What Does Weed Smell?

What Causes the Aroma of Marijuana? – Marijuana is derived from the cannabis plant’s dried flowers and leaves. Cannabis sativa and cannabis indica are two widespread types of this plant. Sativa strains may have a sweeter aroma, but indica strains may have an earthier aroma.

• Additionally, elder cannabis plants have a stronger scent than younger ones.
• There are several methods to ingest marijuana, including: Smoked in a pipe smoked in rolled papers brewed into teas consumed in foods (edibles) vaped.
• The odor of marijuana is not caused by its psychoactive components, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) or cannabidiol (CBD) (CBD).

Instead, terpenes are responsible for the odor of marijuana’s dried leaves and flowers.

What does cannabis smell like skunk?

Home News Little mysteries of life A young skunk preparing to spray. (Photo courtesy of Shutterstock) If you’ve ever smelt well-preserved, unburned cannabis buds and thought they smelled skunky — or, less likely, been sprayed by a skunk and wondered why you smelled like cannabis — you may wonder why the two smell so similar.

• In other words, why does the odor of cannabis resemble skunk spray? According to a 2021 research published in the journal ACS Omega (opens in new tab), the odiferous components of both drugs are prenylated volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs), a subset of volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
• The study’s primary author, Iain Oswald, an analytical chemist at Abstrax Tech, a business that manufactures aromatic molecules known as terpenes in Tustin, California, told Live Science: “We thought sulfur-containing compounds were the sources of this odour, basically based on chemical intuition as scientists.” After instance, “skunks had a lot of volatile organic compounds in their aerosol spray,” thus the researchers hypothesized that cannabis had comparable features.

How can cannabis cause intoxication? Amber Wise stated that while the sulfurous roots of the plant’s odor were possibly anticipated, the uniqueness of some of the chemicals uncovered by the scientists was not. Wise is the scientific director and an analytical chemist at Medicine Creek Analytics, a cannabis testing laboratory located in Fife, Washington.

1. He was not engaged in the study.
2. The skunky smell, egg smell, and if you want to call it ‘fart smell,’ they are all sulfur compounds,” Wise told Live Science.
3. It was unexpected to learn that cannabis has unique compounds.” These chemicals include VSC6 and VSC7, which, according to Oswald, have never been discovered in plants.

More than 200 secondary metabolites — tiny compounds plants create to defend themselves against predators, such as insects, or to attract pollinators — contribute to cannabis’ complex fragrance profile. Terpenes are the most abundant in terms of concentration; six of the aromatic chemicals are each individually responsible for up to fifty percent of the odor variance across various cannabis strains or cultivars, according to the study’s authors.

1. For instance, the terpenes -myrcene and -caryophyllene are responsible for the gasoline-like aroma of the cannabis strain OG Kush, but greater quantities of terpinolene and D-limonene provide citrus and woody aromas to the cultivar Jack Herer.
2. While the significance of terpenes in different cultivar profiles is well understood, Oswald and his colleagues — three of whom, including Oswald, have filed a patent relating to their discoveries — intended to zero in on the components that give all cannabis strains their skunky stench.

A close-up shot of skunk marijuana. (Photo courtesy of Yaman Mutart via Getty Images) VSCs have highly complicated structures, making their analysis challenging. In addition, the concentrations of VSCs, which are also present in hops and the pungent fruit durian, in cannabis plants are negligible in comparison to those of terpenes.

Oswald stated, “The amount really present in the plant is quite minimal, yet it has a very profound influence on the odor itself.” The human nose is extremely sensitive to these sorts of chemicals, thus a small amount can have a significant effect. Oswald and his colleagues utilized a custom-built two-dimensional gas spectrometry apparatus in conjunction with mass spectrometry and sulfur chemiluminescence to comprehend the structures of sulfurous substances.

They were able to identify the seven structures of each VSC thanks to these procedures. Five of these seven VSCs possessed a functional prenyl group, which is a characteristic of garlic-derived VSCs. Why do we enjoy garlic but dislike garlic breath? The scientists then had a panel of four trained individuals rate the pungent quality of the diluted VSCs, a collection of terpenes, and cannabis flowers on a scale from zero to ten.

1. VSC3, which was identified in a 2001 research published in Chemistry — A European Journal (opens in a new tab) as the principal chemical in “skunked” beer that has been damaged by UV radiation, most powerfully evoked the skunky odour of cannabis, according to the panel.
2. VSC3 smells like cannabis from a considerable distance,” Oswald stated.

The terpenes by themselves are just faintly evocative. This was confirmed when the researchers combined the top ten aromatic components of the Bacio Gelato cannabis cultivar, excluding VSC3, resulting in a perfume that was reminiscent of the strain’s flowery aroma but without its skunky odor.

1. Nonetheless, VSC3 does not perform all the aromatic heavy lifting by itself.
2. Oswald stated, “There’s this synergistic impact.” “When we combined them, the flavor panel said, ‘This is certainly cannabis; this is it!'” Oswald further stated that while the 2021 research focused mostly on the impact of VSC3 to the pungent odor of cannabis cultivars, VSC4 and VSC5 can also play an essential aromatic function.

“VSC3 is by far the most significant and correlates with cultivars the most,” stated Oswald. “However, if we ever discovered a cannabis grower that lacked VSC3 but had VSC4 and VSC5, I guarantee that everyone would think it smells like cannabis.” Published first on Live Science.