This Blog is about Cannabis, marijuana, weed, ganja.
Monday, 12 August 2019
Here’s why cannabis terpenes are so very important
For pot in particular, terpenes serve several purposes, acting
as a natural defense system against pests, bacteria and UV rays, to name
just a few potentially damaging environmental factors.
By Mike Adams, The Fresh Toast
Terpenes are most often associated with marijuana, but the reach is
far broader. Yes, they hold the key to why our senses of smell and taste
can distinguish between different types of cannabis, but these
versatile compounds also play a far more important role.
We’ll get to all of that a bit later, as we need to first understand what these terpene molecules are, and what their function is within the plant.
Terpenes
can be found in almost all plant life, including fruits and vegetables,
but they’re also present in some species of the animal kingdom,
although that’s extremely rare.
For pot in particular, they serve
several purposes simultaneously. They act as a natural defence system
that guards the plant against pests, bacteria and pretty much all other
invaders that try to cause it some harm. They’re also a primordial
sunblock, so to speak, offering protection to the buds from the harmful
UV rays of our benevolent sun.
Just like their chemical cousins, cannabinoids,
terpenes are located mainly in the flowers of the female plant. For
anyone who’s taken a science course (or anatomy), it’s here where the
seeds appear once the plant has been pollinated.
The variety of terpenes is really huge, ranging to over 100 different types, of which the majority can be found solely in weed.
Marijuana plants grow in a greenhouse at the Fotmer Life Sciences
company in Nueva Helvecia, 120 km west of Montevideo, Uruguay, on April
17, 2019.AFP/Getty Images Some terpenes are also present in many other plants, and,
because of this, some strains resemble the taste and smell of fruits
such as berry or lemon, and even trees like pine. A fun fact is that a
terpene called myrcene
is responsible for the prevailing smell of all weed varieties, a
fragrance that we all know and love. As myrcene is unique to pot, it
cannot be found in any other plant.
The terpene profile should
definitely be taken into consideration when you’re choosing your strain,
because some are perfect for pain, others for inflammation, and, for
instance, linalool is fantastic for reducing symptoms of arthritis.
To
name a couple of “heavyweight” terpenes that can be found in other
plant-life, caryophyllene is a part of many green vegetables and also
spices such as oregano and rosemary. Limonene, on the other hand, is present in citrus fruits and the strains that contain it have the same sour aroma.
How terpenes work together with THC and CBD
Even
though terpenes have therapeutic properties by themselves, they also
work amazingly well in conjunction with cannabinoids, and this
occurrence is known in the scientific community as the “entourage effect”.
To
simplify, the most important help cannabinoids get from terpenes is
that they speed up the passing of cannabinoids into our bloodstream.
Linalool, for one, changes the way our neurotransmitters react to
cannabinoids, creating anxiolytic and sedative sensations. Other
examples of how the entourage effect works is that CBD
(with the help of specific terpenes) lessens the loss of long-term
memory associated with THC, and diminishes the overall psychoactivity of
tetrahydrocannabinol.
Detailed knowledge of terpenes can
undoubtedly come in handy for all patients who’re using weed to their
advantage, and further research will surely bring about some new facts
and benefits of these aromatic molecules.
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