As you’re learning more about CBD and how it can help keeps you balanced, you’ll likely come across three terms: full-spectrum, decarboxylation, and entourage effect.

There’s a reason why so many people are seeking out CBD oil to encourage health and wellness. By understanding full-spectrum, decarboxylation, and the entourage effect, you’ll have a greater sense of how CBD provides its many restorative and balancing benefits. 

Full-spectrum is a term to describe hemp-derived CBD oil that contains many of the compounds naturally found in the hemp plant, including CBD, terpenes, flavonoids, and levels of other cannabinoids, 5 or more cannabinoids is considered full-spectrum 7-9 is optimal. 

While CBD is one of the most recognized and well-studied cannabinoids found in Full-Spectrum CBD oil it is just one of what scientists have so far identified to be more than 100 cannabinoids and over 400 total compounds in full-spectrum hemp oil.

Cannabinoids like CBD interact with the body’s major regulatory network – the endocannabinoid. The endocannabinoid system is responsible for regulating a wide array of the body’s functions, some of which include sleep, mood, appetite, and immune response. By stimulating the endocannabinoid system, CBD and the other cannabinoids in CBD oil support its efforts to keep everything balanced.

Full-spectrum CBD oil also contains some 20 flavonoids, which is a naturally occurring group of phytonutrients responsible for hemp’s vivid non-green color pigments and helping to protect the plant. It also has well as over 200 terpenes, the essential oils in cannabis that are known for giving the plants their distinct smell and taste. The purpose of terpenes appears to go beyond the role they play in aroma and flavor, and more are being discovered all the time on how they also can interact with the body’s endocannabinoid system to support health.

CBD products that do not contain full-spectrum CBD oil are typically referred to as CBD isolate. With CBD isolate, full-spectrum CBD oil undergoes a proprietary purification process that filters out the plant material and removes excess waxes. This process removes the additional cannabinoids, terpenes, and other compounds that full-spectrum CBD oil contains to produce a nearly-pure CBD isolate powder. CBD isolate are limited in the entourage effect and is an isolated spectrum of 1 cannabinoid. 

Decarboxylation is a crucial process for those who rely on the natural balancing properties of CBD. Decarboxylation is a process that exposes CBD oil to heat to elicit a chemical reaction that activates CBD and the other compounds in hemp oil, converting them into a form that allows them to interact with the body’s receptors.

Raw hemp oil, when extracted from hemp, contains cannabinoid acids rather than cannabinoids. Cannabinoid acids are inactive cannabinoids with an extra carboxyl ring attached to their molecular chain. When these acids are exposed to heat, or decarboxylated, a carboxyl group in their molecular structure is removed, converting them to active cannabinoids. For example, before becoming CBD through decarboxylation, CBD starts as CBDa (cannabidiolic acid) in raw hemp oil.

Cannabinoids like CBD must be activated to freely and directly interact with the endocannabinoid system’s receptors and supports its efforts to keep your body and its functions in balance where they should be.

The entourage effect is a theory proposing that the many compounds found in cannabis work synergistically to elicit their natural effects.

First introduced in 1998 by researchers Raphael Mechoulam and S. Ben-Shabat, the entourage effect theory suggests that the natural benefits of hemp are enhanced when it is full-spectrum and contains all of the cannabinoids, terpenes, and other natural compounds that are naturally found within the plant.

In short, these scientists propose that full-spectrum CBD oil, in which all the compounds work together synergistically to promote health, offers greater natural wellness properties than isolated CBD compounds alone.

According to the entourage effect theory, the value of CBD oil goes beyond being an ideal source of CBD. All the cannabinoids and terpenes work together to stimulate the endocannabinoid system and magnify the natural benefits of CBD oil.

In Loving-Kindness,

Jampha.