Increasing, these compounds are being extracted from cannabis and recombined in specific ratios to create stable, reproducible products.
Cannabis plants were arranged across the
body of a middle-aged man before his burial
in Turpan, China, around 2,500 years ago.
(1 of 3)
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Images from National Geogrpahic
PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY HONGEN JIANG
These pharmaceutical approaches are, of course, focused on single agent activity against one or both of the cannabinoid receptors. The cannabis pharmacopeia provides a different solution to focusing receptor activity however. Following THC, the mostly well-known and widely used cannabis compound is cannabindiol (CBD). While very similar in chemical structure to THC, CBD exerts very different physiological effects. CBD appears to be a weak antagonist of cannabinoid receptors in that, when applied as a single ligand, decreases receptor activity. However, when CBD and THC treatments are combined, overall receptor activity increases! CBD is not psychoactive, allowing it to be used by patients that desire it’s anti-inflamatory and antiepileptic effects without the high.
We know much less about the specific cellular effects of cannabis terpenes. Terpenes are a large family of aromatic compounds that are present in many familiar plants, often giving them their unique scent - hops, pine and citrus are all terpene based. (As are almost all essential oils.) Very little is known about how these terpenes modulate the activity of the cannabinoid receptors although preliminary research suggests that they are a potentially important (but complex) signaling ligand.
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