Cherry HD

This section is for educational purposes only. VanView Acres Hemp Farm makes no medical claims regarding the consumption of hemp.

Benefits

The flavorful experience leads to relaxation and full-body pain-relief without any intoxication. The flavor profile, including fruit, musk, and pine, work synergistically with the plant’s cannabinoid profile to reduce pain and stress and help improve focus.

Terpene Profile

Her terpene profile includes Limonene, C-Myrcene, B-Pinene, B-caryophyllene, and Humulene, all of which lend themselves to the full flavor profile that consumers love.

Cherry HD Terpenes Explained

Myrcene

One of the most common terpenes found in cannabis is myrcene. Beyond cannabis, myrcene is found in hops and is responsible for the peppery, spicy, balsam fragrance in beer. It is also expressed in lemongrass, which has been used in traditional old medicine for centuries. 

Myrcene is the most abundant terpene in commercial cannabis. On average myrcene represents over 20% of the terpene profile in modern commercial strains, although individual samples vary widely in their terpene content. Myrcene is also the most likely cannabis terpene to be dominant in flower. If you picked a random flower product off of a shelf in a legal state, you could expect it to be myrcene-dominant about 40% of the time.  This reflects the relative lack of chemical diversity in modern commercial cannabis. There’s a lot of room for breeders to experiment with increasing the chemical diversity of strains, potentially even creating novel strains with terpene profiles that are unlike anything commercially available today.

A common claim we hear is that you can tell whether a strain will have “indica” or “sativa” effects by knowing its myrcene levels. It’s often stated that strains with more than .5% myrcene by weight will produce indica (relaxing) effects.  Used as a sleep aid.  

Pain relief and reducing inflammation.  Myrcene can block the cancer causing effects of aflatoxins that are produced by fungi but find their way into our food.  These anti-mutagen properties stem from myrcene’s inhibition of the liver enzyme, CYP2B1, which includes aflatoxin’s ability to damage our DNA. Myrcene also protects against DNA damage from toxins such as f-butyl-hydroperoxide. These anti-mutagen effects are consistent with those other terpenes, along with their antioxidant and antimicrobial benefits. 

B-Caryophyllene

Caryophyllene adds a special aroma and flavor to cannabis that’s distinct and recognizable. Like other terpenes, beta caryophyllene is known to produce a range of effects when consumed.  As one of the common terpenes in cannabis, it is thought to interact with cannabinoids to form a cumulative effect. This interaction and synergy between various cannabis compounds, including terpenes and cannabinoids, is a phenomenon known as the “entourage effect.” With the compound interaction of the entourage effect, the overall result can be greater as a grouping than if the compounds were consumed individually.

If you enjoy spicy, peppery strains, most likely you have an appreciation for the terpene caryophyllene (also known as beta-caryophyllene). As well as being present in cannabis, this terpene is found in black pepper, rosemary, basil, cloves, and oregano. Caryophyllene adds a special aroma and flavor to cannabis that’s distinct and recognizable.

This is why many people prefer full-spectrum extraction concentrates rather than isolate extraction concentrates. In other words, the medical benefits of a cannabis oil containing 30 percent CBD but no other compounds may be less effective than an oil containing 30 percent CBD but also the range of other compounds found in the cannabis strain used to create the oil. The entourage effect will be the subject of ongoing research as scientists continue to gain a better understanding of marijuana’s and hemp’s therapeutic properties.

Beta Caryophyllene is thought to have great potential as a therapeutic terpene. Research indicates it can work as an anti-inflammatory agent to reduce swelling. People with swelling of the body from physical trauma or the edema caused by chronic health conditions like high blood pressure may find significant relief through ingestion of cannabis compounds, including caryophyllene.

Other physical applications include being an effective pain killer. Combined with cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the collective analgesic properties of caryophyllene and these cannabinoids could provide significant relief for people suffering from either temporary or chronic pain.

More opioid drugs are prescribed for pain relief than any other medical symptom, and these drugs cause unnecessary deaths daily, resulting in the ongoing opioid epidemic. Alternative methods of pain relief must be evaluated to provide other options for pain management. Caryophyllene may play a beneficial role as a viable alternative—or part of the alternative.

Caryophyllene also shows evidence of protecting the cells of the gastrointestinal tract. Research into the potential benefits of caryophyllene on ulcers has yielded interesting results that point to its potential applications in treating this all-too-common condition. There are a range of natural substances that sooth the digestive tract, like chamomile, honey, and ginger, so caryophyllene may provide holistic benefits as well.

Mental conditions like anxiety and depression can also benefit from caryophyllene. The endocannabinoid system responds to cannabinoids and terpenes in complex ways. Cannabis molecules selectively target specific individual endocannabinoid receptors in the human body. Studies indicate that molecules that target the CB2 receptor influence depression and anxiety. Interestingly, caryophyllene is one of those molecules.

With this being the case, the potential for cannabis strains containing caryophyllene to sooth anxiety and lift spirits, easing depression, is great. Just like caryophyllene’s potential uses for relieving pain and helping to replace opioids as an affective—and much safer—analgesic, this terpene may also provide an alternative to antidepressants. The fascinating potential medical applications of caryophyllene encompass a range of potential uses that will hopefully some day be put to use as our understanding of how cannabinoids and terpenes interaction with the human body continues to improve.

Humulene

The subtle earthy, woody, and spicy notes that give hoppy beers their distinct taste and aroma are also partly responsible for giving cannabis its unique scent. Both hops and cannabis share a common terpene humulene. This terpene is found in a wide variety of plants and has been used for centuries in holistic Eastern medicinal practices. Humulene is also no stranger to modern biomedical research, including studies on black pepper, hops and ginseng, and research has proven it to be an effective anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and appetite suppressant. 

Interestingly, humulene appears to occur in higher levels in caryophyllene- dominant cannabis strains.

The medical and therapeutic potential of humulene is expansive and well researched.  A 2016 study shows that it may help terminate cancer cells when combined with phytocannabinoids and other terpenes. Humulene is present in many therapeutic-grade essential oils and the use of such oils for healing purposes dates back centuries.  The terpene is present in Balsam fir oil and is believed to be an active mechanism in fighting tumors, evidenced in its ability to produce Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS).  The oil was also shown to exhibit antibacterial properties in another study proving to be active against the bacterium staph. Humulene also plays a role in pharmacokinetics—the study of how the body absorbs, distributes, metabolizes, and excretes drugs —showing potential to be distributed rapidly throughout the body via both oral and topical absorption of an oil derived from the tropical plant black sage. Oil from this plant has also shown anti-inflammatory, antifungal and antibacterial properties. 

Limonene

Fruity, citrus aroma

Despite limonene’s potential therapeutic benefits, little is known about how it works in the brain and body, and what is required to achieve these benefits. In many of the limonene studies to date, high doses were used-much higher than amounts in cannabis.

Elevated mood, stress relief, antifungal properties, may help to relieve heartburn and gastric reflux, improves absorption of other terpenes and chemicals by way of the skin, mucous membranes, and digestive tract.  Promising evidence related to the anti-tumor effects including lung, breast, and brain cancer. It remains unclear how limonene vapor increases serotonin and dopamine levels in key regions of the brain that are associated with anxiety, depression and OCD.  Does limonene merely stimulate the brains olfactory system or is it directly affecting the brain cells themselves. We don’t know yet. Unlike some other terpenes that have well defined brain targets such as linalool and b-carophyllene limonene’s targets are unclear. 

Pinene

Pinene is an aromatic compound commonly found in cannabis that smells a lot like forest pine trees.

Terpenes like pinene are fragrant oils secreted in cannabis trichomes, and while they originally developed as an adaptive protection against predators, these compounds offer us humans a variety of potential benefits. Pinene can also be found in conifer trees, orange peels, turpentine, pine needles, rosemary, dill, basil and parsley.

Just as different cannabinoids have different effects, so do terpenes. These unique attributes contribute to the overall composition of a strain, adding a dimension to each one’s “personality.” Though research is still substantiating pinene’s effects and benefits, the following benefits are currently being investigated:  Anti-inflammatory, bronchodilator and anti-anxiety.

 BaOx

In addition to high levels of B-Myrcene, Caryophyllene BaOx provides the following terpenes:

Linalool

 The concept that terpenes directly impact brain function versus its indirect effect on mood and subjective state through modulation of olfactory processing (i.e., your sense of smell). Your sense of smell is intricately linked to emotion and memory centers in the brain, establishing a potential cause and effect between the pleasant lavender floral scent (cause) of the terpene, linalool, with a relaxed and improved mood terpenes (effect). While olfactory sensation may still contribute to the terpene’s effect, it is now believed that terpenes directly affect brain processing by modulating the behavior of the brain cells. Few cannabis strains contain high levels of linalool; it rarely breaks into a strain’s top three most abundant terpenes.

Anti-microbial, anxiety and depression reduction and immune system help

Linalool also makes immune system more resilient to the destructive effects of stress. Stress causes a shift in the distribution of white blood cells in the body (i.e., the cells of the immune system); the percent of lymphocytes decrease, and neutrophils increase. In rats, linalool prevented this shift, and in doing so, prevented the stress-induced changes in how the rats’ DNA was expressed. Interestingly, the authors reasoned that this protection was mediated by linalool’s ability to activate the body’s parasympathetic response, which is activated when the body is resting and digesting food, thereby fitting with linalool’s anti-anxiety effects.

Studies indicate that linalool’s behavioral effects may largely be mediated by its effect in the brain. One way is through blocking the receptors for the primary excitatory brain chemical, glutamate, which could account for linalool’s potentially anti-epileptic properties in some forms of epilepsy. This terpene also has the ability to enhance the effect of other sedatives such as phenobarbital.  Additionally, linalool may be muscle-relaxing and have pain-relieving effects through additional distinctive mechanisms. For instance, linalool reduces the signaling strength of acetylcholine a brain chemical that’s required for muscle contraction and movement. Linalool can have anesthetic-like effects by reducing the excitability of cells in the spinal cord that transmit pain signals to the brain. 

Farnesene

Farnesene is one of over 140 confirmed terpenes that naturally occur in cannabis. It also occurs in many other plants too as terpenes are found within the plant world. Farnesene is commonly found in the coating of apple skins. Farnesene naturally occurs in apple, orange, grapefruit juice, mandarin and lime peel, grape, pear, ginger, nutmeg and basil. Farnesene is known to be present in Turmeric which is relied upon for its anti-inflammatory effects. Farnese is also known to be a natural insect repellent.

While it’s not considered one the primary terpenes in cannabis, Farnesene has a number of health benefits. Found in turmeric, Farnesene has anti-inflammatory properties as well as tumor-inhibiting traits and could be helpful in treating colon and pancreatic cancers. Primarily found in the narrow leaf indica strains indigenous to Himalayan valleys, Farnesene also has a calming effect and may help suppress spasms.