70 %), extraction time (10-30 min), and
liquid/solid ratio (5-15 mL/mg)) on the extraction yield, total phenols, total flavonoid
content, antioxidant activity, and reductive capacity were investigated as part of the
analysis of the extraction process. Box-Behnken's design was chosen as the
experimental design. The content of total phenols in extracts was from 10.34 to
15.79 mg EGK/g of the drug and the content of total flavonoids was from 4.97 to
9.68 mg CE/g of the drug. The experimental results were described by the second
order polynomial model. The model was estimated using the analysis of variance
(ANOVA). The optimization process was carried out for all parameters
simultaneously, to obtain the maximum yields of polyphenol compounds, antioxidant
activity, and reductive capacity