a new "foam" more effective than THC

It's in a new plant, a moss, that researchers at the University of Bern have discovered a substance similar to cannabis. It is derived from the "Radula", a rare moss native to Japan, which also exists in New Zealand and Costa Rica. It was discovered in 1994 by Japanese phytochemist Yoshinori Asakawa.

After conducting pharmaceutical research on this foam, the researchers discovered that its active ingredient, a natural substance called cis-perrottetinene (PET), exerts a similar anti-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory effect but is superior to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main active substance of cannabis. The study is published in the journal Science Advances.

Less psychoactive side effects

This discovery is still in its infancy but researchers say that this foam could become a medical alternative more effective than cannabis for therapeutic use. Although THC has demonstrated in some studies that some parts of the brain are able to inhibit chronic pain, its planar side effects are a hindrance to its therapeutic use.

It is not the same for cis-perrottetinene (PET) sembe it. "This natural substance has a weaker psychoactive effect and, at the same time, is able to inhibit inflammatory processes in the brain," added Andrea Chicca, of the Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine at the University of Bern .

More research needed to confirm the efficacy of cannabinoids

The researchers hope that their work will pave the way for the therapeutic use of cis-perrottetinene (PET), in the same way that medical cannabis is used to treat various chronic diseases. The authors of the study, however, point out that this plant is very poorly known and they stress the absolute necessity of conducting further research before the Radula is, on the one hand, consumed and, on the other hand, officially presented as an alternative to medical cannabis.

"It is amazing that only two plant species, separated by 300 million years of evolution, produce similar psychoactive cannabinoids," said lead author Jürg Gertsch in a statement. "Solid basic research in the field of biochemical and pharmacological mechanisms as well as controlled clinical studies is needed to carry out research on cannabinoids".

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