Endocannabinoid system in irritable bowel syndrome and cannabis as a therapy

•Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is highly prevalent, elusive gastrointestinal disease bearing huge weight in health care system. IBS has many etiology and wide range of symptoms yet, not clear pathophysiology.•The endocannabinoid system plays a potential role in the pathophysiology of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Endogenous receptors in the endocannabinoid system is pharmacologic target of many drugs. These drugs signal and affect the pathophysiology of gastrointestinal diseases including Irritable Bowel Syndrome.•Cannabis modulates different functions like immunity, inflammation in our body by activating receptors of endocannabinoid system and might show impressive effect on IBS treatment.•Therefore, to prove the medical worth of cannabis in IBS, randomized control trials and large-scale studies are highly needed to establish the safety, efficacy, mode of intake, therapeutic index, toxic levels of cannabis in different subtypes of IBS patients. Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) global burden is underestimated despite its high prevalence. It’s a gastrointestinal disease having obscure pathophysiology with multiple therapies yet unsatisfactory remedies. The Endocannabinoid system (ECS) of our body plays a key role in maintaining normal physiology of the gastrointestinal tract as well as involves abnormalities including functional diseases like IBS. This review highlights the importance of the Endocannabinoid system, its connections with the normal gastrointestinal functions and abnormalities like IBS. It also discusses the role of cannabis as medical therapy in IBS patients. A literature search for articles related to endocannabinoids in IBS and medical cannabis in PubMed and Google Scholar was conducted. The studies highlighted the significant participation of ECS in IBS. However, the breach in obtaining the promising therapeutic model for IBS needed further investigation in ECS and uncover other treatments for IBS. This review summarizes ECS, highlights the relationship of ECS with IBS and explores cannabis as a potential therapy to treat IBS.