Psychoactivity of CannabinoidsBiology 342 Fall 06Web Design by Courtney Chapman and Ryan Goehrung |
|
Home Page
Why is it important to understand the relationship of cannabinoids and the brain?Humans realized
the psychoactive affects of cannabinoids
thousands of years ago. The most well known source of
external
cannabinoids comes from the plant Cannabis
sativa,
known colloquially as marijuana. Ancient Chinese and Indian
texts
dating as far back as 2700 BCE describe the use of cannabis in
medicinal and ritual applications. The Ancient Greek
historian
Herodotus describes the use of cannabis as an intoxicant by a nomadic
tribe of Western Europe in the 4th Century BCE and archeological
evidence dating even farther back confirms the presence and ritualistic
use of cannabis in Northern and Western
Europe.
Although humans
have utilized the potent chemicals
contained in this plant for several millennia, the biochemical
processes and affects are still not well understood. Research
in
the last few decades has only just begun to shed light on the
psychoactivity of cannabinoids. And while scientist have made
many important and unforeseen discoveries regarding cannabinoids
affects on the brain, the result of most research seems to be more
questions rather than answers.
The main psychoactive ingredient in Cannabis sativa is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinoid, or THC. Recent research has led to the discovery of specific cannabinoid receptors endogenous, meaning within, humans as well as in many other organisms. These inherent cannabinoid receptors, which THC and other cannabinoids act upon, are now called CB1 and CB2. CB1 is mainly located in the brain and gonads and is largely responsible for the psychoactive affects of cannabinoids, while CB2 is concentrated mainly in peripheral cells and is responsible for many other bodily effects including affects on the immune system. Although, cannabis is the most commonly known source of cannabinoids THC is by no means the only cannabinoid, in fact many other CB1 and CB2 agonists and antagonists have recently been discovered. The purpose of this website is to inform readers about the interesting and extensive ways that cannabinoids interact with the brain and body via the recently discovered endocannabinoid system. In particular this website focuses on the behaviors linked to the activation or inhibition of the psychoactive CB1 receptor. Due to the complicated biochemical processes necessarily involved with the discussion of the endocannabinoid system, the following structure will apply to the linked topics: First, each subtopic will be described as thoroughly as possible using all necessary terminology. Then, the above information will be summarized as simply and succinctly as possible in order to make this website accessible to all. Note from the Authors: The information in
this site is presented
from a purely scientific point of view. We here present the
most
accurate, detailed and unbiased information available to us.
We
wish neither to advocate or oppose, legalization or use of external
cannabinoids. We wish only to inform readers about what is
currently known, and to make clear that much is left undiscovered on
the subject. We seek only to persuade others to inform
themselves
of the consequences of their actions before acting. For example, the
use of cannabis by ancient societies as medicines is an often cited
arguement for recreational ingestion of the plant in current times;
however, with a bit more information one would find that the same
ancient societies used now universally recognized harmful procedures
such as bloodletting or the ingestion of mercury. In
summation,
we, the authors, believe knowledge and understanding are two of the
most powerful tools available to persons in a free society and seek
merely to promote the spread of information.
Some other informative websites on the topic of cannabinoids and the endocannabinoid system include the following (Note: Any views expressed in these sites or links from these sites are not those held by the authors of this particular page, nor can their accuracy be attested to by the authors of this site): |
|