Distinguishing between THC and THCa is not necessary. The samples were taken from freshly harvested buds and any freshly harvested bud contains mostly THCa whether they were harvested with the majority or the trichs being clear or the majority of the trichs being cloudy. It takes proper environmental conditions and a lot of time for the process of decarboxylation to occur naturally.
I know that Cannabis contains mostly THCa with a fraction of THC,
that was my entire point, why is the author not making the distinction? Decarboxylation is an entirely different issue but it's an important distinction to make, knowing the metabolic chain is crucial to this discussion.
You see when people just bring up stuff like this which has no references and which incorrectly talks about THC (while in fact meaning THCa) it makes me wonder exactly how much they know about the subject.
You would be surprised how many ignorant people I deal with regarding these highly technical subjects.
You seem to at least know the basics but omitting the evidence makes me a bit uneasy.
kagecog said:
In response to the issue of THC not being the only psychoactive cannabinoid present in cannabis; the only psychoactive cannabinoid that cloudy and amber trichomes contain more of than clear trichomes is CBN, which as you said is "not desirable in any harvest". You gave the impression that peak THC levels was the only thing your really looking for when harvesting when you said it was "the by far main contributing substance in any cannabis high."
I'm not so sure about CBN being the only other psychoactive cannabinoid nor whether being psychoactive is the determining factor all together.
We lack a lot of research on these subjects, I don't see how you can categorically say this.
What about THCV, CBN is not the only psychoactive cannabinoid besides THC? What about CBD which has so far been shown to highly affect high even though is inherently non-psychoactive?
I never gave off any impression of peak THC levels being the
only thing to look for.
Where on earth did you read that?
If you got that impression then that just represents what you yourself read into it, we've actually had this discussion before in this thread, someone else blamed me for only caring about THC and trichomes when I in this thread also deal with the host of other variables (calyxes, pistils, overall look of the plant etc.) AND claim them to be just as important for the overall end product.
High != end product.
The fact that I call THC the main contributing substance in any Cannabis high is because it is.
Regarding the high itself (which is what I was talking about in that specific quote, not the growing, not the look of the plant nor the weight/density/smell/etc) THC is without a doubt the primary psychoactive component, that's just a fact.
CBD, CBC and CBG all play their part and affect the high (in ways we might not even know about yet) but THC is the primary component of a Cannabis high.
kagecog said:
I do agree with you on not being able to harvest when 100% clear, the bud density would be an issue. I believe when the trichomes are half cloudy and half clear would be the most efficient time to harvest if your looking for a peak THC to bud density ratio.
You also said a few things I believe are untrue. You say clear trichomes contain precursor cannabinoids while cloudy trichomes contain fully realized THC. Correct me if i'm wrong, but both clear trichomes and cloudy trichomes contain THC mostly in the THCa form.
I don't see half clear / half cloudy being the most efficient time to harvest.
I still haven't seen any references regarding the statements this doctor made nor have I seen the science behind it.
It's impossible for me to agree with you on this matter unless you show the evidence, if you were to show me however, and the evidence is clear that THCa peaks while the trichomes are clear, that CBDa, CBCa etc. are present in high concentrations in the clear trichomes then I would change my view on this.
Both clear & cloudy trichomes contain THCa that is correct, but the percentage of THCa relative to the other compounds in the trichomes is the important issue.
The biosynthesis pathway of cannabinoids is still a source of debate, we do not know everything about it but we do know the metabolic chain.
Trichomes have a development, a biosynthesis pathway, they produce the various cannabinoids by vacuoles and plastids combining in the bulbous head and being hit with UV-B light, thus forming cannabinoids (very simply put).
The point is that clear trichomes have not been proven to contain the fully realized cannabinoids, or at least I have not seen any evidence of this, nor has anyone else I know, and if it was the case I think a lot more people would be happy with their early harvest, since the potency and effect should be the same, if not better, according to you (you said THC peaks in clear trichomes).
What we see is that the process of hexanoate --> cannabigerolate takes place in the immature trichomes (we get all the major cannabinoids from CBGa, it's at this point we longer consider it "precursor") and it leaves matured trichomes without the precursors, with the cannabinoids we seek.
