Know Your Terpenes

You Can’t See Them, But You Can Definitely Smell Them—And Feel Their Effects!

It’s time for a bit of terpene education!

Terpenes are aromatic oils, naturally created by plants, that give them distinctive smells and tastes.

Over 200 terpenes have been found in the cannabis plant, while there are over 30,000 different types of botanical terpenes in nature.

Terpenes can act as a bug repellent to protect the plant, or they can act as an attractant for pollinators.

And they’re even really helpful with disease resistance within the plants.

Let’s talk about one of my favorite brands of flower—LAKEGRADE.

They have a strain called Lemon Sour Diesel, and one of the abundant terpenes in this strain is myrcene.

It has a really skunky smell, and the myrcene actually acts on the blood-brain barrier by altering it and helping the cannabinoids penetrate more effectively.

There’s also caryophylline, and the fun thing about this terpene is that it can also be found in black pepper!

And because caryophylline interacts with your CB2 receptors, it technically doubles as a cannabinoid.

Limonene of course can be found in your cannabis plants—but it’s also super abundant in citruses, and even in household cleaning products & cosmetics.

These are just a few of the over 200 terpenes that have been found in cannabis.

The cool thing is—not every species, or even every strain of cannabis is going to have the same terpene makeup.

Factors such as where and how the cannabis is grown, the weather, soil conditions, and more will affect the terpene profile that develops in each plant.

That’s why I always say, when it comes to selecting your bud, look less at the labels, and trust your nose!

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