Ask Dr. Shulgin Online
ARCHIVE: April 2,
2001
THC and Lichens
Dear Dr. Shulgin:
In PIHKAL you have mentioned that the chemicals obtained from
lichens can easily be brought to react with certain essential oils from natural sources,
to make synthetic tetrahydrocannabinol. Are there more detailed references to this
process beyond what is in your book? Tengu
Dear Tengu:
There
certainly are! The tetrahydrocannabinol molecule from Cannabis can be viewed as a
combination of two very different halves.
The right half (as the structure is usually drawn) resembles the nucleus of many of the
substituted benzene-ring containing components found throughout the lichen world.
Isolation of these products can give the raw materials that can be converted to the
compound olivetol, a simple amyl-substituted resorcinol compound.
The left half is a terpene which contains ten carbon atoms, and which is substantially
identical to the essential oil, pulegone. This component makes up some 80 to 90% of the
Oil of Pennyroyal.
The fusion of these two materials has been shown (Claussen et al., Tetrahedron Vol. 24 p.
2879 (1968)), to produce several products, one of which is delta-3-THC. This is a
close structural isomer of delta-9-THC, the principal active component of marijuana, and
is known to be active in man.
--
Dr. Shulgin
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