Where Have all the Terpenes Gone?
Someone asked me today if terpenes were that important in the final CBD product, “afterall,” they added, “we are really buying it for the CBD.” As you can imagine I almost passed out!
What Constitutes a Hemp Plant?
In the hemp or cannabis plant we have compounds we have terpenes and also flavonoids.
Compounds
There are literally hundreds of compounds in the hemp/cannabis plant, right now the major compounds that we hear about mostly are THC (the compound that makes you high) and CBD (non-psychoactive). These 2 compounds are found in varying degrees in cannabis plant strains, some strains are higher in THC and some are higher in CBD, it depends on the strain that is grown. Think of tomatoes – cherry vs heirloom or red vs yellow etc.
Terpenes
Terpenes are the essential oils of the plant. Terpenes are what give plants their healing qualities. If you took out the major terpene “linalool” from lavender what would you have? Well you wouldn’t have lavender, you’d have a pretty purple flower with no smell and no healing benefits. Just look at the aromatherapy market these days, it’s exploding as people see the benefits of essential oils, they are healing everything from gout to gall bladders.
Flavonoids
Flavonoids are a diverse group of phytonutrients (plant chemicals) found in almost all fruits and vegetables. Along with carotenoids, they are responsible for the vivid colors in fruits and vegetables. Like other phytonutrients, flavonoids are powerful antioxidants with anti-inflammatory and immune system benefits. Diets rich in flavonoid-containing foods are sometimes associated with cancer, neurodegenerative and cardiovascular disease prevention.
Isolates
There are a lot of companies out there selling CBD products and these products have absolutely no terpenes or flavonoids, in fact all they have in them is a CBD isolate. They have isolated the CBD compound, thrown away all the other healing parts of the plant and wonder why people are not feeling better. Big Pharma has created a synthetic cannabis product called Marinol – they have done the same thing – isolated the THC compound. It’s not working as well as they’d hoped. Why would you take a medicinal plant that is proving to help people and pull it apart. Let’s take that broccolli we’re having for dinner, remove the chlorophyll and all of the vitamins and just leave the fiber because we need to cure our constipation.
Plants have been put on this planet to heal us and we need to embrace that.
Genesis 1:29 – And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which [is] upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which [is] the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
