Hemp seed products and by products: a mine of bioactive compounds to improve functionality of fermented foods

Hemp is a naturally rich crop in numerous compounds related to plant metabolism (Flores-Sanchez & Verpoorte, 2008a). In fact, more than 545 cannabinoid and noncannabinoid compounds have been identified in this plant (Gould, 2015). The former is certainly the most studied because of their ability to influence psychic capacity, which determines their wide application in the pharmaceutical field. Other compounds, including erpenes, phenols, stilbenoids, and lignans, have also shown remarkable pharmacological activities, making them attractive for health-promoting applications. In recent years, hemp crops have spread and this has also led to greater attention to extraction processes in order to increase the yield of bioactive and nutraceutical compounds (Lesma et al., 2014). For example, the medium polar compounds, such as phenolic acids, lignans or flavonoids, after the extraction phase of the oil from hemp seeds, remain in the waste and recovery methods have been developed for these bioactive compounds which can thus be valorized (Schmidt & Pokorny´, 2005). In this chapter some of the main bioactive compounds present in hemp seeds will be described, although they have not been fully characterized due to their complexity.