In the lush Brazilian forests, an unremarkable shrub grows wild and unnoticed, often dismissed as a common weed. But scientists have now revealed that this ordinary plant may contain an extraordinary compound.

The plant, Trema micrantha blume, is native to much of South America and is often written off as botanical background noise. Yet researchers have discovered that its fruits and flowers contain cannabidiol, or CBD — the much-studied, non-psychoactive compound most famously produced by marijuana.

“This is a plant that grows all over Brazil. It would be a simpler and cheaper source of cannabidiol,” said molecular biologist Rodrigo Moura Neto, who leads the research at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

Unlike cannabis, Trema produces CBD without the mind-altering THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol. That distinction may carry sweeping legal and commercial consequences.

Another Natural Alternative Without the High

CBD is one of the most prominent active compounds in cannabis, second only to THC. While THC intoxicates, CBD does not — a fact that has helped propel it into the mainstream. Over the past decade, CBD has appeared in oils, pills, creams, and even beverages. It’s touted for its potential to ease anxiety, epilepsy, chronic pain, and more.

But legal access to CBD remains a thorny issue. Because it comes from cannabis, it often falls under strict regulations. In some countries with a zero tolerance policy for cannabis, it can even get you into serious trouble with the law.

That’s what makes the discovery in Trema micrantha so intriguing.

“It’s a legal alternative to using cannabis,” Neto told AFP in 2023. “It was wonderful to find a plant [with CBD but] without THC, because you avoid all the mess around psychotropic substances.”

Trema micrantha is part of the Cannabaceae family — a botanical group that includes the marijuana plant (Cannabis sativa), hops used in beer brewing, and several other lesser-known shrubs. Botanically, the connection makes sense. But until now, we considered CBD to be unique to cannabis.

A related plant in Thailand (Trema orientalis) was previously found to contain similar compounds, hinting that the cannabinoid family tree may have deeper roots than researchers thought. But Trema is the first such plant with a wide distribution across the Americas.

The Brazilian government recently awarded Neto and his team a research grant of 500,000 reals (roughly $104,000) to continue their work. Over the next five years, the group plans to study how to best extract CBD from the plant and to investigate whether this alternative source can deliver the same therapeutic effects as cannabis-derived CBD.

“There must be cautious excitement around this news,” said Dr. Simon Erridge, head of research at Sapphire Medical Clinics in the U.K., who was not involved in the study. “The researchers have yet to publish data around the quantities of CBD they have been able to extract from Trema micrantha.”

Erridge noted that cannabis extraction methods have been refined for decades. For Trema, everything is still in its infancy — from growing practices to harvesting and processing.

Still, the potential is hard to ignore.

A Booming Market Meets a Legal Loophole

If Trema proves a viable source of CBD, it could upend the economics of an already booming market.

According to market analysis firm Vantage Market Research, the global CBD industry was worth nearly $5 billion in 2022 and could skyrocket to $47 billion by 2028, driven largely by health and wellness trends.

Yet in many places — including Brazil — cannabis remains illegal or heavily restricted, limiting how and where CBD can be sourced.

By contrast, Trema micrantha is not classified as a controlled substance. It grows freely and legally in much of the Americas. If future studies confirm that it yields useful amounts of CBD, it could offer a cheaper and legally simpler alternative for pharmaceutical companies and researchers.

“It’s promising to see novel approaches to the production of cannabidiol and other cannabinoids,” said Erridge. “But until we have similar data in relation to Trema micrantha, the vast majority of CBD will continue to come from cannabis plants.”

What’s Next?

The road from plant to product is long. Neto’s team must now determine how much CBD the shrub can actually produce, whether it can be cultivated efficiently, and how its compounds compare in quality and efficacy to those of cannabis.

They also plan to run medical studies to see whether Trema-based CBD can treat conditions like epilepsy or anxiety as effectively as its cannabis-derived counterpart.

For now, Neto is optimistic but cautious. And there are good reasons to be. A study published in November 2024 in Scientific Reports found that the concentration of cannabinoids in Trema micrantha is significantly lower than in Cannabis sativa. While cannabis can yield up to 473 µg/g of CBD, Trema leaves offer less than 5 µg/g — nearly 100 times less CBD. The same study also found some trace amounts of THC in Trema, but it was very little — about 100 times less THC than CBD (which is already very low).

“It would be unfeasible to use Trema micrantha leaves as an alternative source for obtaining cannabinoids [on par with cannabis],” the study states.

But the researchers are quick to argue that’s not the point — at least not yet.

Trema micrantha could serve as a raw material for refining better extraction methods or even selective breeding, especially in regions where cannabis cultivation remains legally thorny. Perhaps Trema could also be gene-edited to yield much more CBD than it currently does.

“The species could potentially be used as a raw material for cannabinoid isolation,” the authors wrote, particularly since THC was undetectable in the plant’s stems and present only in trace levels elsewhere.

The plant has been used in folk medicine in Bolivia and Mexico, but it’s also been reported to cause liver damage and even cerebral hemorrhage in livestock. The compound responsible for this toxicity is still unknown.

The authors acknowledge the risks and stress that further research is needed. “Despite the low levels of these identified cannabinoids, the data may guide the optimization of extraction methods . . . to achieve better yields of THC and CBD,” they wrote.

In future work, researchers hope to improve cannabinoid yields using refined solvents, agrological strategies, and possibly selective breeding. With a plant that grows abundantly across Brazil and much of tropical America, the stakes are significant.