What makes hashish hashish? The aroma of flower and the physiological results of consuming it come down largely to 2 issues: cannabinoid ratios and terpene content material. These twin elements go a good distance towards shaping the consumer expertise of a given product, and distinguishing it from myriad different choices. However what’s the supply of those distinctions, whether or not sweeping or refined? New analysis factors to the significance of an oft-overlooked affect: cultivation.
Variations in terpene and cannabinoid profiles are sometimes chalked as much as genetics. Particular person cultivars, outlined by parental inheritance, could also be grouped into broad classes based on their genetic predisposition towards a selected dominant terpene — caryophyllene and limonene for “dessert” strains, ocimene for tropical/floral strains, and terpinolene for Jack/haze strains, to call a number of — or cannabinoid profile — high-THC, high-CBD, or balanced THC-CBD.
Whereas useful, these cultivar/genetics-based classification methods obscure an necessary consideration: the circumstances underneath which the precise plant is grown. To wit, a brand new examine within the journal Molecules finds that clones with equivalent genetics can produce meaningfully completely different ranges of each kinds of chemical compounds when grown “naturally” versus “artificially.” Different latest papers report related findings underneath completely different lights at indoor grows.
Science now confirms what hashish connoisseurs have argued for years as cultivation has develop into more and more commercialized in authorized markets: it’s not all nature; nurture issues, too.
A Cultivation Experiment
Revealed in January 2023, the Molecules1 examine was carried out by researchers at New York’s Columbia College together with the homeowners of three impartial Northern California hashish corporations: John Casali of Humboldt’s Huckleberry Hill Farms; Tina Gordon of Humboldt’s Moon Made Farms; and Christine Skibola of Novato’s Cosmic View.
The authors cite because the impetus for his or her work the truth that “the overwhelming majority of latest research” on hashish cultivation have been focused towards bettering effectivity and optimizing yield at indoor grows.” Comparisons of outdoor- and indoor-grown hashish are missing within the literature as a result of throughout prohibition it has been “tough to develop hashish open air underneath optimized circumstances,” they write.
To be taught extra, the researchers grew six genetically equivalent business crops from two completely different cultivars, Pink Velvet and Cheetah Piss, with three of every outdoors and three inside. The out of doors samples had been grown in raised beds utilizing a combination of all-natural, “residing” soil and composts in full daylight. The indoor samples had been grown underneath synthetic gentle in a proprietary progress medium.
At harvest, the researchers chosen flowers from the higher third of the crops with related morphology and measurement. They then used gasoline chromatography with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to guage terpene composition, and ultra-performance liquid chromatography plus mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS) to measure cannabinoids.
Terpene Variety
Positive sufficient, the researchers found vital variations between indoor and out of doors samples on each fronts. With terpenes, the authors report discovering “remarkably greater ranges” of limonene, β-myrcene, β-caryophyllene, α-humulene, α-bergamotene, α-guaiene, and germacrene B in out of doors samples in each cultivars — however particularly in Pink Velvet, the place the predominant out of doors terpene was a sesquiterpene known as selina-diene, which isn’t amongst these required to be reported on by licensed testing labs in California.
Out of doors hashish samples had a higher variety of terpenes in comparison with indoor hashish from the identical genetic inventory.
“The principle discovering is that the out of doors hashish samples had a higher variety of terpenes and higher quantities of those which are current when in comparison with indoor hashish from the identical genetic inventory,” the authors conclude. “Furthermore, the out of doors samples have a higher preponderance of sesquiterpenes relative to the indoor samples.”
Findings across the main “intrinsic” cannabinoids — these produced by organic pathways within the plant moderately than by reactions within the setting — had been a bit of extra nuanced. Ranges of cannabigerolic acid (CBGA) and CBDA (cannabidiolic acid) had been comparatively related between indoor and out of doors crops, whereas cannabichromenic acid (CBCA) appeared barely greater within the out of doors crops and tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA) barely decrease, particularly in Pink Velvet. The out of doors crops did produce extra tetrahydrocannabutolic acid (THCBA), a by-product of THCA that additionally possesses psychoactive properties and should elicit much less nervousness.
A clearer distinction between indoor and out of doors crops emerged relative to the oxidation and degradation merchandise of the 4 main cannabinoids — “extrinsic” cannabinoids akin to cannabinol (CBN), cannabielsoic acid (CBEA), cannabicitran (CBT) isomer 1, and others — which had been considerably amplified within the indoor samples. The authors aren’t certain the best way to clarify this, however speculate that it could possibly be resulting from lowered terpene manufacturing.
“One of many terpenes’ features within the plant is to behave as an antioxidant,” they write. “When grown indoors within the managed setting, we discovered that the terpenes will not be expressed in as excessive an quantity. Due to this fact, there’s much less of an oxidation defend offered to the flowers. This might account for the elevated ranges of oxidized and degraded cannabinoids in indoor samples.”
Sunshine!
In any case, the examine isn’t designed to parse each variable concerned in cultivation. It doesn’t measure variations in vitamins or soil micro organism between the “residing soil” and the “synthetic progress media.” It doesn’t hassle with temperature and humidity. Nor does it evaluate gentle high quality or timing — simply “daylight” versus “synthetic gentle” — despite the fact that we all know from different latest analysis at indoor grows that variations in gentle spectra alone can affect the manufacturing of each terpenes and cannabinoids.2,3 Moreover, three of the authors characterize corporations that promote outdoor-grown hashish or merchandise made with it.
With all its limitations, the examine nonetheless manages to make a reasonably stable case that sure circumstances related to out of doors rising could also be favorable to terpene manufacturing, protecting of cannabinoid degradation, and inclined towards a barely completely different, although not essentially much less fascinating main cannabinoid profile. And that’s most likely sufficient to warrant asking of any given hashish flower not solely what its genetics are, but in addition the way it was grown.
Nate Seltenrich, Venture CBD contributing author, is the writer of the column Bridging the Gap. An impartial science journalist primarily based within the San Francisco Bay Space, he covers a variety of topics, together with environmental well being, neuroscience, and pharmacology. © Copyright, Venture CBD. Might not be reprinted with out permission.
Footnotes
- Zandkarimi, Fereshteh et al. “Comparability of the Cannabinoid and Terpene Profiles in Industrial Hashish from Pure and Synthetic Cultivation.” Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) vol. 28,2 833. 13 Jan. 2023, doi:10.3390/molecules28020833
- Morello, Victorio et al. “Mild High quality Impacts Vertical Progress Charge, Phytochemical Yield and Cannabinoid Manufacturing Effectivity in Hashish sativa.” Crops (Basel, Switzerland) vol. 11,21 2982. 4 Nov. 2022, doi:10.3390/plants11212982
- Reichel, Philipp et al. “Impacts of Totally different Mild Spectra on CBD, CBDA and Terpene Concentrations in Relation to the Flower Positions of Totally different Hashish Sativa L. Strains.” Crops (Basel, Switzerland) vol. 11,20 2695. 13 Oct. 2022, doi:10.3390/plants11202695
