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Liverworts are a group of about 9,000 species of spore-producing plants. They are distributed all over the world but are much more common in the tropics. ( University of Bern )
It is discovered that one type of foam is potentially more "medically effective" than cannabis, with less psychoactive effect. It is marketed online as a "high legal".
& # 39; Legal High & # 39;
For a long time, cannabis was known to be the only plant to produce tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), used by many people to treat various conditions such as dizziness, loss of appetite and pain, but it is still considered a Illegal drug and can side effects. Indeed, THC has a powerful psychoactive effect when it is used at higher doses.
It was in 1994 that Japanese phytochemist Yoshinori Asakawa discovered that the hepatic plant Radula perrottetii actually contained a substance that looked a lot like THC, but had a different three-dimensional structure and an additional benzyl group. He called it perrottetinene.
Just a few years ago, Dr. Jürg Gertsch, of the University of Bern, discovered that liverworts were advertised online as "legal highs", although at the time, there was no information on its pharmacological properties.
More "medically effective" than THC
Now, animal model studies carried out by the Gertsch research team, in collaboration with a research team from ETH Zurich's chemistry department, have compared THC and perrottetinene. They also revealed that perrottetinene can easily reach the brain and trigger or activate cannabinoid receptors in the same way endocannabinoids do. They further found that the substance had an even more potent anti-inflammatory effect in the brain than THC and that its psychoactive effect was lower.
In comparison, THC is therapeutically effective for treating various low dose conditions, but it has severe psychoactive effects in higher patients. It is for this reason that THC, although effective for some, is not yet widely used by many. In simple terms, perrottetinene may be more "medically effective" than THC, although more researchers are needed to fully understand its pharmacological potential.
"It's amazing that only two plant species, separated by 300 million years of evolution, produce psychoactive cannabinoids," Gertsch said.
The article is published in Progress of science.
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