MOLECULE

Cannabifuran

Cannabifuran (CBF) belongs to the class of organic compounds known as dibenzofurans. Dibenzofurans are compounds containing a dibenzofuran moiety, which consists of two benzene rings fused to a central furan ring. CBF is the reduced derivative of dehydrocannabifuran. As such it can be considered as a fully aromatized derivative of cannabielsoin (CBE). As CBE, cannabifuran is a molecule of mixed biosynthetic origin, in which its aromatic moiety (derived from olivetolic acid) occurs through the polyketide biosynthetic pathway while the prenylated sidechain derives from the MEP pathway of the terpenoids (DOI: 0.1016/B978-0-12-800756-3.00002-8). Similarly to the case of cannabielsoin, the inclusion of cannabifuran as a Cannabis natural product is controversial because it has been isolated and identified infrequently. Additionally, cannabifuran can be considered a derivative of cannabielsoin, which is most likely a product of the photo-oxidation of cannabidiol (CBD). Mention of cannabifuran in the scientific literature is very scarce and no reports on its biological activity exist. Cannabifuran is also a constituent of cannabis smoke and is volatilized during the combustion of cannabis (DOI: 10.1007/978-1-59259-947-9_2).