Synthetic Access to Cannabidiol and Analogs As Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients

Cannabinoids have surely been one of the most widely self-administered drugs, other than caffeine. The US FDA recently approved one cannabinoid-based drug whose active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) is cannabidiol (CBD). The long history of individual use of cannabis for a wide range of conditions has sparked great interest in other uses of CBD, in ethical drugs and botanical supplements as well as in foods and non-prescription wellness products. CBD may be sourced from cannabis plants, but can also be prepared synthetically, the topic of this review.