Why Cannabis Stems Inflammation

Why Cannabis Stems Inflammation

ScienceDaily (July 22, 2008) â??


Cannabis has long been accredited with anti-inflammatory properties. ETH Zurich researchers, however, have now discovered that it is not only the familiar psychoactive substances that are responsible for this; a compound we take in every day in vegetable nutriment also plays a significant role.

People not only rate cannabis sativa L. highly because of its intoxicating effects; it has also long been used as a medicinal plant. Although the plant has been scrutinized for years, surprising new aspects keep cropping up. For example, researchers from ETH Zurich and Bonn University examined a component in the plantâ??s essential oil that until then had largely been ignored and found it to have remarkable phar- macological effects. The findings open up interesting perspectives, especially for the prevention and treatment of inflammations.

Completely different molecule structure

The hemp plant contains over 450 different substances, only three of which are responsible for its intoxicating effect. They activate the two receptors in the body CB1 and CB2. Whilst the CB1 receptor in the central nervous system influences perception, the CB2 receptor in the tissue plays a crucial role in inhibiting inflammation. If the receptor is activated, the cell releases fewer pro-inflammatory signal substances, or cytokines. The scientists have now discovered that the substance beta-carophyllene, which composes between 12 and 35 percent of the cannabis plantâ??s essential oil, activates the CB2 receptor selectively.


Unlike the three psychoactive substances, however, beta-carophyllene does not latch onto the CB1 receptor and consequently does not trigger the intoxicating effect. â??Due to the various effects of cannabis, we had suspected for quite some time that other substances could come into play besides the psychoactive onesâ?�, explains Jürg Gertsch from the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences at ETH Zurich. â??However, astonishingly we didnâ??t know what substances these were until now.â?�
Gertsch finds it remarkable that beta-carophyllene has a very different molecule structure to that of the classical cannabinoids. â??This is presumably why no one realized that the substance can also activate the CB2 receptor.â?� The scientists were not only able to prove that beta-carophyllene binds with the CB2 receptor in vitro but also in animal tests, where they treated mice that were suffering from an inflammatory swelling on their paws with orally administered doses of the substance. The swelling declined in up to 70 percent of the animals, even for deep doses. For mice lacking the gene for the CB2 receptor, however, the substance did not make an impact.


Common substance

The results are encouraging for the prevention or treatment of ailments in which the CB2 receptor plays a positive role. However, Gertsch explains that we are still very much in the early stages on that score. That said, the scientist can conceive that some day the compound will not only help heal certain forms of inflammation, but also be instrumental in treating chronic illnesses, such as liver cirrhosis, Morbus Crohn, osteoarthritis and arteriosclerosis. In all of these diseases, the CB2 receptor and the associated endocannabinoid system play a crucial role.


The beauty is that beta-carophyllene is not only found in cannabis but also often in plants as a whole and we consume the substance in our diet. The non-toxic compound, which incidentally has been used as a food additive for many years, can be found in spice plants like oregano, basil, cinnamon and black pepper. â??Whether we have found a new link between the vegetable diet and the prevention of so-called lifestyle diseases in our study remains to be seen in future studiesâ?�, adds Gertsch.


Journal reference:

• Gertsch et al. Beta-caryophyllene is a dietary cannabinoid. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2008; 105 (26): 9099 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0803601105

Adapted from materials provided by ETH Zurich/Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.

Great read, the post is much appreciated!

peace :rastasmoke:

very cool, more info about beta-caryophyllene!
Would be nice to see the chemical in pill form.

I had just read about that stuff a few days ago in another post, but the link it provided did not give nearly as much detail: http://boards.cannabis.com/medicinal...-medicine.html

This is great information! Good one for those of us who keep files on legit, complete medical info and articles. Makes sense, too, that it's the connection w/ the CB2 receptors that contributes to inflammation inhibition. The CB2 receptors are expressed in cells within the immune system and in hematopoietic tissue, and the immune connection seems like the plausible reason why the activation of those receptors by cannabinoids must help suppress inflammation. Because those immune cells like T cell lymphocytes are the ones that mediate the body's immune response, which often involves inflammation in response to perceived "threats."

Thanks for providing this info!

And yet... I can consistantly say that cannabis will make an area of my spine that is mildly sore and inflamed, extremely sore and inflamed. Then that pain spreads to the rest of muscles, and bad. I don't suppose anybody yet knows why and how cannabis could do this? I've heard of a few other people with this reaction too.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gandalf_The_Grey

And yet... I can consistantly say that cannabis will make an area of my spine that is mildly sore and inflamed, extremely sore and inflamed. Then that pain spreads to the rest of muscles, and bad. I don't suppose anybody yet knows why and how cannabis could do this? I've heard of a few other people with this reaction too.

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Man that sucks :( Could be possible that burning the buds would destroy some or even most of the beta-caryophyllene. Maybe it has to be taken orally for it to properly work.

Perhaps you could have some kind of allergy to one of the chemicals in the bud that causes the inflamation? Or your body chemistry reacts to it so that it produces the opposite effect.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gandalf_The_Grey

And yet... I can consistantly say that cannabis will make an area of my spine that is mildly sore and inflamed, extremely sore and inflamed. Then that pain spreads to the rest of muscles, and bad. I don't suppose anybody yet knows why and how cannabis could do this? I've heard of a few other people with this reaction too.

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I've heard about this, too, and read about it a good bit here. I know that for some people, there can be a strong rebound effect of bounce-back pain after smoking for spinal or neurological pain. I'm not sure what the reasons are, but when I've read about that bounce-back pain here, it's had to do with either headaches or spinal pain. It may have something to do with the vascular response, the vaso-constriction and then dilation that follows, which could set off nerve spasms. That makes plausible sense to me.

I'm not sure how much you've read about spinal pain, Gandalf, and I trust you've still not had your condition formally identified or diagnosed. Perhaps you have by now. For conditions like herniated disks, spondylosis, spinal stenosis, disk dessication and degeneration, nerve root impingement, and neuroforaminal stenosis, smoking of anything isn't encouraged because of the drying properties of smoking. That drying can cause shrinkage and narrowing of the blood vessels that supply the cartilaginous tissue such as disks, and the drying can cause further degeneration of disks and narrowing (stenosis) of nerves and the spinal cord, which thus puts extra strain on the vertebral bones and facet joints, which can then press on those nerves and cause more pain. Just something to think about . . . I have degenerative disk disease and everything the surgeon has given me on the subject always says no smoking of any kind. They also want me to stay as well hydrated as I can by drinking plenty of water and to faithfully take my glucosamine/chondroitin supplement to help keep those degenerating disks as strong and springy as possible.

Thanks for the heads up Birdgirl; I've been smoking quite a bit lately as a stress release. This is a very good incentive for me to stop.