How Rare Cannabinoids Are Making Their Way into Edibles

To begin manufacturing products containing CBG and CBN, researchers first must breed plants containing higher concentrations of those molecules, though as Mike Hennesy, VP of Innovation for edibles producer Wana Brands in Boulder, Colo., stresses, companies like his are looking beyond plant-based cannabinoids and into the use of yeast or bacteria to produce chemically identical cannabinoids out of raw ingredients.

Even as researchers study technologies that might help replace the plant itself, Hennesy’s company has long been looking past THC and CBD toward other cannabinoids, as well as terpenes, believed to have pharmacological effects.

Hennesy is optimistic: His company plans to develop products with these molecules as well as other rare cannabinoids, such as cannabichromene (CBC) and tetrahydrocannabivarin (THC-V). Wana Brands is preparing to launch a sleep-aid gummy product in Colorado that is infused with CBD, CBN, CBG, a low dose of THC, melatonin, and 30 terpenes. “We believe this market for these [minor cannabinoids] will continue to grow with increasing consumer demand for them, as knowledge and information about them continues to spread,” Hennesy says.

For food producers considering bringing minor cannabinoids into their recipes, Hennesy says there’s little learning curve, since most phytocannabinoids have similar chemical structures and tend to behave in similar ways. Accordingly, he adds that rare cannabinoids don’t require complete recipe overhauls to introduce them to a product. They can have different flavors, however, with some more and others less agreeable.

What We Know

Yet, like Dr. Le, Hennesy acknowledges that CBG and CBN are still little understood. There is a body of anecdotal evidence suggesting that CBN helps with sleep, supported by “only one study […] conducted in 1975 with just five participants,” Hennesy says, “so the jury is out on whether CBN truly deserves to be known as ‘the sleepy cannabinoid.’ That said, new research does come out nearly every month, increasing our body of knowledge about these new minor cannabinoids.”

What we know for sure about CBN, according to Dr. Le, is that, as a generally non-psychoactive compound, CBN has about 10% of the activity of THC and is metabolized more slowly than THC. Due to the difference in structure, CBN and other rare cannabinoids interact with the body’s endocannabinoid system differently from THC. Both Peki and Dr. Le say that CBN is believed to have a more sedative effect than CBD.

Kent Vrana, PhD, is the Elliot S. Vesell Professor and Chair of Penn State College of Medicine’s department of pharmacology. He says evidence is slim for the effects of CBG, but that the cannabinoid appears, in theory, to have activity that falls somewhere between CBD and THC, both in terms of its potency (how much it takes to have an effect) and the effects themselves.

In February 2021, Dr. Vrana and colleagues published “The Pharmacological Case for Cannabigerol” in the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. That paper acknowledged previously suggested therapeutic potential for CBG in treating neurologic disorders and inflammatory bowel disease, but it also noted (with uneasiness) the growing commercial interest in CBG as a wellness tool.

Dr. Vrana and his colleagues found that CBG had somewhat of an effect on receptors of the endocannabinoid system. “Looking at CB1, the receptor that gets you high,” he says, “THC is partially active, but CBD is not. CBG is someplace in between, both in terms of its strength at that site, and what it does when it’s bound to that site. It’s likely to cause a very mild high, and it all depends on how much of it you can get in the body.” He notes that the same thing occurs with receptor CB2, believed to be anti-inflammatory and the site where CBD has the most effect: there, CBG remains a partial stimulant.