Another study has found evidence of an “entourage effect” where marijuana compounds work together to achieve results that are more robust than the sum of their parts—but it also says that the effect may be more nuanced than earlier research has indicated.
Specifically, researchers at the Open University of Israel determined that different terpenes don’t simply add to the effects of THC. It depends on the type of terpenes involved and the cannabinoid receptors that are targeted.
In addition to potentiating THC activation in cannabinoid receptors, some interactions are synergistic. That’s the case when terpenes such as borneol, limonene, sabinene, terpineol, α-pinene and ocimene interact with CB1 receptors and when β-caryophyllene and linalool interacts with CB2 receptors.
In other words, the pre-proof study set to be published in the journal Biochemical Pharmacology suggests the entourage effect is more complicated than it’s commonly understood to be.
“Terpene mixtures displayed dose-dependent CB1R activation, and several mixtures synergistically enhanced THC responses,” it found. “Together, our findings suggest that cannabis terpenes may act as both partial orthosteric agonists and allosteric modulators at CB1R and CB2R.”
“These findings refute early, overly broad interpretations of a generalized ‘entourage effect,’ replacing them with terpene-specific mechanistically based framework.”
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