It wasn't you know not that many shapes and sizes but you know everything from algae to lichen to plants have trichomes and only some of which are glandular okay which is what's going on in cannabis right the whole concept is that in plants with glandular trichomes there are interesting molecules secreted within them okay molecules that are a byproduct of the plant's growth hc CBD uh terpenes okay so so these are the molecules in which this group is focusing um terpenes right um of which there are many by the way and you know which determine the unique buy terpenes odors of various strains of cannabis right um which are producing these tiny little hairy thingies on the buds of the cannabis plant mostly on the buds the cannabis plant and by the way you can think of buds of cannabis plants sort of like flowers.

All about Terpenes

The equivalent of like cannabis flowers and just to be clear right while cannabis is producing terpenes in these trichomes those molecules aren't necessarily unique to cannabis you can find those molecules in other plants as well okay so um so for example the most commonly um or the most common terpene in cannabis extracts though it's technically a terpenoid because it contains oxygen in the molecule but it's still in the same category anyways the most common terpenoid in cannabis extracts is present in a ton of foods that you probably eat basil oregano black pepper rosemary one of my favorites and a bunch of other plants contain this molecule beta-caryophyllene.

Terpenes explained

This molecule which you know once again is found in all those herbs that are you know probably in your spice cabinet or whatever um they're used in basically any interesting meal you've ever had this molecule is a cannabinoid receptor agonist meaning that it activates some of the same receptors that you know the ingredients the the active ingredients of cannabis activate right thc cbd um so these aren't molecules that are only found in cannabis and they have some interesting pharmacological properties okay there have been some interesting studies that suggest that different terpenes may have interesting biological effects things like altering the way animals react to caffeine um and i'll include i'll include a link to a great review of these from a few years ago below um it's pretty expensive but uh but what's cool about it is that it also goes into a bunch of you know cannabinoids that i suspect are unfamiliar to most people you just haven't heard of them because not a lot of people study them and it's also freely available so you can just snag it you know you don't have to like subscribe or anything okay so so let's finally get into the study for today enough background um so here's the main question that this group is asking is there an entourage effect meaning does the combination of the molecules that we know are psychoactive thc cbd and so on does the combination of those molecules with the molecules that give cannabis strains their unique smells