„Happy Herb Co`s product line is by far the best in the country, our customers love it every time they arrive! From dried herbs to tinctures, we know their products are of the highest quality and we love working with a company that promotes plant life and defends people`s right to manage their own health! Figure 3. Properties of liverwort gametophytes and sporophytes The Forbes article highlighting liverwort had a lot to do with raising public awareness of the plant. The article claims that liverwort was sold as a legal high. This article was published in 2018. The first liverwort studies date back to 1994, when a Japanese researcher described the plant and its properties. A variety of liverwort comes from Japan. „This is a very exciting time, as major spirits and pharmaceutical companies have invested billions of dollars in cannabis companies and clinical laboratories throughout the year,“ Able said. Russo explained that this discovery should lead to additional biochemical prospecting in other liver species in this often overlooked group of „primitive“ plants. Several plants other than marijuana are known to contain cannabinoids, but cannabis is the only one that contains THC. However, this form of liverwort contains a compound that is structurally similar to THC, but significantly reduced in terms of psychoactive potency. PET also has similar anti-inflammatory properties to THC, but it may provide better medical outcomes. These liver strands have long been marketed as a „legal“ high.
However, the high is significantly reduced compared to that induced by THC. We asked a prominent researcher about the human use of liver-derived cannabinoids and got this answer: the team found that PET works in the same way as THC, but with significant differences. Like THC, PET binds to the cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2, but at concentrations about 10 times lower. It also binds to the mood receptors serotonin and dopamine, but only at much higher concentrations. The first time with cbd vape oil and I have to say it worked surprisingly with my anxiety and helped me sleep and even have a bit of frivolous neck pain. I suffer from arthritis in my spine and also sciatica and lumbar spondylitis and normal medications do not work, but it relieved the pain, made it more bearable and it was only 100 mg, so I just ordered again, but a higher dose, the taste is excellent, I was very satisfied with my product. Around 1994, a Japanese phytochemist, Yoshinori Asakawa, discovered a substance similar to THC (the psychoactive component found in marijuana) in a species of liverwort (Radula perrottetii) and named it perottetines (PET). The same cannabinoid was later found in Radula marginata, another type of liverwort, in 2002.
Now, scientists are trying to use three strands of liverwort of the genus Radula as an alternative painkiller to cannabis. „Although this activity has been demonstrated by positive effects on the mouse tetrad of hypothermia (lowered temperature), catalepsy (frozen behavior), hypolocomotion (decreased movement) and analgesia (pain reduction) and has been shown to enter the brain, it is unlikely to become an important target for recreational users due to their relatively low potency and especially that liverworts will become develop very slowly and are difficult to grow. Russo added. Currently, Switzerland, where Gertsch is based, allows the cultivation and sale of cannabis strains containing less than 1% THC and instead containing the non-psychoactive compound cannabidiol (CBD). Only one cannabis product is legally sold for medical purposes, but terminally ill patients can apply for the drug. There`s a long way to go to the point where liver concentrations are sold in pharmacies, Gertsch explained. They should first test the compound on mouse models of pain or inflammation, find a way to make the molecule (perhaps by putting the genes that code for PET in another foam), find the right dosage, look for side effects, and possibly conduct human studies. This process, he said, requires a „huge investment.“ A recent study conducted by a group of scientists in Bern, Switzerland, that looked at a cannabinoid extracted from a rare moss-like plant — a member of the liverwort family — that only grows in Japan, New Zealand and Costa Rica — has revealed potentially beneficial properties that can be valuable for people with inflammation and chronic pain. Liverworts are also called Radula perrottetii. It`s foam.
Mosses are plants, believe it or not, although they look like fungi and grow in surprising places in a matte growth pattern. Liverworts are being studied at the University of Bern because they produce a THC-like chemical, perottetins with similar effects and a reduced ability to cause a high side effect (Chicca, Schafroth and Reynoso-Moreno). Since cannabis sativa has proven so useful in the treatment of diseases such as multiple sclerosis and cancer-related nausea and pain, the appearance of this foam on the medical scene is a very promising development. To extract sufficient amounts of PET from the liver plant, Gertsch worked with his colleague Erick Carreira, whose team developed a new synthetic method to preserve the 3D structure of the compound at the molecular level. „The work of Jürg Gertsch and his colleagues is a significant step forward in understanding the role of plants beyond cannabis in the endocannabinoid system,“ said Ethan Russo, neurologist and director of research and development at the International Cannabis and Cannabinoid Institute (ICCI). Hepatic perrotetins, Radula marginata, have been shown to weakly stimulate the CB1 receptor, to which THC and the endocannabinoids anandamide (ANA) and 2-arachidonylglycerol (2-AG) also bind. It is known that low doses of THC can offer therapeutic potential when it comes to treating various chronic diseases. But THC is therapeutically limited due to a strong psychoactive effect at higher doses, except that it is illegal at the moment. I have bought CBD crystals several times now, I am very happy with the speed of delivery of the package and the whole tbh shopping experience, and I am really looking forward to trying other products from the CBD range too, I highly recommend Ice Cream Headshop. Anecdotally, liverworts send users on a gentle, weed-like journey where they feel „tingling“ or „out of the body.“ Large amounts of this bioactive substance were required for pharmacological studies. The collaboration with chemists from Erick Carreira`s group at ETH Zurich was fundamental to this research project, as it would have been impossible to isolate the natural substance from the liverwort, which only grows in Japan, New Zealand and Costa Rica.
To this end, Erick Carreira`s group has developed a new synthesis method to control the three-dimensional structure at the molecular level. „This study is an excellent example of how new synthetic concepts can contribute to our pharmacological knowledge of biologically active natural products,“ says Michael Schafroth, welcoming the work of ETH Zurich. As a PhD student under the supervision of Professor Carreira, Schafroth focused on new methods of cannabinoid synthesis. „Cannabinoid research requires both solid basic research in the field of biochemical and pharmacological mechanisms and controlled clinical trials,“ Gertsch explains. To achieve this, researchers from different disciplines work together. A few years ago, Gertsch noticed that liverworts were advertised online as „legal highs“ used by recreational and medical users in Switzerland, New Zealand and other parts of the world. However, no research has been done to evaluate the pharmacological properties of the cannabinoids contained in the plant. Gertsch teamed up with his colleague Erick Carreira from the Department of Chemistry at ETH Zurich and compared THC and PET. What they realize is that the cannabinoid isolated from this liverwort and the THC present in cannabis are chemically similar, but also produce quite similar effects in the mammalian brain.
We were pleasantly surprised to discover a tincture of Radula marginata made and sold in the United States. We look forward to the reports that will be published on people`s experiences with this. We don`t yet know what effects perottetins can have on organ systems such as the liver and kidneys, let alone on the full extract. The long history of traditional use is promising, as it means that the plant evolved with a group of people and therefore humans can prove that they can treat the plant and would have known from experience if the plant would be poisonous. However, we should wait for scientific studies to confirm all safety claims. In addition, it would be desirable to use the plant only in the manner approved by the Maori users who have the most experience with it. Any other context of use is high risk because we have no information about what happened to other people who tried to smoke it or take tinctures that were not created in a traditional cultural context. So you`re a guinea pig, which is fine, but we want to be aware that we want to take risks and make sure our goal is worth it. When I asked Gertsch if it wouldn`t be easier to legalize cannabis, he replied with a smile, „Of course, this is an ongoing discussion here too.