Very high CBD strains, which ones?

[love?]

Dunno if this has already been mentioned (17 pages wow) but...

Dutch company Bedrocan has a product like this:

Bediol® has a somewhat lower THC-level of appr. 6 % and a relatively high percentage of the non-psycho-active Cannabidiol (CBD) appr. 7,5 %. Bediol is available as Cannabis Flos Bediol® granulate.
All varieties are guaranteed free of pesticides and heavy metals. It is also purged of any micro organisms. Bedrocan, Bedrobinol and Bediol are supplied in packages of 5 grams only. Distributor is Fagron Pharmaceuticals in Nieuwekerk aan de IJssel. Cannabis Flos variations Bedrocan and Bedrobinol are medical substances registered under Dutch law.

Of course not available as seeds or clones (I guess) but available from pharmacies in some European countries. But you need a doctor that's willing to write a script for cannabis (which may be difficult, the system is a lot different than in Cali etc...).

 

[elmanito]

@entropical
I want to increase the cannabinoid profile of the strain Finola.I have also got one of the parents of the Finola strain, which is an autoflowering strain with resistance properties against fungi.I smoked this strain for more than a year to relieve my bronchitis.It gives a nice piney taste with no high or headache at all.First i have to make new seeds this year.

@love
Most Dutch doctors are not willing to write a script of medical marijuana to their patient.The cost of government pot is €9 ($11.70) per gram.They only give you 5 grams each time.If you wanna have more lets say 30 grams, thats not possible. The government pot is irradiated, which is in my eyes not needed if you follow the cGMP-guidelines and you test each box after production for micro-organisms, mycotoxins, heavy metals etc.
The government pot is not paid by your healthcare insurance, so you have to pay it by yourself.This is the situation at this moment in the Netherlands.
Like in Canada you can't get a license to grow your own.The Dutch medical patients still have to deal with an orthodox christian government who thinks that the use of Cannabis is not normal, said by a parlements member of CDA during the Cannabis Tribunal in The Hague last December.

Namaste

 

[Guest 26753]

This Changes Everything

Cannabidiol Now!

By FRED GARDNER

Two plants strains relatively rich in cannabidiol (CBD) have been identified by an analytic test lab recently established to serve the medical cannabis industry in California. That's two major stories in one sentence. Let's take it from the bottom…

In December a lab in the East Bay started testing samples of cannabis for pathogenic mold and the presence of three cannabinoids –THC, CBD and CBN (cannabinol). THC is the main psychoactive compound in the cannabis plant. CBD is a cannabinoid with intriguing medical potential that gets bred out of cannabis when the breeder's goal is high THC content (as it has been in California for generations). CBN is a breakdown product of THC, an indicator of time in storage.

The lab has been testing about 10 samples a day provided by Oakland's Harborside Health Center, whose proprietor, Steve DeAngelo, helped plan and underwrite the venture. Results from the lab are posted on labels affixed to the strains in Harborside's display cases. Thus prospective buyers are informed that the sparkly nuggets of Raspberry Kush they are savoring in a Petri dish are free of dangerous aspergillus and contain 14.3% THC by weight. (Percent CBD and CBN almost always round off to zero. That's about to change.)

DeAngelo's primary goal is to impose safety standards industry-wide. "We're giving the analytic laboratory project a beta rollout," he says, "to find the problems and eliminate them before seriously soliciting participation from other dispensaries. Then we'll see who's serious about the medical paradigm."

Running the lab are two 30-something entrepreneurs, D.L. and A.D, who spent about a year setting it up and refining their procedures under the tutelage of a sympathetic university-connected chemist. D.L. operates the gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer. A.L. is liaison to the dispensaries. They are planning to add tests for pesticides and certain terpenes –aromatic compounds that contribute to the effects of cannabis.

The advent of a test lab will change the medical cannabis industry in significant ways. For some growers and distributors thriving under the status quo, the documented presence of toxins in their products will force adjustments. The lab has found levels of mold and e coli that bear witness to unsanitary production methods. Deangelo says, "It can't be the whole family and friends sitting around with all the dogs in the living room. We're putting out the message: 'Clean up your trim areas, clean up your storage areas, do not have cannabis curing in an area that's exposed to animals. Set up a clean room and put on different clothes when you go in. Wear gloves. Wash your hands. In other words, remember that your product is medicine and treat it as medicine.'"

Harborside's savvy purchasing agent, Rick Pfrommer, notes that input from the lab has already led to growers cleaning up their acts. "Most of the people who have had mold in their cannabis are the people who didn’t have filters on their air intake. They may have had beautiful medicine, but they were pulling in whatever from the air. Now they've got filters."

When the lab begins testing for pesticides, indoor growers who have been using chemicals to kill mites and other pests will have to find organic alternatives or else peddle their wares to dispensaries that don't adopt safety standards. Expect some to argue that a little residual Avid on their cannabis buds isn't going to hurt anyone.

Eureka! (No, Laytonville!)

CBD predominates over THC in cannabis that grows wild (ditchweed) and plants grown for fiber (hemp). When plants are bred for psychoactivity CBD is replaced by THC because the same gene codes for one or the other cannabinoid. According to research done in Europe and Israel, CBD has anti-inflammatory, anti-convulsant, anti-psychotic, anti-oxidant, and neuroprotective properties. It also has a direct inhibitory effect on certain cancer cells.

Biologists at California Pacific Medical Center, Sean McAllister and Pierre Desprez, have determined that CBD inhibits breast cancer metastasis by suppressing a gene called Id-1. This winter they started working with mouse models of breast cancer, and if all goes well, they will be conducting clinical trial at CPMC in less than two years.

A British company, GW Pharmaceuticals, has developed a high-CBD strain that it mixes with a high-THC strain to make Sativex, a plant extract formulated for spraying under the tongue that has been approved in Canada and elsewhere to treat neuropathic pain. CBD evidently bolsters the pain-killing effects of THC while moderating its psychoactivity. In various studies, patients with severe pain have reported getting significantly more relief from Sativex, the mixture, than from GW's high-THC extract.

With a few notable exceptions the California cannabis samples tested to date have contained only trace amounts of CBD. The first notable exception exception occurred in late February when D.L. saw a spike on a computer-generated graph indicating a high level of CBD in one of the samples provided by Harborside. After some additional testing he confirmed that this strain, produced indoors in San Francisco, contained 4.2% CBD (and 8.9% THC) by weight.

DeAngelo promptly made arrangements with the grower to rev up production. Buds and clones from the strain of interest should be available at Harborside within months. "It would be immoral to try to hoard the genetic material," says Deangelo. As this story goes off to CounterPunch March 12, a second high-CBD strain has been identified, grown outdoors in Mendocino County. It is a little more than five percent CBD by weight.

Thus the medical marijuana movement/industry is entering a new stage. Growers will develop strains with higher CBD to THC ratios. Pro-cannabis doctors, who have long awaited high-CBD strains, are already planning rudimentary clinical trials to determine whether and in what ways high-CBD cannabis is beneficial.

Because CBD counters the anxiety induced by THC, a high-CBD strain might prove palatable to many people who dislike the way marijuana makes them feel. High-CBD strains might also enable patients who need megadoses to ingest them while remaining functional. According to Jeffrey Hergenrather, MD, "Patients with certain cancers, ulcerative colitis and Crohn's Disease, seizure disorders... they all need to maintain a higher blood level of cannabinoids than is convenient with our high-THC strains. For them, development of a high-CBD strain could be a life or death matter."

Whatever the outcome of clinical trials involving CBD, the effort alone -the attempt to produce and evaluate less psychoactive strains of marijuans- will refute the image of stoners paying lip-service to medical use that has tarnished the industry. And if and when the effectiveness of high-CBD cannabis in treating, say, rheumatoid arthritis, can be established, a wave of older Californians will be asking their doctors if cannabis is right for them.

Fred Gardner edits O’Shaughnessy’s, the journal of cannabis in clinical practice. He can be reached at [email protected]


http://www.counterpunch.org/gardner03132009.html

 

[Afghanicus]

Very interesting. i hope these higher CBD strains can be made available in the near future and at a reasonable price and in seed form as well a pure breeding CBD strain would be what i need and i'm sure many other people. I just hope it can be sooner rather than later.
About time they come up with some better treatments for conditions like ulcerative colitis and other inflammatory diseases as well as pain and anxiety etc.

 

[elmanito]

Thats interesting news to hear, but what sort of strains have the high CBD %.
Is there any info about that or should we send an email to the guy who wrote this article.

Namaste

 

[entropical]

Very interesting news coming in from Cali. This seems to be very open ended in contrast to GW. I think you should send in an email to the author elmanito, perhaps the lab will be willing to help you establish the cannabinoid profile of your breeding project. I wish you best of luck with it, and please do keep us updated. Thanx for this great post Moose!

 

[dreams]

Thats interesting news to hear, but what sort of strains have the high CBD %.
Is there any info about that or should we send an email to the guy who wrote this article.

Namaste

Yes, he needs to get in contact with someone from the Med users around here... to do some research and find the perfect medical strain... in this case a strain easy with easy access for the Med community.

 

[elmanito]

I already sended an email to Harborside Health Center few weeks ago, but still no answer at this moment.I was specially interested in the strain they found with 5.8% CBD-content, so if anyone in NorCal can contact them and send me a pm that would be nice.
This year i will start with Leb27.Danish friends sended me lot of seeds of this strain.

About the safety standards of medical marijuana
Health Canada has listed what the quality standard must be, especially the max of heavy metals, mycotoxins, micro-organisms, pesticides, fungicides etc
For people in California, you can also use the standards for dietary supplements, which also meet the standards of proposition 65 or the American Herbal Products Association.

Here is an example from Health Canada

Cannabinoids Analysis
Cannabinoids Analysis Lot 39 Results (g%)
Total THC (delta-9(trans) tetrahydracannabinol + tetrahydrocannabinolic acid) 14±0.8
CBD/CBG (Cannabidiol/Cannabigerol) LLOQ
CBN (Cannabinol) LLOQ
CBC (Cannabichromene) LLOQ

LLOQ is the acronym for Lower Limit of Quantification


Microbiological Analysis
Microbiological Analysis Lot 39 Results NHP Acceptable limits
Total Coliforms (MPN/g) <3* -
Std Plate Count Aerobic (CFU/g) <10 <1 X 105
Std Plate Count Anaerobic (CFU/g) <10 -
Yeast and Mold Count (CFU/g) <10* <1 X 104

NHP is the acronym for Natural Health Products
MPN is the acronym for Most Probable Number
CFU is the acronym for Colony-forming Unit
*: no colony detected, as tested

Mycotoxins Analysis
Mycotoxins Analysis Lot 39 Results
Aflatoxins
B1, B2, G1 and G2 BDL*
Ochratoxin A BDL**

*: limit of detection = 1.5 ng/g
**: limit of detection = 10.0 ng/g
BDL is the acronym for Below Detection Limit
ng = nanogram


Metals and Heavy Metals Analysis
Analyte Lot 39 Results (µg/g) NHP Acceptance limits (µg/kg b.w./day)
Mercury 0.002 < 0.29
Aluminum <8 -
Antimony <0.08 -
Arsenic <0.08 < 0.14
Barium 5.6 -
Beryllium <0.04 -
Bismuth <0.2 -
Cadmium 0.045 < 0.09
Calcium 21300 -
Chromium 0.4 < 0.29
Cobalt 0.1 -
Copper 8.2 -
Iron 100 -
Lead 0.05 0.29
Magnesium 4730 -
Manganese 110 -
Molybdenum 2 -
Nickel 0.2 -
Phosphorus 12100 -
Selenium <0.1 -
Silicon 459 -
Silver 0.04 -
Strontium 35 -
Thallium <0.02 -
Tin <0.4 -
Titanium 1.3 -
Vanadium <0.04 - -
Zinc 139 - -

µg/g: microgram of analyte per gram of plant tissue
µg/kg b.w./day: microgram of analyte per kilogram of body weight per day
(-): no established limits for this analyte
Calculation of acceptable limit for adult daily intake is based on average body weight of 70 kg and NHP acceptance limits

Namaste

 

[Afghanicus]

Elmanito, I can't find a good source for the lebanese so i am going to go with the parvati valley instead.

My last two seed orders never arrived which was a bit discouraging. If my order doesn't arrive this time i'm done with ordering seeds online for good. I don't have enough money to be throwing it around like that and then not getting what i ordered. Sadly i'm getting very little financial help from my government for my condition and my medical situation is such that i can not work.

peace and thanks to everyone for their input.

 

[dreams]

Ortega Indica has some CBD... I like the Northern Lights gene added to the gene pool.

 

[Truthman]

As I posted earlier in the thread, I doubt it's about strain as much as it's about minerals used to get the enzymes going which make certain cannabinoids.

When the article above says that high thc plants will give low cbd plants because of the genes, this is wrong because it has been shown that a plant can give high thc and cbd just based off of the nutrients it is given. I showed this in my earlier post in this thread.

Here is something talking about minerals and cannabinoids:

http://www.norml.org.nz/article422.html

"Soil Nutrients: Mineral balance seems to influence cannabinoid production. One study has shown the influence of soil K, P, Ca and N concentrations on Cannabis. They report a distinctly negative correlation between soil K and plant delta-9-THC content, although K-P interaction, N and Ca were positively correlated with it. These minerals were also shown to affect the production of CBD, delta-8-THC and cannabinol (CBN), although the latter two compounds are now thought to be degradation products of delta-9-THC. Optimal Fe (iron) and Mg (magnesium) levels have been found to be very important for plant synthesis of THC. It is suggested that these minerals (Mg and Fe) may serve as enzyme co-factors (like a catalyst). "

 

[onegreenday]

this is news to me.
I'd like to read that study on soil nutrients & THC but
there's no footnote to the study.

Do you know the title of the study?

 

[Truthman]

this is news to me.
I'd like to read that study on soil nutrients & THC but
there's no footnote to the study.

Do you know the title of the study?

I can't find the actual study BUT when you consider the fact that the body needs minerals in the right portion to get enzymes to do there job, keep us healthy, and give us the energy we need to make hormones and to be who we are why would plants be different?.

Also the nutrient challenge proves this somewhat because the plants were grown in the same conditions but food given was different.

Here's the video and the story:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teDlsFbNqDo

http://www.cannabisculture.com/articles/3158.html

"Weigh way more

Harvest day came 14 weeks after the clones were rooted.

"Our plants outdistanced the second place finisher by 65%," Straumietis said, after explaining how all the buds were cut and cured the same way. "Our six plants with one light produced 2.16 pounds of bud. We did two other comparisons. In one we took a 454-gram sample from each group and made water hash out of it. Our bud produced 12 grams of extracted glands, while Grow-Tek's came in second with 11.3 grams; even though they were the smallest plants overall."

Straumietis says he ran another comparison test that measured percentages of three cannabinoids. Again, Advanced Nutrients came out on top, producing 21.2% THC, and very low percentages of two other cannabinoids (cannabinol and cannabidiol, known as CBN and CBD), that limit marijuana's psychoactive effects.

The second place finisher in the cannabinoid percentage category was GrowTek, which produced 18.7% THC while also producing a whopping 9.09% CBD and 5.84% CBD. While CBD and CBN have some medical applications which THC does not, in practical terms important to those who want potent recreational marijuana, these cannabinoids can also reduce the psychoactive effects of THC."

 

[elmanito]

This link from an article of David W.Pate is usefull.

There is a misunderstanding that THC has no medical application, which is not true.Since 2000 we know more about the medical value of CBD and what it probably do in the body, but for some people like myself is THC very important instead of CBD.Even THCV is for some people with illness like diabetic II or obesitas very important.
Genetics and some other factors are important to get the right amount of some cannabinoids during cultivation & harvest.

Namaste

 

[onegreenday]

***When the article above says that high thc plants will give low cbd plants because of the genes, this is wrong because it has been shown that a plant can give high thc and cbd just based off of the nutrients it is given. I showed this in my earlier post in this thread.***

please post that info again.
The Advanced Nutrients test did not produce much CBD; even though they won their
nutrient challenge.

Also the THC levels achieved by Advanced Nutrients are not out of the normal range for that
strain. So did Advanced really increase THC or is that the genetic print for that
strain.

 

[Truthman]

***When the article above says that high thc plants will give low cbd plants because of the genes, this is wrong because it has been shown that a plant can give high thc and cbd just based off of the nutrients it is given. I showed this in my earlier post in this thread.***

please post that info again.
The Advanced Nutrients test did not produce much CBD; even though they won their
nutrient challenge.

Also the THC levels achieved by Advanced Nutrients are not out of the normal range for that
strain. So did Advanced really increase THC or is that the genetic print for that
strain.

This is what I was refering to from the article smoking moose presented:

"CBD predominates over THC in cannabis that grows wild (ditchweed) and plants grown for fiber (hemp). When plants are bred for psychoactivity CBD is replaced by THC because the same gene codes for one or the other cannabinoid. According to research done in Europe and Israel, CBD has anti-inflammatory, anti-convulsant, anti-psychotic, anti-oxidant, and neuroprotective properties. It also has a direct inhibitory effect on certain cancer cells."


Advanced nutrients only produced 3 grams more thc but the grotek still produced more cbd than advanced nutrients. 18% thc is a lot to me. That's why I said the article was wrong as far as high thc strains producing little cbd. Plus cbd is made from cbda synthase and thc is made from thca synthase, so thc and cbd are not made from the same gene encoding enzymes.

One thing that I thought was important was that the grotek plants were smaller that the other plants and came in last but the grotek plants had almost as much resin glands and cannabinoids as the advanced nutrient plants. That's big to me because it would make the plant more "potent" than the advanced nutrient plants because you would need less to get high as well as the cbd giving you a high that last longer than just thc and it would prevent you from developing a tolerance to it fast. CBD does these things.

 

[Pops]

While news of CBD containing strains is very welcome, I tend to doubt any info the says that CBD or THC is brought out by nutrients. That would suggest that hemp farmers could change nutrients and grow hemp strains that have too much THC for EU standards(.3%). I simply do not believe it. The presence of THC or CBd is determined by alleles at the B locus of one of the chromasoomes,as has been stated before. these alleles are supposed to be co-dominant, but I suspect that the is a slight dominance to the Bt allele that produces THC, as most BtBd strains that contain both THc and CBD usually have more THc than CBD.

Rather than blame higher or lower levels of THc or CBd on nutrients, we need to realize that there are variations in the enzymes that the plant produces in response to the presence of one of these alleles. If you have 2 sister plants, one may have variant A that causes the plant to have 10.6%THc and the other has variant B, which causes the plant to have 12% THC. That is why we have to select for the pheno that we want. Not all seeds from the same plant will grow exactly the same, with the same chemical characteristics. Environment(including nutrients) may affect the terpene content and the total levels of cannabinoids, but i do not think it would change the ratios or the presence(or lack) of a specific cannabinoid. I am certainly willing to be proven wrong, but I have seen no scientific evidence to the contrary yet.

 

[Truthman]

While news of CBD containing strains is very welcome, I tend to doubt any info the says that CBD or THC is brought out by nutrients. That would suggest that hemp farmers could change nutrients and grow hemp strains that have too much THC for EU standards(.3%). I simply do not believe it. The presence of THC or CBd is determined by alleles at the B locus of one of the chromasoomes,as has been stated before. these alleles are supposed to be co-dominant, but I suspect that the is a slight dominance to the Bt allele that produces THC, as most BtBd strains that contain both THc and CBD usually have more THc than CBD.

Rather than blame higher or lower levels of THc or CBd on nutrients, we need to realize that there are variations in the enzymes that the plant produces in response to the presence of one of these alleles. If you have 2 sister plants, one may have variant A that causes the plant to have 10.6%THc and the other has variant B, which causes the plant to have 12% THC. That is why we have to select for the pheno that we want. Not all seeds from the same plant will grow exactly the same, with the same chemical characteristics. Environment(including nutrients) may affect the terpene content and the total levels of cannabinoids, but i do not think it would change the ratios or the presence(or lack) of a specific cannabinoid. I am certainly willing to be proven wrong, but I have seen no scientific evidence to the contrary yet.

Pops, I don't think hemp can be made to make thc by changing nutrients because the enzyme needed to do this is most likely not in the plant itself. Hemp is the cousin of cannabis but indicas and sativas are more closely related but you never no what would happen if the nutrients are configured to activate an enzyme to produce thc. What is more important is how nutrients effect indica's and sativas. We already see nutrients doing something to these type of plants.

Also, the berline plants used in the challenge came from one mother plant, not different seeds so to have such a wide difference in potency and weight when the only thing that changed was nutrients seems to be a big reason to believe nutrients play a part in what cannabinoids will be produced.

Being that most plants have some type of indica in them and aren't pure sativas mean you can probably get cbd from most strain out on the market.

It is even being seen in mammals that different foods can turn on or off genes. The term is called Nutrigenomics. This is the new frontier that shows what you eat can affect your behavior as well as health

 

[Truthman]

Here is the article about food effecting genes:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18825264.800

"IT SOUNDS like science fiction: simply swallowing a pill, or eating a specific food supplement, could permanently change your behaviour for the better, or reverse diseases such as schizophrenia, Huntington's or cancer.

Yet such treatments are looking increasingly plausible. In the latest development, normal rats have been made to behave differently just by injecting them with a specific amino acid. The change to their behaviour was permanent. The amino acid altered the way the rat's genes were expressed, raising the idea that drugs or dietary supplements might permanently halt the genetic effects that predispose people to mental or physical illness.

It is not yet clear whether such interventions could work in humans. But there is good reason to believe they could, as evidence mounts that a range of simple nutrients might have such effects."

 

[Truthman]

BTW, I think looking at plant ligands such as flavonoids as well as minerals might play apart in cannabinoids being produced because they also activate or inactivate genes.

For instance polyphenols in lemon peel act as ligands and help prevent obesity in mice.

This can also be why good active type of cannabis that gives a more energetic feel have a citrus like taste. It might be our body working to prevent fat accumulation but we sense this as feeling motivated.

Maybe using calming herb extracts such as chamomille or Valerian root with some alcohol to extract as much active chemicals can help produce more cbd and calming essential oils to be produced.