CBDA Plus CBD = Better?
SURPRISE! SURPRISE!
The question first: What is Cannabidiolic Acid (CBDA) and what makes it different from CBD and why has it become so important and so very important when it comes to the Endocannabinoid System (ECS) and the healthcare world? Dr. Raphael Mechoulam, The Godfather of Cannabis, an Israeli organic chemist and Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, remembers the letdown after his groundbreaking discoveries surrounding the structure of the cannabis compounds CBD and THC
in 1963 and 1964.
It would take Dr Mechoulam more than 30 years from the 1960s to the 1990s before his clinical work on using CBD as medicine would be understood via the ECS. It would take another 28 years after this same Professor at the same University explained the ECS before clinical applications would spring up like long sleeping bamboo sprouts to new heights and now patented medicines like Epidiolex in 2018.
The last two years of unbridled research has occurred since December 2018 when the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) oversite of cannabis with less then .3% THC by weight was lost by this agency.
Cannabis with less than 0.3% THC was now determined as hemp and not medical cannabis or Marijuana. This new-found freedom to study this plant has posed more questions than have been answered as American researchers get on board. These restrictions on cannabis research were lifted after the
passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, where hemp was redefined as outlined above.
We have often heard that the sum parts are greater than a whole. What does that really mean?
I believe it means that if you take the value of each individual piece of the pie, the value of the whole pie is much greater because of all of the positive elements of each piece of the pie. I believe this is a big part of the Cannabis story.
When it comes to the Cannabis sativa L plant, there are about 114 different Cannabinoids or pieces that make up this Cannabis pie. So, where do you start? As an operative Orthopaedic Surgeon for almost 40 years, I looked for the two largest pieces of a fractured bone and then found that third piece and started putting things back together. So, let’s GO!
There are three major acid forms that are created by the Cannabis sativa L plant from its precursor cell structure called CBGA (cannabigerolic acid). They are: THCA, CBDA, CBCA. These three acid forms each have a different degree of chemical stability.
THCA is heat sensitive when converted to THC which is the psychogenic form that makes you high. Cannabidiol (CBD) and Cannabidiolic Acid (CBDA) are both well-known as abundant chemical compounds native to the cannabis and hemp plant. The CBDA is heat and time sensitive and is the precursor to CBD which has received new meaning in the medical world for its treatment of many different human maladies. CBCA is the third most common acid form of Cannabinoids, and it, too, requires heat to thermal decarboxylation, away from a less stable chemical compound to a more stable chemical form. More on
this CBCA later!
Cannabinoids are cannabis compounds that interact with our bodies to produce medical CBD, the major non-psychoactive cannabinoid in cannabis. CBD has been well investigated for its suspected therapeutic potential, and is currently thought to be able to treat epilepsy, inflammation, anxiety disorders, and a
number of other common physical and neuropsychiatric conditions. These medical benefits are believed to be activated through the CB1 and CB2 receptors in our body located in the ECS.
First discovered in 1964 by Israeli researchers, Yechiel Gaoni and Raphael Mechoulam, CBG plays a significant role in the biology of cannabis plants. From there, plant enzymes unique to each cannabis strain convert the CBGA into some varying combinations of the three major cannabinoid precursor
compounds: tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA), cannabichromenic acid (CBCA) and cannabidiolic acid (CBDA).
Once CBDA has been formed, it is then converted into CBD by thermal decarboxylation, whereby heat causes the molecule to lose its acidic carboxyl group. This decarboxylation process can either happen instantly, such as when the cannabis material is lit and smoked or vaporized, or by slow degradation
over time if the plant material is left to sit at room temperature. Dr. Mechoulam, in a recent lecture in November 2019, stated that he has found a way to stabilize CBDA thereby making it a much more therapeutic modality. He stated that he hopes that researchers do not sit on this fact.
Normally, CBDA and the other acidic forms of cannabinoids are not considered to be pharmacologically active. This is because they do not work through the body’s ECS in the same way that their decarboxylated forms, CBD do. As a result, most research has focused on the effects of CBD and THC, rather than CBDA and THCA. Surprise, surprise, the acid form of CBD, CBDA uses a different pathway to reduce pain and inflammation.
CBDA is also thought to be a powerful treatment for nausea and anxiety. A 2013 study from scientists in Guelph, Canada, found that CBDA was a thousand times more powerful than CBD in binding to a specific serotonin receptor linked to anti-nausea and anti-anxiety effects. CBDA works through a different receptor system that is analogous to the Cox 1 and Cox 2 inhibitors of inflammation. So, therefore, CBDA and CBD working in a synergistic fashion may give us more effective medications using two courses of action for increased efficacy.
What does this mean for us? Some recent studies showing equal parts CBD and CBDA in combination
may well be a new and welcome surprise for this age-old botanical—Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!
Please and thank you, Dr. Eric I.
Authored by:
Eric I. Mitchell, MD MA FACPE CPE
SURPRISE! SURPRISE!
The question first: What is Cannabidiolic Acid (CBDA) and what makes it different from CBD and why has it become so important and so very important when it comes to the Endocannabinoid System (ECS) and the healthcare world? Dr. Raphael Mechoulam, The Godfather of Cannabis, an Israeli organic chemist and Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, remembers the letdown after his groundbreaking discoveries surrounding the structure of the cannabis compounds CBD and THC
in 1963 and 1964.
It would take Dr Mechoulam more than 30 years from the 1960s to the 1990s before his clinical work on using CBD as medicine would be understood via the ECS. It would take another 28 years after this same Professor at the same University explained the ECS before clinical applications would spring up like long sleeping bamboo sprouts to new heights and now patented medicines like Epidiolex in 2018.
The last two years of unbridled research has occurred since December 2018 when the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) oversite of cannabis with less then .3% THC by weight was lost by this agency.
Cannabis with less than 0.3% THC was now determined as hemp and not medical cannabis or Marijuana. This new-found freedom to study this plant has posed more questions than have been answered as American researchers get on board. These restrictions on cannabis research were lifted after the
passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, where hemp was redefined as outlined above.
We have often heard that the sum parts are greater than a whole. What does that really mean?
I believe it means that if you take the value of each individual piece of the pie, the value of the whole pie is much greater because of all of the positive elements of each piece of the pie. I believe this is a big part of the Cannabis story.
When it comes to the Cannabis sativa L plant, there are about 114 different Cannabinoids or pieces that make up this Cannabis pie. So, where do you start? As an operative Orthopaedic Surgeon for almost 40 years, I looked for the two largest pieces of a fractured bone and then found that third piece and started putting things back together. So, let’s GO!
There are three major acid forms that are created by the Cannabis sativa L plant from its precursor cell structure called CBGA (cannabigerolic acid). They are: THCA, CBDA, CBCA. These three acid forms each have a different degree of chemical stability.
THCA is heat sensitive when converted to THC which is the psychogenic form that makes you high. Cannabidiol (CBD) and Cannabidiolic Acid (CBDA) are both well-known as abundant chemical compounds native to the cannabis and hemp plant. The CBDA is heat and time sensitive and is the precursor to CBD which has received new meaning in the medical world for its treatment of many different human maladies. CBCA is the third most common acid form of Cannabinoids, and it, too, requires heat to thermal decarboxylation, away from a less stable chemical compound to a more stable chemical form. More on
this CBCA later!
Cannabinoids are cannabis compounds that interact with our bodies to produce medical CBD, the major non-psychoactive cannabinoid in cannabis. CBD has been well investigated for its suspected therapeutic potential, and is currently thought to be able to treat epilepsy, inflammation, anxiety disorders, and a
number of other common physical and neuropsychiatric conditions. These medical benefits are believed to be activated through the CB1 and CB2 receptors in our body located in the ECS.
First discovered in 1964 by Israeli researchers, Yechiel Gaoni and Raphael Mechoulam, CBG plays a significant role in the biology of cannabis plants. From there, plant enzymes unique to each cannabis strain convert the CBGA into some varying combinations of the three major cannabinoid precursor
compounds: tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA), cannabichromenic acid (CBCA) and cannabidiolic acid (CBDA).
Once CBDA has been formed, it is then converted into CBD by thermal decarboxylation, whereby heat causes the molecule to lose its acidic carboxyl group. This decarboxylation process can either happen instantly, such as when the cannabis material is lit and smoked or vaporized, or by slow degradation
over time if the plant material is left to sit at room temperature. Dr. Mechoulam, in a recent lecture in November 2019, stated that he has found a way to stabilize CBDA thereby making it a much more therapeutic modality. He stated that he hopes that researchers do not sit on this fact.
Normally, CBDA and the other acidic forms of cannabinoids are not considered to be pharmacologically active. This is because they do not work through the body’s ECS in the same way that their decarboxylated forms, CBD do. As a result, most research has focused on the effects of CBD and THC, rather than CBDA and THCA. Surprise, surprise, the acid form of CBD, CBDA uses a different pathway to reduce pain and inflammation.
CBDA is also thought to be a powerful treatment for nausea and anxiety. A 2013 study from scientists in Guelph, Canada, found that CBDA was a thousand times more powerful than CBD in binding to a specific serotonin receptor linked to anti-nausea and anti-anxiety effects. CBDA works through a different receptor system that is analogous to the Cox 1 and Cox 2 inhibitors of inflammation. So, therefore, CBDA and CBD working in a synergistic fashion may give us more effective medications using two courses of action for increased efficacy.
What does this mean for us? Some recent studies showing equal parts CBD and CBDA in combination
may well be a new and welcome surprise for this age-old botanical—Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!
Please and thank you, Dr. Eric I.
Authored by:
Eric I. Mitchell, MD MA FACPE CPE
