Cannabis Sativa

Cannabis Sativa

Cannabis sativa is an annual plant in the Cannabacae family. Humans have cultivated this wonderful herd since time immemorial.  Its green leaf and fragrant bud were buried with the Pharaohs.  Throughout recorded history it has been a source of industrial fiber, seed oil, and food.  And since before recorded history, cannabis has been used as a medicinal aid, a spiritual tool, and as a simple pleasure.

  

Cannabis Indica

Cannabis Indica

The Cannabis indica plant is typically distinguished from the Cannabis Sativa plant as being relatively short, conical, and densely branched, whereas C. sativa is tall and loosely branched. Additionally, C. indica plants typically have short and broad leaves whereas C. sativa leaves are long and narrow.

In South Asia, Cannabis indica is cultivated for the production of hashis.  C. indica tends to have a higher cannabidiol content than sativa strains.  The Cannabis indica high is often referred to as a "body buzz" and it is generally preferred for relief of pain.  In addition, C. Indica is considered to be most effective in treating insomnia and anxiety. 

Hemp Oil

Hemp Oil

Hemp oil is pressed from the seed of the cannabis plant. Cold pressed, unrefined hemp oil is dark to light green in color, with a pleasant nutty flavor.  Refined hempseed oil is clear to amber in color with little flavour and reduced vitamin and antioxidant content. Refined hempseed oil is primarily used in body care products. Refined or unrefined, hemp seed oil is high in omega-3 fatty acids. 

Cannabis Elixir

"A glass in the morning is guaranteed to relieve symptoms and leave a pleasant feeling that last all day."

Cannabis based Elixirs were common medicines in the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries.  These elixirs were prepared from the leaf and bud of the Cannabis plant and offered syptomatic relief for common colds, flu, general aches and pains, rheumatism, gout, and arthritis.  Sadly, Cannabis Elixirs were taken off the market with the prohibition of Marijuana.  But with evidence now demonstrating the anti-inflamatory and analgesic powers of the Cannabinoids, it has become clear that the claims made for these early elixirs had real merit.

Elixirs allow for the administration of natural cannabinoids in a liquid "cough syrup" form that coats the throat and is readily absorbed into the body through the GI tract.  In addition, other ingredients, including other herbs, may be added during the elixirs preparation to provide combined benefits.

Cannabis Tincture

I take some umbrage with the picture to the left and its prominent "poison" label.  True, at high doses the contents of this bottle were probably poisonous.  However, anyone who died from drinking this solution died because of its alcohol content and not because of the cannabis.

Tictures are essentially alcohol extracts of an herb, in this case Cannabis.  The cannabinoids in cannabis are hydrophobic and therefore soluble in alcohol.  This allows the cannabinoids to be readily extracted from the plant by soaking the leaves and bud in alcohol.  Separation then of the liquid alchohol (with cannabinoids disolved) from the plant mater provides one with a basic cannabis "tincture."

Tinctures are a convenient way to prepare and store herbal extracts but they are also useful medicinals in and of themselves because they are suitable for subligual administration.  To understand the importance of sublingual medicine delivery we need to discuss a bit of anatomy.  When a medicine is taken orally and swallowed it first enters the stomach and intestines and then is absorbed into the blood.  Once in the blood the first place the medicine goes to is the liver where it is subjected to modification and degredation by the liver's enzymes.  We call this "first pass."  When medicines are taken orally they must first pass through the liver before they are delivered to other parts of the body.  This is especially important for cannabinoids because cannabinoids are degraded by the liver's P450 enzymes.  By contrast when medicines are introduced into the blood vessels below the tongue they enter directly into the systemic blood flow and bypass the liver's enzymes.  

To administer a tincture sublingually one places a few drops of the solution below the tongue and allows it a to absorb.  In this way the medicine passes directly into the systemic blood supply.  But be forewarned.  Caution needs to be observed in taking cannabinoids in this way. Tinctures can contain very concentrated mixtures of cannabinoids and sublingual administration gives rapid absorption and direct systemic delivery.  In medicine we say "start low and go slow."  A couple of drops will do.  Trust me.

Δ9- tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)

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Δ⁹- tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is one of over 80 cannabinoids that have been isolated from the Cannabis plant.  It is the compound that is primarily responsible for the psychoactive properties of Cannabis.

THC, is marketed as Dronabinol (Marinol), and is used as an appetite stimulant, anti-emetic, and analgesic.

Cannabinoid Pain Neruobiology

The neurobiology of cannabinoid analgesia.

Walker JM, Hohmann AG, Martin WJ, Strangman NM, Huang SM, Tsou K.

Source

Department of Psychology, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA.

Abstract

The discovery of cannabinoid receptors and their putative endogenous ligands raises questions as to the nature of the effects produced by cannabinoids on neural circuits that mediate pain and whether endogenous cannabinoids produced by the brain or in the periphery serve naturally to modulate pain. A sizable body of previous work showed that cannabinoid agonists suppress pain behavior in a variety of models of acute and chronic pain. However, at appropriate doses, cannabinoids also profoundly suppress motor behavior (see Sañudo-Peña et al., this volume), which complicates the interpretation of behavioral analgesia since a motor response is the endpoint of virtually all such studies. Studies conducted in this laboratory used biochemical and neurophysiological measures to determine whether cannabinoids suppress nociceptive neurotransmission. The results showed that cannabinoids suppress nociceptive neurotransmission at the level of the spinal cord and the thalamus. These effects are reversible, receptor mediated, selective for painful as opposed to nonpainful somatic stimuli, and track the behavioral analgesia both in time course and potency.