Terpenes Overview
Terpenes are organic compounds responsible for the special aromas of plants, produced by virtually all plants that include cannabis. Amazingly, some animals and insects also create terpenes. Whether you know it or not, if you buy your buds based on smell, you are using terpenes to help choose which bud you select rather than using the THC level. If a certain strain doesn't smell as good to you, it could just be that your internal biochemistry meshes better with that particular bud so that it is more medicinally suited for you. There are approximately 150 terpenes in cannabis that act synergistically with the other cannabinoids in the plant to create the "Entourage Effect," making the medicinal value of the plant higher. Terpenes themselves have therapeutic properties and might help cannabinoids pass through our bloodstream. What is unique about terpenes is that they all affect things differently, and they interact with the neurotransmitters in our brain, which leads to various impacts on our mood. Lots of research has gone into the terpenes in cannabis. Much of the terpenes have proven to be therapeutic, helping with things like pain, inflammation, depression, and anxiety, to name a few. Other than the main terpenes, known as monoterpenes, which are found in large quantities, cannabis also contains various other terpenes, including di-terpenes and tri-terpenes. A single plant can have more than a hundred different terpenes! Here are 10 of the most common terpenes found in cannabis, in no particular order.- Myrcene
