What is Cannabis?

Although Cannabis is one plant – it is a plant that can present itself in many different forms and chemical profiles. The resins of Cannabis alone contain potentially hundreds of chemicals. The Cannabis plant produces over 150 cannabinoids that we know of so far, and it produces them in all sorts of configurations. Cannabis plants that produce more THCA than CBDA are often called “marijuana”, whereas Cannabis plants that produce very little THCA but more CBDA or other cannabinoids are called “hemp”. But these are just legal definitions. Ultimately hemp and marijuana are both Cannabis. Another group of chemicals found in Cannabis resins are terpenoids. These are generally small and volatile compounds that often have strong smells and tastes. Cannabis is thought to produce well over 200 or more terpenoids – again – that we know of so far.

Terpenoid production in plants are heavily influenced by the environment, leading to a wide variation of terpenoid profiles among Cannabis plants. Then beyond the diversity that the plant itself presents – there a million and one ways to process Cannabis into Cannabis derived products. Cannabis resins can be extracted in a lot of different ways. Those extracts can be refined in a number of different ways.

And then those refined and unrefined extracts can be formulated in a lot of different ways to produce unique products. Cannabis represents a lot of different tools in the toolshed – not just one.

Curious About Cannabis Quick Questions are short (4 minutes or less) videos responding to different questions about Cannabis, cannabinoids and the endocannabinoid system. If you liked this video please give us a like and hit the subscribe button so that you get reminded about future videos! And if you are not a Curious About Cannabis member yet, go to http://member.cacpodcast.com and sign up – it’s free – and you’ll get access to Cannabis science courses, exclusive and archived content, and more! That’s member.cacpodcast.com. I hope to see you there.