It is not THC or CBD that makes cannabis strains unique – it is terpenes. We need a stronger focus on developing the right genetics in this industry to realize the full potential of terpenes.
What are Terpenes?
This term is used to classify the largest class of natural products, with over 50,000 known structures. However, for cannabis connoisseurs, it is the terpenes with a skeleton of up to 15 carbons that you should really care about, and there are likely hundreds present in cannabis.
How Do Terpenes Contribute to Strain Uniqueness?
Terpenes largely determine the particular smell and aroma of each strain – gassy, earthy, woody, spicy, floral, fruity, you name it. While there are other contributors, for example, sulfur-containing metabolites associated with skunkiness and esters adding sweet notes, the generally high abundance of terpenes gives them the upper hand over the other aroma volatiles.
How Do Terpenes Impact Your Experience?
The terpenes present in cannabis are not psychoactive on their own but there is scientific evidence that they can enhance or mitigate the effects of cannabinoids. The synergistic action of terpenes and cannabinoids, and possibly other cannabis metabolites, has become known as the “entourage effect”. How this works exactly is not entirely clear, as terpenes bind only weakly to the receptors known to mediate the action of cannabinoids. Unfortunately, well-designed studies with large numbers of participants to directly compare different cannabis strains are currently lacking. Despite the widespread legalization of medicinal and recreational cannabis, this has been very difficult to do in the U.S. We also need to take psychology out of the equation with double-blind studies, where neither the participant nor the researcher knows which sample the participant is testing until after the trial is over. There is an obvious financial incentive to assess the clinical efficacy of cannabis-based formulations to address specific ailments but who is going to spend copious amounts of money on investigating your experience as a recreational user? Think about it – maybe you can do some blind testing with like-minded friends who also want to know. But we also need a concerted large-scale effort to figure this out.
Are Cannabis Terpenes Special?
Well, it depends. The individual terpenes found in cannabis are very common in the plant kingdom. Myrcene is also abundant in hops; bergamot oil contains a high proportion of L-limonene; pinenes dominate the emissions from conifer trees, linalool gives lavender its floral scent, and so on. It is the singular combination of sulfur-containing (skunky) volatiles and various terpenes that give each cannabis strain its unparalleled aroma.
Can One Breed Cannabis for Specific Terpene Profiles?
Yes. By carefully selecting parents for crosses, one can obtain progeny with novel aroma characteristics. But there are limits. Based on analyses of the currently available genome sequences for common commercial cannabis strains, it appears that they all contain similar sets of terpene synthase genes, which are critical determinants for terpene diversity. Breeding for potency has evidently led to a lack of diversity in the breeding pipeline. We now need to bring back that diversity to realize the full potential of terpenes in cannabis. Developing the right genetics in this industry is going to be key for a bright future.
Mark Lange, Ph.D.
Dewey Scientific is an agtech innovator pioneering solutions for a sustainable and thriving cannabis industry. The privately funded company leverages genomics, data science, and classical breeding methods to improve the quality and genetic diversity of cannabis in the Pacific Northwest. Dewey Scientific has published industry leading research in several peer-reviewed scientific journals, including Plant Physiology and Frontiers in Agronomy. Beyond their breeding work, Dewey owns and operates Dewey Cannabis Co. – a recreational cannabis brand in Washington state.
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