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Saturday, January 15, 2022

'I am a Scientific Grower':

We speak with Ignacio Peralta, the First Postdoc in Cannabis Cultivation in Argentina

ElPlanteo.com spoke with young Ignacio "Nako" Peralta,

Argentina's first cannabis post-doctorate.

"As a kid, I didn't know any plants"...

Note by Hernán Panessi originally published in El Planteo. More articles by El Planteo in High Times en Español.

One thing led to another and that to another. On that balcony in the neighborhood of Caballito, in capital Federal, there was nothing but bricks, concrete and a view towards another line of balconies. However, despite growing up in the heart of the city, the horizon of the young Ignacio "Nako" Peralta was, inevitably, dyed green. "As a kid, I didn't know any plants," says Peralta, the first postdoc in cannabis cultivation in Argentina.

As a teenager, while avoiding tranzas, Ignacio came into contact with the plant and went from one decade to the next, from pressed smoking to producing exportable flowers deserving of international awards and accolades.

Knowing the reverses of the fables linked to cannabis, Peralta considers that part of his history as an added value: "I am not just a scientist, I am a scientific grower or a growing scientist",he widens.

The Spiritual Call

Her life changed in 2016 when, averaging her doctorate in medicinal plants, she heard the call of Valeria Salech and her colleagues from Mamá Cultiva. "They were advocating for the law and asking for professionals committed to the cause," he recalls.

Something happened to him, something vibrated inside him, something succumbed inside his chest. "It was quite natural to combine my practical experience as a cultivator with the scientific method in pursuit of the social cause to improve the quality of life of the people,"he acknowledges.

ignacio peralta conicet argentine postdoc

Meanwhile, in those first meetings and talks with the Mama Cultiva, Peralta warned that there was something else there, that he had to participate yes or yes. "I want everyone who needs cannabis to be able to count on quality treatments like the one I had when I was a kid."

"When we were still working on the Law, there was already talk of epilepsy treatments. I'm epileptic, so I felt empathy for those mothers. And being epileptic I know the benefits of pharmacology when it comes to providing quality treatments," he says.

With the confirmation of Law 27,350, which enabled medical and scientific research for the medicinal use of the cannabis plant, Dr. Peralta also reaffirmed his mission: he wanted to formalize cannabis within the University of Buenos Aires and CONICET,its training institutions.

A bigger industry

His experience as a biochemist and doctor in Biochemical Sciences specialized in Phytomedicine placed him in a strategic place. Then, as a doctoral fellow, he joined forces and began to carry out the first cannabis project funded by CONICET in which he investigated cannabis sativa and its potential as a medicine.

"I took the post of teaching and disseminating what until that moment was known," says Dr. Peralta.

So, during 2018, you traveled to California to finish your doctorate. The jarilla,a branchy shrub found in the mountainous areas of western Argentina. And he did it through a scholarship he obtained from the Argentine Ministry of Education and the Fulbright Commission, of the United States.

"In California I realized that there was another industry that exceeded the medicinal,"he reveals. In this way, the explosion of the recreational industry also caught his attention.

Chart a path

Peralta quickly returned to Buenos Aires with the firm conviction of applying for a postdoctoral fellowship. I wanted to formally study the cultivation and extraction of cannabis.

—How was the process to apply for the scholarship to do a postdoc in cannabis?

"The scientific foundation was. My background, too. At that point there was no scientific discussion: the facts are the facts. I received very good accompaniment from high school. They awarded me the scholarship, they funded a big project. It complicated the bureaucratic part, the permits to work with cannabis. The first six months of my postdoctoral fellowship were to do paperwork. I was leaving institutionalized that there were lines of cannabis research in the faculty.

—Being the first to go through this bureaucratic process, did it make it easier for there to be more doctoral fellows in cannabis today?

—Yes, the project we got made that today there are more doctoral fellows in cannabis. IQUIMEFA (Institute of Chemistry and Drug Metabolism) is positioning itself, it is obtaining permits to obtain raw materials, importing inputs and, with it, we obtained the authorization for the first university crop. It could not be carried out because of the pandemic, but it had to be done. Played.

—And professionally, what did it mean to be the country's first cannabis postdoc?

—It meant a huge opportunity to bring together the 15 years of cultivation, with 15 years of scientific career and the enormous possibility of working directly with the plant that I want and that I am passionate about. It was doing basic science applied to production. In addition, it gave me the opportunity to travel to countries where cannabis is more developed. And it was a finishing touch to my career as an intern.

Peralta for export

For example, his experience at CONICET was highly valued internationally and ended up opening the doors of the industry. "I have been well received," he confesses, "because the industry needs research and development since, thanks to applied science, Argentina has an opportunity to stand out in this global industry."

Meanwhile, seeking to gain experience in large-scale crops, for the year 2019, Dr. Peralta traveled to Santa Marta, Colombia, to study the cultivation of the company Avicanna. "Experimental laboratory culture is not the same as where the raw material is going to come from."

And he continues: "In Colombia I lived a continuous learning. The company made their cultures and their laboratory available to me. I was able to learn a lot from professional growers and we exchanged a lot of knowledge. It was an introduction to large-scale production and field research."

There he spent six months, writing field trials in a large-scale pharmaceutical and organic grade production. "I wanted to understand how environmental and agronomic management variables affect the production of active ingredients."

What are the trials about? From their learnings: not always greater investment results in greater productivity; tutoring, in addition to preventing loss and damage to plants, modulates the production of cannabinoids; not always a greater amount of nutrients generates a greater amount of cannabinoids; and also developed a method to determine the right time of harvest using chromatographs to study the biosynthesis of cannabinoids.

At the time, the publication of these essays is imminently.

Better cannabis

Later, in 2021, already with that new experience on his back, Nako traveled to Uruguay to work as a master grower. "I had to set up from scratch a production of SMOKable CBD flower. There I was able to validate many of my ideas in a large-scale commercial crop."

After a semester in Charrúa lands, Peralta returned to the country to form a technical-scientific consultancy with three colleagues.

Related content: Manuel Belgrano and the National Porro

"My colleagues, in addition to being teachers and researchers with a long career, have international experience in the industry. We intend to accompany the industry through our knowledge and expertise in all research, production and development processes," he says. The project, called NPR (Natural Products Research), has a tentative launch for the month of April 2022.

—What are your challenges going forward?

"I would like to continue learning and contributing what I know. Also, I would like to see higher quality cannabis produced every time, a better joint for everyone and, consequently, better medicine. I want to stay connected to the plant, to continue learning from it. And that we can do it in a legal context of growth and fair for all. There are still people suffering from it and we are living from this.