List of cannabinoids and their effects

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List Of Cannabinoids and Their Effects

Cannabis produces a variety of compounds known as plant cannabinoids, many of which have not been detected in any other plant. How many, exactly? It’s hard to say. You’ll often see people report that there are dozens or even 100+ plant cannabinoids produced by Cannabis. But it’s challenging to know the precise number. Most of them are present at deficient levels, especially in commercial cannabis products, making it difficult for scientists to detect them accurately. The critical point is that there are many. Let’s take a closer look at some of the major cannabinoids that can be found in cannabis products.

Eight primary cannabinoid acids Produced by Cannabis

Cannabis doesn’t directly make the most famous cannabinoids associated with the plant, THC and CBD. Instead, it synthesizes several cannabinoid acids (Figure 1). These cannabinoid acids must be “activated” (decarboxylated), usually by heat, to yield the compounds that most consumers are after (THC or CBD). But in addition to THCA and CBDA, several related cannabinoid acids can be produced by Cannabis. These are:

CBGA (Cannabigerolic acid)
THCA (Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinolic acid)
CBDA (Cannabidiolic acid)
CBCA (Cannabichromenenic acid)
CBGVA (Cannabigerovarinic acid)
THCVA (Tetrahydrocanabivarinic acid)
CBDVA (Cannabidivarinic acid)
CBCVA (Cannabichromevarinic acid)

THCA and CBDA are usually the most abundant cannabinoids in strains. The others shown in Figure 1 are generally present at much lower levels. The primary cannabinoid acids include CBGA, THCA, CBDA, and CBCA. CBGA is the plant’s starting compound enzyme that makes the other three. In addition, there are an equal number of corresponding “V” compounds with slightly shorter chemical structures: CBGVA, THCVA, CBDVA, and CBCVA.

Cannabinoid acids are not known to produce intoxicating effects like THC. But they do have a variety of exciting properties. For example, many cannabinoid acids have antibiotic or insecticidal properties. This is likely related to the reason Cannabis produces these compounds in the first place: to defend itself.

Following decarboxylation, each of the cannabinoid acids yields a corresponding cannabinoid compound: