In 2020,
Tokyo Smoke, a
Canadiancannabis company owned by
Canopy Growth at the time; pulled every phytol-containing product from their shelves and issued a 48 hour deadline to suppliers, demanding 'written confirmation' if it was included. A year later, David Heldreth, a former
CSO of True Terpenes, a company that still listed it as a product; along with Andrew Freedman, investigated the matter, filing a request under the
Access to Information Act to unredact the
study causing the product removals.[11] In the same year, the
Canadian government published an
amendment to
Canadian cannabis regulations regarding "flavours in cannabis extracts".[12]
Roles in nature
Insects, such as the sumac flea beetle, are reported to use phytol and its metabolites (e.g.
phytanic acid) as chemical deterrents against predation.[13] These compounds originate from host plants.
Indirect evidence has been provided that, in contrast to humans, diverse non-human primates can derive significant amounts of phytol from the
hindgut fermentation of plant materials.[14][15]
Modulator of transcription
Phytol and/or its metabolites have been reported to bind to and/or activate the
transcription factorsPPAR-alpha[16] and
retinoid X receptor (RXR).[17] The metabolites phytanic acid and pristanic acid are naturally occurring ligands.[18] In mice, oral phytol induces massive proliferation of peroxisomes in several organs.[19]
Possible biomedical applications
Phytol has been investigated for its potential anxiolytic, metabolism-modulating, cytotoxic, antioxidant, autophagy- and apoptosis-inducing, antinociceptive, anti-inflammatory, immune-modulating, and antimicrobial effects.[20]
Geochemical biomarker
Phytol is likely the most abundant acyclic isoprenoid compound present in the biosphere and its degradation products have been used as biogeochemical tracers in aquatic environments.[21]
^Wierzbicki, A.S. (2007). "Peroxisomal disorders affecting phytanic acid α-oxidation: A review". Biochemical Society Transactions. 35 (5): 881–6.
doi:
10.1042/BST0350881.
PMID17956237.
^Komen, J.C.; Wanders, R.J.A. (2007). "Peroxisomes, Refsum's disease and the α- and ω-oxidation of phytanic acid". Biochemical Society Transactions. 35 (5): 865–9.
doi:
10.1042/BST0350865.
PMID17956234.
S2CID39842405.
^Brown, P. June; Mei, Guam; Gibberd, F. B.; Burston, D.; Mayne, P. D.; McClinchy, Jane E.; Sidey, Margaret (1993). "Diet and Refsum's disease. The determination of phytanic acid and phytol in certain foods and the application of this knowledge to the choice of suitable convenience foods for patients with Refsum's disease". Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics. 6 (4): 295–305.
doi:
10.1111/j.1365-277X.1993.tb00375.x.
^Van Den Brink, D. M.; Wanders, R. J. A. (2006). "Phytanic acid: Production from phytol, its breakdown and role in human disease". Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences. 63 (15): 1752–65.
doi:
10.1007/s00018-005-5463-y.
PMID16799769.
S2CID9186973.
^Zomer, Anna W.M.; Van Der Saag, Paul T.; Poll-The, Bwee Tien (2003). "Phytanic and Pristanic Acid Are Naturally Occuring [sic] Ligands". In Roels, Frank; Baes, Myriam; De Bie, Sylvia (eds.). Peroxisomal Disorders and Regulation of Genes. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology. Vol. 544. pp. 247–54.
doi:
10.1007/978-1-4419-9072-3_32.
ISBN978-1-4613-4782-8.
PMID14713238.