How Terpenes Affect Cannabis

Enter any legal, recreational adult-use cannabis dispensary, and you’re going to hear one specific word used frequently (and purposefully).

That word is terpenes. Or “terps,” as most cannabis enthusiasts like to call them.

What can explain the growing adoption of terpenes in standard cannabis nomenclature?

First, we must explore where we are in the grander context of the cannabis landscape.

With cannabis becoming less stigmatized and more mainstream as legalized adult-use recreational sales become the norm in states like New Jersey, we’re learning more about the magical plant.

The growing knowledge and understanding of terpenes is a product of cannabis becoming more widely accepted as a recreational, harmless (when used responsibly) product. 

Before the days of easily accessible dispensaries, people knew that good-smelling bud usually meant a highly potent, enjoyable strain. Still, they didn’t necessarily have the science at their fingertips. It was more about relying on your intuition.

Nowadays, your intuition remains crucial to your overall experience with cannabis. Yet, you have the luxury and advantage of combining science with your instincts and insights will yield the most enriching results.

So—why does good or distinctive-smelling bud typically imply a high level of quality?

Much of the answer concerns the initial topic of this introduction: terpenes. In this article, we’ll explore “terps” further while delving into the science behind them.

What Are Terpenes?

Have you been speaking with a budtender, and they tell you something about the “terp content” of a given strain, and you simply nodded along unknowingly until they just let you pay?

You wouldn’t be alone. 

The science behind cannabis can be confusing at first, but once you grasp the basics, you enter a whole new world. It’s almost like when Dorothy sees color for the first time in The Wizard of Oz.

What’s more? Once you learn about terpenes—the aromatic compounds responsible for the smells present in many herbs and flowers—they aren’t all that intimidating.

Like in other vegetation, terpenes cause specific odors in a cannabis strain while also impacting the taste.

150 types of terpenes can be found in cannabis. Some are more prominent, but most are present in trace amounts. The dominant terpenes give a strain its signature scent [1].

Furthermore, terpenes can produce mood-altering effects and impact the psychoactive and therapeutic components of the cannabis experience.

Delving More Into The Specificity Of Terpenes

The naturally occurring compounds we call terpenes form in a female cannabis plant’s trichomes—the sticky, translucent glands on a bud’s surface (and on leaves and stems in trace amounts). 

Specifically, resin glands contained in trichomes produce terpenes.

Cannabis plants rely on terpenes to survive and grow. Terpenes also enrich buds’ and leaves’ color and pigmentation—on top of their impact on aroma and flavor.

Interestingly, terpenes’ characteristics attract particular “helpful” creatures while repelling those that might harm the plant.

For example, the terpene geraniol repels herbivores and insects that would otherwise eat it. Conversely, linalool and terpinolene possess traits that attract small creatures and insects that’ll spread pollen. 

These aromatic characteristics bolster the immune system of a given cannabis plant by communicating survival-based information about the surrounding environment. In doing so, an immune response triggers in the plants, protecting them from pathogens and stressors [2].

What Factors Impact Terpenes And Their Quality In A Cannabis Plant?

Factors that can impact the terpene levels, types, and quality in a cannabis plant include:

• The growth environment (indoors or outdoors).
• Light exposure.
• Specific growing mediums.
• When plants are harvested.
• Nutrient levels.
• Temperature.

Since terpenes are often volatile compounds, they’re frequently lost during cannabis extraction. However, the recent increase in terpene-based knowledge has led to innovations in the extraction process, including live resin.

What Are The Therapeutic Effects Of Terpenes?

In vitro (in test tubes) and preclinical animal studies have shown evidence of terpenes’ therapeutic benefits [3]. 

Still, we’ll point out how these are early days, and much of the terpene research hasn’t involved humans. There remains much to learn about what terpenes can do for us, but the future appears bright. 

Below is a list of medicinal properties that early research suggests might be present in terpenes:

• There’s a belief that some cannabis terpenes possess anticancer properties, helping inhibit cancer cell activity and growth [4]. If terpenes can help treat cancer, it appears they wouldn’t cause side effects or hamper already healthy cells. These traits could make cannabis an ideal alternative to chemotherapy one day.
• Terpenes—such as caryophyllene, camphor, carvone, and alpha-and-beta-pinene–can potentially kill viruses [5].
• Interestingly, terpenes are present in a quarter of all antidepressant drugs, with linalool and beta-pinene (both frequently found in cannabis) being the most common [6]. 
• Antimicrobial activity could prove itself a significant boon of terpenes for cannabis consumers. Alpha-bisabolol, geraniol, terpinolene, and eucalyptol might be able to stop microorganism progression or even kill microorganisms altogether [7]. 
• Studies have shown terpenes combining with cannabinoids to yield pain-relieving effects without causing adverse side effects [8].

Terpenes And The Entourage Effect

Therapeutic and medicinal properties aside, the primary allure of terpenes is their role in the entourage effect.

In a nutshell, the entourage effect suggests all components present in specific strains of cannabis affect its quality. While most people might think THC (the psychoactive component in cannabis) would have the most impact, the prevailing belief is that other cannabinoids and terpenes also impact the overall experience.

Choose The Right Terpenes

While we aren’t a medicinal dispensary at The Healing Side—nor can we offer medical advice—we do have cannabis rich with terpenes that might have therapeutic capabilities.

Our vast selection of cannabis contains an extensive array of terpenes that offer a variety of experiences, highs, and flavors.

Please stop by our Atlantic City, New Jersey, location today. Once there, you can peruse our products and discuss terpene content with our team of well-informed budtenders. You can also explore the menu of our website and send us any questions you might have about the terpene content in our available top-quality cannabis strains. 

Sources:

1. https://www.leafly.ca/news/cannabis-101/terpenes-the-flavors-of-cannabis-aromatherapy 
2. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/tpj.15453?af=R 
3. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-31269-5_15 
4. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11101-011-9212-6 
5. https://www.uclahealth.org/news/article/terpenes-and-cbd-may-reduce-inflammation-and-fight-viruses#:~:text=A%20study%20has%20found%20that,influenza%20A%20virus%20in%20cells. 
6. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-31269-5_15 
7. https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/24/14/2631 
8. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-87740-8