Terpenes — May the (Plant) Force Be With You
…or, why did the Terpenoid cross the road?
If you’re a fixture in the cannabis industry then you’ll no doubt be familiar with terpenes: the varied and complex volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that broadcast this is weed! to anyone or anydog within smelling distance. In fact, terpenes are how the Plant Kingdom in general struts its stuff, from oranges and lemons to flowers to fruits and fauna. But if you’re not a fixture, then read on (Fixtures are welcome too!).
Plant terpenes are a large and diverse class of organic compounds that are produced by a variety of plants, including fruits, vegetables, and herbs. And especially coffee (cafestol and kahweol) — see Zach’s picture above. They are responsible for the distinctive flavors and aromas of many plants and are often used in the production of essential oils, fragrances, and flavorings.
Terpenes are produced by plants as a natural defense mechanism against herbivores, insects, and other pests. They are also involved in the plant’s communication with other organisms, such as attracting pollinators or warning neighboring plants of potential threats.
Terpenes have been shown to have a variety of potential health benefits, including anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, analgesic and anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) properties. They may also have antimicrobial and antifungal properties, making them useful for treating infections.
Some common terpenes found in plants include limonene, pinene, myrcene and linalool:
- Limonene, which is found in citrus fruits, has been shown to have anti-inflammatory and anticancer properties.
- Pinene, found in pine trees and many other plants, may have neuroprotective effects and has been used in traditional medicine to treat respiratory disorders.
- Myrcene, which is found in hops and other plants, may have sedative and analgesic properties.
- And finally, linalool, found in lavender, can help with anxiety and stress.
Through the essential oils of plants, of which many a successful business has been built, the terpenes do their work on many fronts.
Terpenes play a supporting if not a leading role in the therapeutic dynamics of cannabis products in the body. Single-cannabinoid drugs, such as Epidiolex from Jazz Pharmaceuticals (nee GW Pharma), have specific, narrow applications in the area of epilepsy. This is a purified form of cannabidiol, aka CBD, without any minor cannabinoids or terpenoids. And it has demonstrated effectiveness for these disorders, namely, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS), Dravet syndrome, or tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC).
Yet pure THC or CBD, without the ‘entourage’ of minor cannabinoids and terpenoids, falls short of measurable therapeutic benefits across pain, cancer and general seizure models compared to the full spectrum of plant chemistry.
What seems evident both research-wise and anecdote-wise is that the interaction of major/minor cannabinoids with terpenoids and potentially flavonoids (still an emerging area of research) has the therapeutic impact of a full orchestra playing Mozart as compared to a single violin.
The differentiation of the thousands of cannabis strains in use throughout the world owes a lot to the complexity of the many embodied terpenes expressing the uniqueness of smell, flavor and effects. Cannabis indica and cannabis sativa, the two main phenotypes of cannabis, are largely differentiated by the concert of terpenes that tend to be expressed in each ‘lineage’, in addition to the physical plant form attributes (indicas tend to be bushier, or ‘wide-leaflets’, and sativas tend to be taller plants with ‘narrow-leaflets’). C. ruderalis is a minor variety also of interest because of its auto-flowering capabilities (not requiring 12:12 hours of day and night to trigger the flowering process).
The main therapeutic effects of C. indica (indica is Latin for ‘of India’) are pain relief, somnolence (sleep-inducing) and anxiolytic, accompanied by a heavier ‘body buzz’. In contrast, C. sativa's effects are more cerebral, creative and energetic. The contrasting effects of these two classes of cannabis are more due to the synergies of the terpenes typically expressed in each rather than any differences in THC.
With terpenes in the driver’s seat, the story becomes easier to tell when creating products for the Health & Wellness industry, which by the way was globally valued at $4.6 trillion-with-a-T in 2022 and projected to hit $7.6 trillion by 2030.
This is where cannabis goes when it gets released from jail (without probation), and it will traverse the wellness space through the solution-oriented framework of terpenes, and potentially flavonoids and essential oils. The traditional cannabis industry will always be there, but to appeal to the broader market we need to make it more user-friendly through the nanoemulsion process:
In short, we need to have solution maps that aren’t defined by whether you want to get high or not.
When cannabis comes to Wellness, it will need the credentials of essential oils and terpenes because these substances are in the DNA of traditional healing. With the therapeutic use of essential oils rooted in thousands of years of practice in all corners of the world, we need to tie cannabinoids to these credentials and demonstrate how to lever them even more profoundly with the team of major and minor cannabinoids to create a renaissance of sorts.
Of course, cannabis was an important health remedy player along with the essential oils over millennia, but it’s been sitting in jail for almost 100 years, so Pharma could muscle in and get us into the drug pathways. When we fully free the plant, and we will, the most effective return to the fold will be to align with traditional uses and put all of us consumers/patients in control of how we use these compounds to the greatest effect.
So why did the terpenoid cross the road? To get to the other side of course — the other side of the market — the 80% of adults who do not use cannabis on any regular basis — that has been waiting to fully embrace terpenes and cannabinoids in safe, convenient and dosable formats familiar to everyone.
