Date: Mon, 1 Aug 94 19:07:22 EDT
From: andy@eng.tridom.com (Andrew P. Klenzak)
Last week (Jul 27 1994) litch@bga.com (R. Michael Litchfield) wrote:
>In article ,
>Andrew P. Klenzak wrote:
>>The leaves of a Cannabis plant can be nearly as potent as the growing
>>shoots and/or buds.
>
>Not really, there is a trace amount of THC in the leaves but 95% of the THC
>is in the bud and the leafnode immediatly down from it. There was a study
>this done by the university of Illinois I believe (do a keyword search
>on the ag abstracts to find it).
>
>>Andy
>
>-michael
I'd be interested in the specifics of that study you remember reading
about, as well as a full reference citation. I looked into it and
came across one article/paper that dealt with the potency of the
various parts of the Cannabis plant. I didn't/don't have access
to medline, so I wasn't able to that thorough of a search.
The following is from _The cannabinoid content of Cannabis sativa L.
grown in England_ by Fairbairn and Liebmann in the Journal of Pharmacy
and Pharmacology, vol 26 (Dec. 1974), pp. 413-419. This work is
cited in at least two growing books I know of.
The leaves referred to by the chart are "healthy leaves from plants at
vegetative or flowering stages and which were not closely associated
with a floral axis." They are *not* vegetative tops (growing shoots)
or flowering tops (buds), as those are two separate, distinct
catagories that the researchers differentiate.
Table 3.
THC content (% of air dried material) and air-dry weight of leaves
collected simultaneously at different positions on the plant.
plant 1 plant 2 plant 3
Position on plant (SP5) (SP5) (UNC 335)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~
TOP % THC 6.1 6.9 4.8
dry wt (mg) 35 21 28
MIDDLE % THC 3.0 5.5 3.1
dry wt (mg) 119 74 70
BOTTOM % THC 0.8 4.0 1.5
dry wt (mg) 314 133 133
[top:mid:bot ratios 8:4:1 1.7:1.4:1 3:2:1
The article also discusses (and shows) the large variability between
plants of the same variety -- Table 2 shows how one plant (UNC 255)
can have 3 times the %THC as another of the same variety. It also
notes that most plants (not all) will tend to have high ratios when
comparing the potency from the top to the bottom. But as plant 2
of the SP5 variety shows, it can be nearly uniform.
Now, given that one can easily get high on 1% THC material (be it
buds or leaves), it would seem to make sense to keep/smoke/extract
the leaves. Hell, the topmost leaves examined in this study have
a greater % THC than a great deal of "ditchweed" out there!
Now, you'd thought that 95% of the THC was in the buds. This
*may* actually be true -- it all depends on the total weight of
the buds compared to that of the leaves. If you get 10 oz. of (dried)
buds from a plant and 0.5 oz. of dried leaves, then yes, 95% of the
THC may be in the buds, but that 5% in the leaves is *still* very
adequate to get you high.
Sure, only the topmost leaves on some plants will be worth your while.
The point is you should always test some of the leaves to see how
potent they are -- throwing away material with >= 3% THC is ludicrous!
Andy
From: DrewH37597@aol.com
Message-Id: <9408092314.tn875436@aol.com>
To: drctalk-l@netcom.com
Date: Tue, 09 Aug 94 23:14:50 EDT
Subject: NIDA Potency Tables, Marijuana
Marijuana Potency Monitoring Project, Report #50
April 1, 1994 through June 30, 1994
Page 3, Table 1.
Normalized Versus non-normalized Cannabinoid
Averages of Illicit Cannabis Samples by Year Seized
NORMALIZED
Year Seizures THC CBD CBC CBN Kilograms
# % % % % Total
(rounded)
1974 113 0.36 0.00 0.08 0.44 18013
1975 150 0.48 0.00 0.09 1.17 67160
1976 210 0.98 0.00 0.12 0.62 101192
1977 251 1.76 0.00 0.10 0.74 173612
1978 132 1.72 0.01 0.12 1.27 154533
1979 221 1.53 0.02 0.12 1.40 71860
1980 153 1.96 0.01 0.16 0.69 44095
1981 260 2.11 0.02 0.18 0.98 147440
1982 487 3.34 0.11 0.17 0.74 299892
1983 1229 3.44 0.02 0.16 0.54 776566
1984 1119 3.96 0.07 0.13 0.47 1259065
1985 1653 2.63 0.14 0.09 0.52 729213
1986 1554 2.24 0.06 0.11 0.44 669472
1987 1699 2.23 0.23 0.11 0.33 621069
1988 1822 3.84 0.18 0.14 0.54 352194
1989 1272 2.66 0.20 0.16 0.60 179103
1990 1260 3.83 0.11 0.18 0.37 52987
1991 2505 3.78 0.17 0.17 0.27 76278
1992 3539 1.96 1.21 0.09 0.23 698443
1993 3229 3.89 0.41 0.16 0.32 378383
1994* 343* 4.57 0.23 0.23 0.54 44461*
* Through June 30
NON- NORMALIZED
Year THC CBD CBC CBN
% % % %
1974 0.89 0.03 0.08 0.49
1975 0.71 0.03 0.10 0.55
1976 0.72 0.00 0.09 0.37
1977 0.91 0.08 0.10 0.43
1978 1.37 0.01 0.12 0.67
1979 1.67 0.02 0.12 0.24
1980 2.06 0.10 0.14 0.47
1981 2.28 0.35 0.16 0.38
1982 3.05 0.34 0.19 0.33
1983 3.23 0.22 0.16 0.30
1984 3.29 0.24 0.17 0.34
1985 2.82 0.28 0.14 0.23
1986 2.30 0.29 0.15 0.21
1987 2.93 0.30 0.17 0.30
1988 3.29 0.28 0.15 0.30
1989 3.06 0.37 0.14 0.22
1990 3.36 0.38 0.18 0.19
1991 3.00 0.45 0.19 0.16
1992 3.10 0.24 0.20 0.36
1993 3.32 0.39 0.19 0.28
1994* 4.45 0.40 0.21 0.33
Through June 30, 1994
These are the main tables, more to follow. NIDA took about two months give
or take to respond to my request...
Drew
|
|
Disclaimer: The file contained in the
box above or displayed in a separate window from a link in the
box above is NOT owned nor implied to
be owned by BeYoND THe iLLuSioN. Most files at BeYoND THe
iLLuSioN are originally from public Bulletin Board Systems
(BBS) which were popular in the days before the Internet or
from gopher, web, and FTP sites from the early days of the
Internet which no longer exist today. Essentially, all files
were acquired from the public domain in one for or another.
However, there have been occasions when copyright protected
material has appeared on BeYoND THe iLLuSIoN without permission
of the copyright holder. In these instances, we have and will
continue to remove the copyright protected file as soon as it
is brought to our attention. This can now be done using our Report Copyright Material form. Fill
out the form, and the webmaster will be notified of the
situation.
There are also times when files found on BeYoND THe iLLuSioN
have a real home somewhere else on the Internet. In these
instances, we will gladly replace the file with a link to its
true home whenever it is brought to our attention. If you know
of the true home of any of these files, you can use our Report Original URL form to bring it yo our
attention.
|
