Hello again everyone! It's been an awesome week here for me at the Green Nurse Educator, I made a decision on which publisher to go with for my cannabis booklet and had several positive interactions with dispensaries near me. The cannabis booklet is something I have been working on since graduating last year with my masters in medical cannabis science and therapeutics, to provide people with a basis of knowledge about cannabis before they go to the dispensary. I wrote the book specifically thinking about how to provide cannabis education for someone who hasn't had any sort of previous knowledge as well as for those who perhaps have been raised to believe that cannabis is a bad plant that has no medicinal use. It's an incredibly exciting time for me and I'm learning a lot about the publishing process as I walk down this path. I'll post updates here and on social media as the project progresses, but the tentative publishing date is July!!
With my last post I briefly discussed terpenes; what are they and why do we want to learn about them. If you missed that post, go check it out, it's a pretty quick read on the topic. Now that we know what terpenes are and why we want to learn about them, let's focus in on two popular terpenes and discuss what we currently know about them. There's not going to be any particular order to me talking about the terpenes other than I'll start with the ones most common to the cannabis plant and start with my favorites to work my way down the list. With this post today, we're going to be learn a bit about beta-myrcene and beta-caryophyllene. These two cannabinoids are my favorites as they were a couple of the first ones I read about when I began studying terpenes and I was just astounded at the possibilities they have for helping people out.
The first terpene that we're going to look at is beta-myrcene. There are actually two different isomers (has the same chemical formula, but a different arrangement) of this terpene, alpha- and beta-myrcene. The most common form being the beta-myrcene isomer and generally is the one that is being talked about when you see myrcene by itself. Myrcene is one of the more abundant terpenes found in cannabis and provides an earthy, musky aroma to the cannabis flower. Reportedly myrcene has the potential capability to act as a neuroprotective, antioxidant, analgesic, anti-fungal, anti-inflammatory and an antibacterial2. Myrcene gets its analgesic effects because it can interact with the alpha-2 adrenergic receptors within our bodies, stimulating the release of endogenous opioids3. Basically myrcene tells our bodies to release our natural pain relievers to reduce pain. Myrcene also tends to lend a sedating and relaxing effect to the consumer. Researchers theorize that if the total amount of myrcene in the plant is over 0.5%, the consumer will most likely experience "couch lock", the feeling of being unable to move from one spot. A big caveat in this conversation is that cannabis is biphasic, meaning that at large amounts it can cause one effect while in smaller amounts it will cause a different effect. Myrcene is a great example of how cannabis is biphasic; at large amounts (over 0.5% of total terpenes) myrcene is more likely to cause couch lock, while at smaller amounts (less than 0.5%) myrcene will actually have an energetic effect3. The terpene myrcene can also be found in other plants such as bay leaves, pine, juniper, citrus fruits, hops, eucalyptus, mangos, and thyme2.
The next terpene that we'll be talking about is Beta-caryophyllene. Beta-caryophyllene is another terpene with several different isomers, these different isomers also produce an effect on the body but it's different and so we'll discuss the different isomers at another time. There's a lot of really interesting science that goes into the sorting of different compounds that I really encourage you to look up if you have the time one day, but beta-caryophyllene is the most common sesquiterpene found in cannabis. Beta-caryophyllene is reported to have anti-inflammatory, gastro-protective, analgesic, anti-carcinogenic, anti-fungal, antibacterial, antidepressant, anti-proliferative, antioxidant, anxiolytic, analgesic, and neuroprotective properties3. Interestingly enough, beta-caryophyllene is the only terpene that directly (although weakly) binds to the CB2 receptors within our bodies, thus making it a cannabinoid and a terpene2. Beta-caryophyllene is found abundantly in nature; in cedar wood, black pepper, basil, lavender, cinnamon and lends the peppery, woodsy aroma to the plant2. Because beta-caryophyllene is so abundant, this is the scent that police drug dogs are trained to smell for as it is generally associated with higher THC strains of cannabis2. The future of beta-caryophyllene as a medicine is full of potential, not only has it been shown to have some action on the list of issues written out earlier in this paragraph, but there is really interesting evidence that it could also be useful in situations like diabetes and high cholesterol4. In a different post I'll discuss the different ways to consume cannabis in as healthy a manner as we can, because we definitely can't say that if we smoke a joint of a cannabis strain high in beta-caryophyllene that we'll automatically have lower blood sugars and lower cholesterol numbers.
The more I read about these components of cannabis the more evident it is that cannabis could truly be used as a medicine that could be specifically tailored to the individual person. Since each individual terpene has the ability to cause specific effects on the body and the cannabis plant as a whole has an amazing ability to be hybridized to grow specific levels of terpenes (and other components), its not a far off thought that cannabis medicine could advance far enough in the future that any person could have their own personal plants tailored to have their specific blend of terpenes and cannabinoids growing in their backyard. The field of cannabis medicine is incredibly interesting to see developing. The next blog post will be over the next 2-3 terpenes on my list. I'd love to interact with you, if you have questions about cannabis put them in the comments or send me message! Have a great weekend :)
References
Surendran S, Qassadi F, Surendran G, Lilley D, Heinrich M. Myrcene-What Are the Potential Health Benefits of This Flavouring and Aroma Agent?. Front Nutr. 2021;8:699666. Published 2021 Jul 19. doi:10.3389/fnut.2021.699666
Clark, C.S., Parmlee, R.A. and Sommers, D.M. (2021) “Chapter 3: Cannabis Pharmacology,” in Cannabis: A handbook for nurses. Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer, pp. 125–126.
Sommano SR, Chittasupho C, Ruksiriwanich W, Jantrawut P. The Cannabis Terpenes. Molecules. 2020; 25(24):5792. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules25245792
Hashiesh HM, Meeran MFN, Sharma C, Sadek B, Kaabi JA, Ojha SK. Therapeutic Potential of β-Caryophyllene: A Dietary Cannabinoid in Diabetes and Associated Complications. Nutrients. 2020;12(10):2963. Published 2020 Sep 28. doi:10.3390/nu12102963
Comments