As the title states, how are you all labeling your cannabis strains and resulting products? Guessing? Making assumptions based on perceived or actual genetic lineages? Just using what someone else told you?
After a discussion today, @cyclopath sent me this article:
Turns out, it’s the terps we should really be paying attention to.
Are any of you already categorizing strains (or even different phenos of strains) based on specific terpenes or combinations of terpenes, and if so, mind sharing so we can start making a real database for what to label the ever changing genetics we get to work with and/or consume? If we can get some kind of conformity and normalcy in the nomenclature we use, I think we’ll all be better for it.
It looks like that’s limited to 44 “major” terpenes. I think there’s some sulfur compounds that are rather interesting also, and glanced over when considering flavor, aroma, and effects. I suspect they actually provide some of the flavors and aromas I’m fond of.
Sesquiterpenes (also mentioned in the first study I posted), triterpenes, thyols, and mercaptans are rarely, if ever, tested for in the cannabis industry. It takes such a small quantity of them to dramatically effect the scent (and likely modulate the overall experience) of an item. I’d love to see standardized testing move to quantifying them, too. I bet you would find more of these heavier compounds in the more sedative (heavier) feeling strains.
The fun part of this is fighting the uphill battle with consumer education. They all think in indica/sativa which we have known for a while is incorrect
The truth is, just about everything these days is a hybrid. There’s still a few things you can find that are close to original landrace strains, but most of them have been boofed up in an effort to increase yields, etc.
As a 30-year plant scientist: “they’re all #%%*ing hybrids.” The single-cluster topology of the Phylos Galaxy dataset makes it difficult to conclude otherwise.
As a cannabis business owner that is 100% reliant on sales: if the people buying my products want/need to see “sativa”, “indica”, or “hybrid” written on the front of the package, then I would be foolish not to put that on the front of the package, because not doing so equates to fewer sales.
As a scientist, and an intellectual purist, I have always struggled with the gross disconnect between advertising/sales and what we know to be true. This is a hard one for me, and I will likely always struggle with it. That said, as a small business owner, sales trump.
I read an article a while back from research being conducted in the Netherlands where the researcher had supporting evidence that terpenoids were found in greater abundance in Indica strains vs hybrids/sativas. I will see if I can find the paper. Kind of supporting the claim that the terpene/terpenoid profile is more indicative of effect.
Yield and flowering time are likely key drivers here. As one would expect, wild cultivars, landraces, and inbred lines do not yield well. High yield requires breeding and selection. Breeding is hybridization.
