Mahmoud A. ElSohly
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| Mahmoud A. ElSohly | |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Pharmacognosist and analytical chemist |
| Institutions | University of Mississippi; ElSohly Laboratories |
| Known for | Director of the University of Mississippi marijuana project from 1981; the Potency Monitoring Program |
Mahmoud A. ElSohly is a pharmacognosist who joined the University of Mississippi in 1975 and became director of its marijuana project in 1981.[1] In 2013 the project grew Cannabis sativa under contract to the National Institute on Drug Abuse and supplied the plant and its constituents to the institute's Drug Supply Program for research.[1] From 1975 the contract also included a Potency Monitoring Program for illicit marijuana, and his papers from it have followed the potency of marijuana seized in the United States over several decades.[2][3]
Training
ElSohly took a bachelor's degree in pharmacy and pharmaceutical chemistry at Cairo University in 1966 and a master's degree in pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences there in 1971. He then took a PhD in pharmacy, with a major in pharmacognosy, at the University of Pittsburgh in 1975, where he had been a teaching assistant in the School of Pharmacy.[4]: 1131–1132, 1135–1136 His dissertation adviser at Pittsburgh was Paul L. Schiff Jr.[1]
The marijuana project
ElSohly came to Mississippi in 1975 as a postdoctoral fellow at the School of Pharmacy's Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences. In 1976 he became a research associate there and began to work on the marijuana project with Carlton E. Turner, whom he later called his predecessor.[4]: 1131–1132 He was an assistant research professor by 1978, director of the project by 1981 and a full research professor by 1984.[1] The university's history of the project dates his arrival on it to 1973 and his directorship to 1981, the year Turner left for the White House.[2] He also assisted Coy Waller with his research for several years before Waller retired in 1979.[5]
With Turner he wrote on the chemistry of the plant. In 1979 they addressed the problems of classifying cannabis on the analysis of a single cannabinoid,[6] and in 1980, with Edward G. Boeren, they published a review of the natural constituents of cannabis.[7] In 1984 he and colleagues described two new dihydrostilbenes from a Panamanian variant grown in Mississippi.[8] In 2007 he edited the volume Marijuana and the Cannabinoids.[9]
Potency and origin of seized marijuana
The National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Drug Enforcement Administration set up the Potency Monitoring Program in 1975, as part of the university's contract, to monitor the potency of illicit marijuana.[2] A paper of 1984 by ElSohly and colleagues reported the potency of marijuana, hashish and hash oil confiscated over ten years.[10] Later papers covered trends in THC and other cannabinoids in confiscated marijuana from 1980 to 1997,[11] and the changes in potency from 1995 to 2014.[3] Report 104 of the Potency Monitoring Project, for the quarter to March 2009, was issued under his name as director of the NIDA Marijuana Project.[12]
In the 1980s and early 1990s he analysed marijuana seized by the Drug Enforcement Administration to develop a chemical "fingerprinting" system for tracing crops to their source.[1] In 1991 the university's research institute developed a chemical fingerprint technique to identify the country of origin of confiscated marijuana.[2]
Testimony of 2005
In December 2005 ElSohly testified for the Drug Enforcement Administration at the hearing on Lyle Craker's application to grow cannabis for research, an application that the administration denied in 2009.[4]: 1130[13] He said that the first seed for the university's plantings had been brought in from different parts of the world in collaboration with the Drug Enforcement Administration, that over the years seed stocks had come from countries including Mexico, Colombia, Jamaica, Thailand, India and Turkey, and that he had also imported seed from the Netherlands and Switzerland.[4]: 1255–1257 He described how plants were tagged in the field with numbers and their THC content followed through the season, so that the seed parents for the next season could be selected for potency or for the ratio of one cannabinoid to another.[4]: 1255–1256 He also described propagation from cuttings, which give plants of the same sex and genetic make-up as the mother plant.[4]: 1242–1243
Companies and honours
By 2005 ElSohly was president and laboratory director of ElSohly Laboratories Inc., an analytical forensic laboratory in Oxford, Mississippi.[4]: 1130–1131 In 2008 he and Ikhlas Khan founded Phytochemical Services Inc., which provides phytochemical analysis to the dietary supplement industry.[1] He received the Tibbetts Award for small business innovation research in 2002 and the University of Mississippi's Distinguished Research and Creative Achievement Award in 2013.[1] The University of Pittsburgh named him one of its Legacy Laureates in 2011.[14] In October 2018 he was the speaker for the School of Pharmacy's 15th Coy W. Waller Distinguished Lecture.[5]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Lago, Barbara (11 May 2013). "Phytochemist receives Distinguished Research and Creative Achievement Award". Ole Miss News. University of Mississippi. Retrieved 12 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "History". Marijuana Research. School of Pharmacy, University of Mississippi. Archived from the original on 24 January 2026. Retrieved 8 October 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 ElSohly, Mahmoud A.; Mehmedic, Zlatko; Foster, Susan; Gon, Chandrani; Chandra, Suman; Church, James C. (April 2016). "Changes in cannabis potency over the last 2 decades (1995–2014): analysis of current data in the United States". Biological Psychiatry. 79 (7): 613–619. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2016.01.004. PMID 26903403.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 United States Drug Enforcement Administration (12 December 2005). In the matter of Lyle E. Craker, Ph.D., Docket No. 05-16: transcript of hearing, volume 6 (Report). Arlington, Virginia – via Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Marijuana Project head to deliver pharmacy school's Waller Lecture". Ole Miss News. University of Mississippi. 17 October 2018. Retrieved 12 October 2026.
- ↑ Turner, Carlton E.; Elsohly, Mahmoud A.; Cheng, Ping C.; Lewis, Glenda (May 1979). "Constituents of Cannabis sativa L., XIV: intrinsic problems in classifying Cannabis based on a single cannabinoid analysis". Journal of Natural Products. 42 (3): 317–319. doi:10.1021/np50003a017.
- ↑ Turner, Carlton E.; Elsohly, Mahmoud A.; Boeren, Edward G. (March 1980). "Constituents of Cannabis sativa L. XVII. A review of the natural constituents". Journal of Natural Products. 43 (2): 169–234. doi:10.1021/np50008a001. PMID 6991645.
- ↑ ElSohly, H.N.; Ma, G.-E.; Turner, C.E.; ElSohly, M.A. (May 1984). "Constituents of Cannabis sativa, XXV. Isolation of two new dihydrostilbenes from a Panamanian variant". Journal of Natural Products. 47 (3): 445–452. doi:10.1021/np50033a008. PMID 6481358.
- ↑ ElSohly, Mahmoud A., ed. (2007). Marijuana and the Cannabinoids. Totowa, New Jersey: Humana Press. doi:10.1007/978-1-59259-947-9. ISBN 978-1-58829-456-2.
- ↑ ElSohly, M.A.; Holley, J.H.; Lewis, G.S.; Russell, M.H.; Turner, C.E. (April 1984). "Constituents of Cannabis sativa L. XXIV: the potency of confiscated marijuana, hashish, and hash oil over a ten-year period". Journal of Forensic Sciences. 29 (2): 500–514. doi:10.1520/JFS11698J.
- ↑ ElSohly, M. A.; Ross, S. A.; Mehmedic, Z.; Arafat, R.; Yi, B.; Banahan, B. F. III (2000). "Potency trends of Δ9-THC and other cannabinoids in confiscated marijuana from 1980–1997". Journal of Forensic Sciences. 45 (1): 24–30. doi:10.1520/JFS14636J.
- ↑ ElSohly, Mahmoud A. (March 2009). Quarterly Report, Potency Monitoring Project, Report 104: December 16, 2008 thru March 15, 2009 (PDF) (Report). National Center for Natural Products Research, University of Mississippi – via National Criminal Justice Reference Service.
- ↑ Drug Enforcement Administration (14 January 2009). "Lyle E. Craker; Denial of Application". Federal Register. 74 (9): 2101–2133. FR Doc. E9-521.
- ↑ "Pitt names UM researcher, Oxford entrepreneur a 'Legacy Laureate'". Ole Miss News. University of Mississippi. 27 December 2011. Retrieved 12 October 2026.