Cultivation Stress Techniques and the Production of Secondary Metabolites in Cannabis sativa

This chapter covers the production of secondary metabolites in Cannabis sativa and the stress techniques employed in order to encourage their production while outlining types of secondary metabolites—phytocannabinoids, terpenes/terpenoids, and flavonoids—their roles, and applications. It aims to explore the role of genotype, chemotype, and phenotype in secondary metabolite production; cultivation techniques and the relationship between secondary metabolite production and biomass yield; and types of plant stresses, primarily biotic stress (microbes, arthropods, and herbivores, growing space, and physical damage) and abiotic stress (light stress, carbon dioxide, drought, thermal stress, nutrition, salts, and heavy metals). It also looks at harvest and the influence of drying/curing on secondary metabolite production. In conclusion, a greater understanding of the mechanisms and elicitors of the stress response is necessary to better harvest secondary metabolites with medical applications.