Lexaria Bioscience Inc.
across a wide range of delivery systems with its DehydraTECH™ drug delivery
platform. By combining cannabinoids with fatty acid oil, applying food carrier
particles, and performing a dehydration procedure, the technology masks the
bitter and earthy taste of cannabis oil and ensures quick and effective
transportation into the bloodstream without degradation in the stomach or
liver. Lexaria’s technology now has over 40 patents pending and four patents
already granted in the US.
Cannabis oils and extracts have become tremendously popular following the
legalization of medical and recreational cannabis across a growing number of
jurisdictions. In addition to avoiding the health risks of smoking, cannabis
oils and extracts enable patients and consumers to access precise dosing across
a wide range of delivery systems (e.g. capsules, vape oil, or edibles) for a
consistent experience every time.
Masking Poor Taste
The taste of cannabis oils and extracts depends on the process used to
extract the cannabinoids from the plant but it’s generally described as earthy
and bitter. In fact, new patients and consumers commonly ask how they can mask
the taste of the drug. Many people recommend taking cannabis oils and extracts
with breath mints or other products, but the process can be inconvenient at
best and ineffective at worst.
Lexaria’s DehydraTECH™ technology masks the earthy and bitter flavors of
cannabis oils and extracts using fatty acids. These fatty acids are believed to
block and shunt bound ingredients away from bitter taste receptors, which
eliminates the bad taste in products that incorporate the technology. Non-active
ingredients can then be added to re-flavor the cannabis oils and extracts to
make them more palatable for patients and consumers.
For example, Nuka Enterprises LLC signed a licensing agreement earlier this year
for its cannabis-infused line of chocolates and edible products. The company
had already been utilizing Lexaria’s technology in its award-winning 1906 brand
of chocolates for about two years to mask cannabis flavors and ensure a great
taste — along with the many other benefits of Lexaria’s DehydraTECH™ platform.
Improving Bioavailability
Cannabinoids have poor bioavailability for a couple different reasons:
Orally-consumed cannabinoids are largely destroyed by stomach acids, and those
that aren’t are broken down and altered by first pass metabolism in the liver.
This is why smoking cannabis has a much more immediate effect than
orally-consumed cannabis; it avoids first-pass metabolism and is more quickly
absorbed into the bloodstream through the lungs.
Lexaria’s DehydraTECH™ technology protects orally-consumed cannabinoids
during the stomach transit by co-joining them with lipids. At the same time,
the long-chain fatty acids bypass first pass liver metabolism by design,
enabling the cannabinoids to remain intact upon delivery to the bloodstream.
These two features help increase the bioavailability of cannabinoids and
ultimately make them more effective for medical cannabis patients or recreational
users, and also allow the edible experience to more closely mimic the smoked
experience, for the first time ever.
Management has found that DehydraTECH™ reduces the onset time for cannabis
oils and extracts to just 15 to 20 minutes compared to 60 to 120 minutes for
traditional oral cannabinoids. At the same time, bio absorption improves by
five to 10 times to match that of inhaled cannabinoid delivery mechanisms.
These attributes make the technology ideal for medical uses cases where precise
dosing and immediate onset are critical.
Lexaria’s technology has been repeatedly evaluated by invivo, invitro and
human studies and is currently undergoing additional evaluation by Canada’s
National Research Council.
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