Cannabis compound ‘can help to treat bone fractures’

A new study has identified a new medical application for cannabis in the healing of bone fractures.

Carried out by Tel Aviv University and Hebrew University, the study – published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research – has indicated that administering the non-psychotropic component cannabinoid cannabidiol (CBD) can significantly help to heal bone fractures.

Experiments with rats with mid-femoral fractures found that CBD, even when isolated from tetrahydrocannabinol, the major psychoactive component of cannabis, was able to markedly enhance the healing process of the femora after just eight weeks.

This comes after the same team found in an earlier study that cannabinoid receptors within the body can stimulate bone formation and inhibit bone loss.

Dr Yankel Gabet at the department of anatomy and anthropology at Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine said: "We found that cannabidiol alone makes bones stronger during healing, enhancing the maturation of the collagenous matrix, which provides the basis for new mineralisation of bone tissue."

It is also thought that compounds found in the narcotic may have medical benefits in alleviating symptoms of such diseases as Parkinson's, cancer and multiple sclerosis.