chemistry

 Active compounds:

In the mid 1960 THC was isolated and thought to be the active compound in the plant. However recent studdies show that in the cannabis plant there are manny different active components and they are fare from fully understod. Most of reacherche has been in investigating the THC however these days reacherche is emerging regarding terpenes and the other phytocannabinoids, including tetrahydrocannabivarin, cannabigerol and cannabichromene that exert additional effects of therapeutic interest. Innovative conventional plant breeding has yielded cannabis chemotypes expressing high titres of each component for future study.

We call cannabis the human symbiotic plant because it contains molecules that are very similar to the ones human boddy contains.

Recent reacherch shows that in the human boddy the endogenous cannabinoid system is an ubiquitous lipid signalling system and has important regulatory functions throughout the body in all vertebrates.

In the human boddy the main endocannabinoids (endogenous cannabis-like substances) are small molecules derived from arachidonic acid, anandamide (arachidonoylethanolamide) and 2-arachidonoylglycerol.

The endocannabinoid system refers to a group of neuromodulatory lipids and their receptors that are involved in a variety of physiological processes including appetite, pain-sensation, mood, and memory. The endocannabinoid system includes:

• The endogenous arachidonate-based lipids, anandamide (N-arachidonoylethanolamide, AEA) and 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG); these are known as "endocannabinoids" and are physiological ligands for the cannabinoid receptors.
• The enzymes that synthesize and degrade the endocannabinoids, such as fatty acid amide hydrolase or monoacylglycerol lipase.
• The cannabinoid receptors CB₁ and CB₂ are the two G protein-coupled receptors that are located in the central and peripheral nervous systems. densely distributed in areas of the brain related to motor control, cognition, emotional responses, motivated behaviour and homeostasis
  

Outside the brain, the endocannabinoid system is one of the crucial modulators of the autonomic nervous system, the immune system and microcirculation.

More importantly, modulating the activity of the endocannabinoid system turned out to hold therapeutic promise in a wide range of disparate diseases and pathological conditions, ranging from mood and anxiety disorders, movement disorders such as Parkinson's and Huntington's disease, neuropathic pain, multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injury, to cancer, atherosclerosis, myocardial infarction, stroke, hypertension, glaucoma, obesity/metabolic syndrome, and osteoporosis, to name just a few.

This new understanding of human boddy and compounds found in cannabis explains why the cannabis plant can help the human boddy in so manny ways and why we until now havent seen annyone die from an overdose of cannabis.

-Wach the movie about endocnnabinoid system: http://youtu.be/9gOYVJu__14

Phytocannabinoids:

Cannabinoids is a class of diverse chemical compounds that activate the above mentioned cannabinoid receptors. These include the endocannabinoids (produced naturally in the body by humans and animals) and the phytocannabinoids (produced by various plants), and synthetic cannabinoids (produced chemically). The most notable cannabinoid is the phytocannabinoid ∆⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), believed to be the primary psychoactive compound of cannabis. However, there are known to exist numerous other cannabinoids with varied effects. At least 85 different phytocannabinoids have been isolated from the Cannabis plant so far.

THC:

THC is a phytocannabinoids known as delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ⁹-THC),

When THC binds to the receptor in the brain it starts caskade of reactions which causes the changes that we identify as high. How come that the plant hase a reseptor for a molekule producent in the plan? Afterall our brain dosent have a receptor for anny plant molecule.

The THC mimics the action of the compounds in the brain e.g the compounds called anandemide and 2-AG which starts caskade of reactions which causes the changes that we identify as high. Do we have this system in our boddy just to get high? No, its a very important physiological system as anandemide and 2-AG is involved in neuro protection. When e.g we have a brain trauma the brain tries to reduce the damage by over producing 2-AG that is involved in lowering the damage. All other physiological reactions that has been investigated seem to be regulated by the 2-AG (Induction of apoptosis, antiemetic action, appetite stimulation,p ain relief, involved in sleep, reducing muscle spasticity, neuroprotective action)

In other words the stimulation by THC is important in pain, when your body transmits information to your brain that there is pain somewhere in the boddy your brain produces a compaound anandamide which stimulates the receptor in the brain and makes pain slowly go down.

CBD

Is a phytocannabinoids also known as cannabidiol and it is antipsykotic. Cannabidiol has little affinity for CB₁ and CB₂ receptors but acts as an indirect antagonist of cannabinoid agonists. Recently it was found to be an antagonist at the putative new cannabinoid receptor, GPR55, a GPCR expressed inthe caudate nucleus and putamen. Cannabidiol has also been shown to act as a 5-HT_1A receptor agonist, an action that is involved in its antidepressant, anxiolytic, and neuroprotective effects.

It appears to relieve convulsion, inflammation, anxiety, and nausea. CBD has a greater affinity for the CB₂ receptor than for the CB₁ receptor. CBD shares a precursor with THC and is the main cannabinoid in low-THC Cannabis strains. CBD apparently plays a role in preventing the short-term memory loss associated with THC in mammals.

Terpenes:

Limonene, myrcene, a-pinene, linalool, b-caryophyllene, caryophyllene oxide, nerolidol and phytol.

Terpenoids share a precursor with phytocannabinoids, and are all flavour and fragrance components common to human diets that have been designated Generally Recognized as Safe. Terpenoids are quite potent, and affect animal and even human behaviour when inhaled from ambient air at serum levels in the single digits ng·mL-1. They display unique therapeutic effects that may contribute meaningfully to the entourage effects of cannabis-based medicinal extracts. Particular focus will be placed on phytocannabinoid-terpenoid interactions that could produce synergy with respect to treatment of pain, inflammation, depression, anxiety, addiction, epilepsy, cancer, fungal and bacterial infections (including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). Scientific evidence is presented for non-cannabinoid plant components as putative antidotes to intoxicating effects of THC that could increase its therapeutic index. Methods for investigating entourage effects in future experiments are proposed. Phytocannabinoid-terpenoid synergy, if proven, increases the likelihood that an extensive pipeline of new therapeutic products is possible from this venerable plant.

Strength of cannabis:

The whole debate has been seriously misrepresented and therefore misunderstood for years. Alcohol strengh is mesured ABV%, 3% ABV is a lot weaker than a beer with 10% ABV, and if you drinking a lot of weak beer will get you as drunk as drinking rather less strong beer, 

But when we come to consider cannabis we find things are measured differently and we find a new word is used: “Potency”.

The potency of cannabis is defined as the concentration (%) of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)

Sadly it didn’t specify what the concentration is a percentage of, giving the misleading impression perhaps that a sample of herbal cannabis consists of upwards of 20% THC. Now, this is clearly not the case as a sample of herbal plant material plainly doesn’t consist of nearly 5% of THC, either by volume or by weight. So it’s clear that “potency” isn’t anything like the same concept as ABV.
The THC is expressed as a percentage (by weight actually) of the oils, there are clearly other substances in the oil. It turns out that one of the other substances known as CBD is very important when it comes to understanding just what cannabis does to the user as the CBD has oposite effect. If THC is linked to psychotic type episodes, CBD has anti psychotic properties. If THC is thought to cause panic attacks, CBD calms those impulses.

The THC/CBD balance of “traditional” hashish is very different to that of some herbal cannabis on sale. The traditional hash contained something like 5% THC and 3.5% CBD on average. Now what this means is the oils in the sample contained a total of 8.5% active ingredients and 91.5% other compounds.

Talking of cannabis simply in terms of “potency” is meaningless, we need a totally different and far more sophisticated way to describe it. The measure of “potency” as used by the government is simply not up to the job, which is no surprise really as it came from the law enforcement requirements of prohibition, not from concerns of public health.