carBon.14
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- 63
myth: cannabis contains over 400 compounds. i have heard this time and time again. So i finally got off my butt and did a little research, found the paper original paper (from 2006).
http://www.academia.edu/1597849/Aspectos_terapeuticos_de_compostos_da_planta_Cannabis_sativa
see the table of 421 identified compounds.
i’m all for peer reviewed literature but it’s time to debunk this myth, as it has been taken greatly out of context, possibly because it’s written in spanish. from what i can see, these are simply 421 compounds the team isolated (and identified?). this does not mean there are only 421 compounds in cannabis. just by way of example, think about the typical cell and what it contains. plants cells, like our own, have 10s of thousands of protein encoding genes. at various times, various tissue specific cells will be expressing various countless thousands of these proteins. that’s just proteins. the actual number of different molecules these proteins in turn directly or indirectly synthesize, in any cell at any given time would be in the millions, most of which are probably unidentified and/or as yet to be classified. given there are 1000’s of cells types in a plant, at different developmental stages (so expressing different proteins and hence synthesizing different compounds at any one time), it’s clear the sheer number of different molecules is vast.
cannabis buds are not just a composite of 400 compounds of the kind listed in that table; the bulk is cellulose, followed by proteins, nucleic acids, lipids and fatty acids, and a plethora of other compounds (including terpenes e.g. aromatic terpenoids such as cannabinoids).
brought to you by mythbusters. ;)
http://www.academia.edu/1597849/Aspectos_terapeuticos_de_compostos_da_planta_Cannabis_sativa
see the table of 421 identified compounds.
i’m all for peer reviewed literature but it’s time to debunk this myth, as it has been taken greatly out of context, possibly because it’s written in spanish. from what i can see, these are simply 421 compounds the team isolated (and identified?). this does not mean there are only 421 compounds in cannabis. just by way of example, think about the typical cell and what it contains. plants cells, like our own, have 10s of thousands of protein encoding genes. at various times, various tissue specific cells will be expressing various countless thousands of these proteins. that’s just proteins. the actual number of different molecules these proteins in turn directly or indirectly synthesize, in any cell at any given time would be in the millions, most of which are probably unidentified and/or as yet to be classified. given there are 1000’s of cells types in a plant, at different developmental stages (so expressing different proteins and hence synthesizing different compounds at any one time), it’s clear the sheer number of different molecules is vast.
cannabis buds are not just a composite of 400 compounds of the kind listed in that table; the bulk is cellulose, followed by proteins, nucleic acids, lipids and fatty acids, and a plethora of other compounds (including terpenes e.g. aromatic terpenoids such as cannabinoids).
brought to you by mythbusters. ;)
