All you need to know about Cannabigerol (CBG)
Cannabis is an extremely complex plant, and it contains many more cannabinoids than just THC and CBD.
What is CBG?
How many cannabinoids do you think a cannabis plant contains? So far, more than 60 cannabinoid compounds have been discovered, and Cannabigerol (CBG) is one of them. CBG is a non-psychoactive cannabinoid that can help treat multiple medical conditions, diseases, and illnesses.
How is it different than THC and CBD?
Cannabinoids are a diverse class of chemical compounds that occur naturally in the human body. Among the 500 or so natural components in cannabis, more than 100 are classified as phytocannabinoids.
Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the best-known compound due to its psychoactive qualities, while cannabidiol (CBD) appears to play the most significant role in the plant’s medicinal benefits. Other key phytocannabinoids include cannabigerols (CBG), cannabichromenes (CBC), cannabinol (CBN) and cannabinodiol (CBL).
Innovation alert: Companies are looking into CBG and other lesser known cannabis compounds
Ascent Industries Corp. recently announced that through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Agrima Botanicals Corp. has developed a proprietary methodology for producing a variety of discrete, water-soluble cannabinoids, both in powder and liquid form.
Cannabinoids in their natural state are oil-based and non-water soluble, making it challenging for beverage makers and edibles manufacturers to evenly suspend and standardize their product mixtures. Water-soluble cannabinoids emulsify evenly, allowing both beverage and edibles makers to completely standardize their product mixtures, giving end consumers a consistent, high-quality product experience.
The company expects to provide a variety of discrete cannabinoids, including THC, CBD, CBN and CBG distillates, isolates and water-soluble formulates, to medical and adult-use product manufacturers globally.
There’s more! CROP develops genetics and micropropagation laboratory in Nevada
CROP Infrastructure Corp. has announced that its 49 percent-owned subsidiary, Elite Ventures, is nearing completion of a 1,600 square foot genetics, tissue culturing and micropropagation laboratory at the company’s Nevada Farms.
The objective “will be to provide 10 million plant starts for the company’s 2,115 acres of CBD farms. By propagating in the lab, the company will save approximately $3 million in seed and planting costs for the 2019 season,” notes a statement from CROP, which is focused on cannabis branding and real estate assets.
Beyond saving on planting costs is “the mandate of developing proprietary genetics to maximize yield and provide the company a global edge with specific attention paid to the over 100 other photocannabinoids, beginning with cannabinol (CBN) and cannabigerol (CBG),” the statement continues.
The only drawback…
There’s still more research that needs to be done.
“There are over 100 cannabinoids in the plant,” Kideckel explains, most of which are too costly to extract. “While THC and CBD can be readily extracted from the plant, it is the rare cannabinoids that you can’t get right now. In a lab, it does not matter what you’re producing, the cost remains the same.”
But very little research has been done on the lesser-known components of the cannabis plant like cannabigerol (CBG) or cannabichromene (CBC) that it is hard to foresee their potential benefits, let alone demand for them as active pharmaceutical ingredients.