Types of cannabinoids
Cannabinoids are a family of compounds made by the cannabis plant. Labs routinely measure a handful of them in flower: THC, CBD, CBG, CBC, CBN and THCV, and the acid forms that most of them start as. This page shows how they relate to one another and how much of each labs find in flower.
THCV and its acid THCVA are the propyl versions of THC and THCA: the same ring structure with a shorter side chain. Simplified. The plant makes cannabinoids mostly as acids; heat and light turn them into the neutral forms.
Totals on a label
Typical amounts in flower
These are the amounts labs measure in flower. They say nothing about how a cannabinoid acts in the body.
How the main cannabinoids are related
Most cannabinoids in fresh cannabis are acids, named with an A at the end: THCA, CBDA, CBGA. The plant builds them from one shared starting molecule, CBGA, using a different enzyme for each branch. When an acid loses a small part of its structure as carbon dioxide, which happens with heat or light, it becomes the neutral form: THCA becomes Δ9-THC, CBDA becomes CBD.
That is why lab reports list both forms, and why labels use "total THC", which counts THCA by its THC weight. Try the total THC calculator.
About cannabinoids
How many cannabinoids are there?
A 2021 review counted 125 cannabinoids isolated or identified in cannabis, but most occur only in tiny amounts. Lab reports usually cover a short list of the main ones, and in most flower THCA or CBDA makes up most of the total.
What does the "A" in THCA mean?
It stands for acid. THCA is tetrahydrocannabinolic acid, the form the plant makes. It carries an extra carboxyl group (COOH) that THC doesn't have.
Why is CBN so rare in your data?
CBN isn't made by the plant's enzymes: it forms when THC is oxidized, for example with heat. The strip shows how few strains in our data have enough CBN results to print.
Why don't you describe what each cannabinoid does?
This page is about chemistry and lab measurements. Questions about health or effects belong with a doctor, not a strain reference.
Sources
- The gene controlling marijuana psychoactivity: molecular cloning and heterologous expression of Δ1-tetrahydrocannabinolic acid synthase from Cannabis sativa L.. Journal of Biological Chemistry (Sirikantaramas S, Morimoto S, Shoyama Y, et al.).
- Cannabidiolic-acid synthase, the chemotype-determining enzyme in the fiber-type Cannabis sativa. FEBS Letters (Taura F, Sirikantaramas S, Shoyama Y, et al.).
- Purification and characterization of cannabichromenic acid synthase from Cannabis sativa. Phytochemistry (Morimoto S, Komatsu K, Taura F, Shoyama Y).
- Decarboxylation study of acidic cannabinoids: a novel approach using ultra-high-performance supercritical fluid chromatography/photodiode array-mass spectrometry. Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research (Wang M, Wang YH, Avula B, et al.).
- Phytocannabinoids: a unified critical inventory. Natural Product Reports (Hanuš LO, Meyer SM, Muñoz E, Taglialatela-Scafati O, Appendino G).
- Cannabinoids, phenolics, terpenes and alkaloids of Cannabis. Molecules (Radwan MM, Chandra S, Gul S, ElSohly MA).
- Tetrahydrocannabivarin (CID 93147). PubChem, National Center for Biotechnology Information (NIH).
- Tetrahydrocannabivarinic acid (CID 59444416). PubChem, National Center for Biotechnology Information (NIH).
- Tetrahydrocannabinol (CID 16078). PubChem, National Center for Biotechnology Information (NIH).
- delta9-Tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (CID 98523). PubChem, National Center for Biotechnology Information (NIH).
- Methodology and data pipeline (method version 1.0.0). CannabisStrains.com.