Indica and Sativa Are Wrong, Study Finds Buying Cannabis For Terpenes

Cannabis strains – informally known as “strains” – span a spectrum of effects and flavors and transform into different products. Consumers generally divide this spectrum into indica and sativa while mistakenly focusing on the THC percentage. However, a recent study shows that we are mis-selling cannabis – indica and sativa are misleading and consumers buy terpenes-based weed.

Indica and Sativa are damned by terpenes

As early as October 2018, it was made clear that Indica and Sativa were wrongly taking advantage of consumer choice. John McPartland published a study of the fossil record of cultivated cannabis. Indica and Sativa, as scientific classifications, should represent genetic variation rather than pharmacodynamic effects. As slang terms in today’s marketplace, however, cannabis terminology has been washed into a sea of ​​hybrids and crossbreeds without a well-understood scientific basis.

At least, this was the story repeated by many academics and journalists after the McPartland fossil study, including Daniel Piomelli’s scathing interview with Ethan Russo. (2) Genetic sequencing of various strains in Colorado in 2019 also failed to find solid ground for the indica-versus-sativa debate. (3) It is no secret, however, that the diversity of cannabis is uniquely sorted and is in part dependent on certain factors, particularly terpenes.

Terpene Free Labels – Is Cannabis Selling Wrong?

A new study from Dalhousie University published in Nature Plants supports the idea that the scientific properties of ‘indica and sativa’ are the wrong way to use consumer choice. (4) Rather, it has been confirmed that terpenes are of great importance in the market. And beyond what has already been assumed, indica and sativa labels are now secretly sorted according to different terpene synthase genes found throughout the plant kingdom.

And so science continues to confirm that terpenes are the determining factor in consumer choice. Now, however, genetic fingerprinting has given us a better scientific basis for classifying cannabis by chemovar.

According to consumer labels, “indica” is dominated by earthy aromas. Otherwise, myrcene and other monoterpenes may dominate the Dutch medical market in cannabis called indica, according to this new study. And while this has had mixed results in the literature, previous research on Dutch cannabis in 2016 also found that myrcene is biased toward indica labels. (5)

Photo by Ethan Russo, courtesy Research Gate.

Varieties are for strains like Chemovare for the entire chemical profile

However, specific genes that represent terpene expression are now more accurately mapped with this new study. And this card tells us that strains on the market are unwittingly called indica and sativa because of terpene synthase genes, rather than the ancestral and physical characteristics of the plant.

A chemovar describes the entire make-up of each strain, which some retailers consider to be too complex for consumers. However, a new study found that classic interpretations of indica and sativa are wrong. So should you buy cannabis based on terpenes and overall profile?

• Because of the way terpenes are made in the plant, different arrays of terpenes depend on different genetic fingerprints. Myrcene, THC and CBG express with a different chromosome than, for example, guaiol and CBD. And remember, cannabinoids and terpenes are cousins ​​made from the same botanical metabolites.

Let us know in the comments if indica and sativa labels will help you buy cannabis. And stay tuned to learn how terpenoids and terpenes correlate.

Show your work

• Instead, Cannabis sativa sativa and C. sativa indica refer to taxonomic names for cultivated cannabis and should not be confused with the native terms indica and sativa.
• Genotype describes the genetic profile.
• The phenotype describes the physical properties.
• This article is mainly based on Watts et al. 2021, funded and partially designed by Bedrocan, a licensed cannabis producer in the Netherlands.
• 100 cannabis strains were sequenced and indica and sativa were genetically indistinct based on genotyping for 116,296 single nucleotide polymorphisms.
• 40 different terpenes and cannabinoids are quantified using GC-MS.

sources

1. McPartland JM (2018). Cannabis systematics on the levels of family, genus and species. Cannabis and cannabinoid research, 3 (1), 203–212. https://doi.org/10.1089/can.2018.0039
2. Piomelli D, Russo EB (2016) The debate between cannabis sativa and cannabis indica: an interview with Ethan Russo, MD, Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research 1: 1, 44–46, DOI: 10.1089 / can.2015.29003.ebr.
3. Schwabe, AL, McGlaughlin, ME Genetic Tools Clear Misconceptions About Variety Reliability in Cannabis Sativa: Implications for an Emerging Industry. J Cannabis Res 1, 3 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s42238-019-0001-1
4. Watts, S., McElroy, M., Migicovsky, Z. et al. The labeling of cannabis is linked to genetic variations in terpene synthase genes. Nat. plants 7, 1330-1334 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-021-01003-y
5. Hazekamp, ​​A., Tekalova, K. & Papadimitriou, S. Cannabis: From Variety to Chemovar II – A Metabolomic Approach to Cannabis Classification. Cannabis Cannabinoid Res.https: //doi.org/10.1089/can.2016.0017 (2016).
6. Russo, Ethan. (2017). Cannabidiol Claims and Misunderstandings: (Trends in Pharmacological Sciences 38, 198-201, 2017). Trends in the Pharmacological Sciences. 38.10.1016 / j.tipps.2017.03.006.