Adam D. Richardson, Chief Scientific Officer, Aegis Biotech
Dr. Adam is an analytical chemist with over 20 years of experience in the natural products and biomedical research fields. He brings his passion for natural product therapeutics and expertise in biomedical research to AEGIS to help develop cannabis-based products for cancer, epilepsy, and other diseases.
@ADRPHD
What does this all mean? What is the entourage effect? Scientifically I define it to be the synergistic and differentiating effects the various terpene and cannabinoid combinations of cannabis provide. But I believe that is the clearest statement that we can make with the current scientific evidence. As far I have found, there is no experimental data observing the entourage effect from ingested cannabis. On the other hand, I believe that the ingested effect is very likely real for evolutionary reasons.
As humans selectively bred cannabis for certain ailments – and selected these properties for genetically distinct human populations – we encouraged the development of helpful chemistry without concern for the mechanism of action. This topic is covered at the end of Ethan B. Russo’s comprehensive review of the scientific cannabis literature in 2011 entitled “Taming THC: potential cannabis synergy and phytocannabinoids-terpenoid entourage effects.” So evolutionarily it is no surprise that the cannabis pharmacopeia is more effective in combination than as individual compounds for many conditions. What modern science can do is define which combinations of compounds are most suitable for which diseases and deliver them effectively to the diseased cells. Then we can transform the entourage effect into nature-based personalized medicine for a wide range of diseases and patients.
Questions regarding the article? Have a topic that you’d like to see discussed? Contact me on Twitter.