Over the years there has been great interest in the Benefits of the entourage effect. This is where all of the molecular components of the cannabis plant, including cannabinoids, terpenes, and other phytonutrients, work together to support and potentially enhance each other’s medicinal properties.
A study published in late 2020 compared full-spectrum cannabidiol (CBD) oils with CBD isolates to assess their effects on cancer cells.[1] The study focused on six cancer cell lines from three human cancers: colon cancer, melanoma, and glioblastoma. Using cell cultures, the six cancer lines were treated with commercially available CBD oils or CBD isolate. The cell cultures were then monitored for 48 hours before cancer cell viability was measured.
All three CBD oils used in this study were evaluated through third-party laboratory tests to confirm their content and purity. A second round of confirmatory testing revealed very few inconsistencies: “Each oil was independently tested to be within 8% of the stated CBD concentration.”[1] The oils were also subjected to terpene, chlorophyll and carotenoid content analysis.
The study found that the CBD isolate was most effective at reducing cell viability in three of the six lines tested when compared to full-spectrum CBD. The authors therefore concluded that the entourage effect did not appear to potentiate the effects of CBD on cell viability in the cancer lines tested. One worrying note was that some of the oils appeared to protect cancer cells from the CBD.
It’s important to note the wide variety of CBD formulations and full spectrum products to choose from. With higher levels of different cannabinoids or different terpene mixtures (their oils contained alpha and beta ferns, transcaryophylls, alpha humulene, and alpha bisbolol) they could have had very different results.
So this study does not mean that the entourage effect is not real, but it does suggest that the entourage effect is absent when using CBD oils to reduce the viability of cancer cells in tissue cultures under the specific conditions examined here. These results indicate that not only the entourage effect, but also the use of certain oils as carriers for cannabinoids such as CBD, needs further investigation.
Credit: Doodlart
Image source: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/stem-cells-embryonic-dna-3d-5004507/
reference
- Raup-Konsavage WM et al. Cannabidiol (CBD) oil does not show an entourage effect in reducing cancer cell viability in vitro. Medical cannabis and cannabinoids. 2020; 3: 95-102.