Pinen in the pharmaceutical registry: six varieties and two studies on mice

What is pinen and where does it occur outside of hemp?

Pinen is a monoterpene with the formula C10H16 and a molecular weight of 136.23. Pharmaceutical registries list it without specifying the isomer, and the reference data used on this page describes alpha-pinen with PubChem CID 6654. Outside of hemp, the LOTUS natural products database notes this compound among others in Camellia sinensis and Callistemon citrinus.

The distinction between isomers is not a trivial editorial matter. The entry on which this page is based describes the alpha variant, and the MeSH note for the same entry states directly that beta-pinen is a separate commercially available compound. The pharmaceutical label simply states the word "pinen" and does not clarify which form is indicated in a given batch. The ChEBI classification describes alpha-pinen as a bicyclic hydrocarbon substituted with three methyl groups and assigns it the role of a plant metabolite, meaning a substance produced by the plant, not added to it.

The scent can be a misleading guide to this name. Among 74 entries on budcare.pl that list this compound, a pine note is mentioned in 28, a peppery note appears more frequently in 31 entries, and an earthy note in 29. The association with pine has rather industrial origins: the MeSH note mentions the production of camphor, insecticides, solvents, and synthetic pine oil, while the physical description from CAMEO Chemicals refers to a colorless liquid with a turpentine-like smell, lighter than water and insoluble in water.

How long does it take for pinen to reach the body and how long does it stay there?

It is unknown. No one has measured how much of this compound enters the bloodstream from dried flower after vaporization or how quickly the body eliminates it, so the time intervals given below describe the route of administration of the entire raw material, not the fate of a single molecule in a patient. However, the boiling point of the pure compound is known.

Reference collections note three records for alpha-pinen: 156 °C at a pressure of 760 mm Hg, 155 °C without specified pressure, and 313.2 °F, which converts to 156.2 °C. The values come from four collections: CAMEO Chemicals, HSDB, JECFA, and OSHA. None of these readings were marked as taken under reduced pressure, so there is no reason not to compare them. Not every compound in this table has such a convenient situation: for caryophyllene, a reading is noted at 14 mm Hg, and for humulene, the only record comes from 3 mm Hg, making it impossible to compare it with a number measured under room conditions. The boiling point describes the behavior of a pure liquid in a vessel and is not a setting for a device or a guideline on how to administer the raw material.

The route of administration determines the course more than the variety itself. After vaporization, the substance passes from the lungs to the blood almost immediately, so the first sensations appear after a few minutes, the intensity increases for another ten to thirty minutes, and the whole effect lasts for two to four hours. After ingestion, the raw material first passes through the intestine and liver, so the first sensations are awaited from half an hour to two hours, and the episode can last six, sometimes eight hours. Hence the most common mistake with oral administration: anyone who thinks nothing is happening after thirty minutes and takes another dose will receive both doses at once. The above ranges describe the route of administration, not this variety; pharmacokinetic studies for a single cultivar have not been published.

What have studies shown about the effects of pinen?

Two studies. Both were conducted on mouse material: one describes the sleep of animals after oral administration, and the other the cultivation of immune cells. Neither included humans, and in the entire evidence base of this collection of pages, which includes twenty-two studies, humans as participants do not appear even once.

The first entry is a study from 2016 published in the journal Molecular Pharmacology (PMID:27573669), authored by: Yang H, Woo J, Pae AN, Um MY, Cho NC, Park KD, Yoon M, Kim J, Lee CJ, Cho S. Study model: rodent, mouse, oral administration. Orally administered (-)-alpha-pinen prolonged NREM sleep time in mice and shortened sleep latency (EEG/EMG recording), acting as a partial modulator binding directly to the benzodiazepine site of the GABA-A receptor, without affecting the intensity of NREM sleep or the duration of REM sleep.

The second is a study from 2015 from The American Journal of Chinese Medicine (PMID:26119957), authored by: Kim DS, Lee HJ, Jeon YD, Han YH, Kee JY, Kim HJ, Shin HJ, Kang J, Lee BS, Kim SH, Kim SJ, Park SH, Choi BM, Park SJ, Um JY, Hong SH. Study model: in vitro, peritoneal macrophages of mice in culture. Alpha-pinen reduced the secretion of IL-6, TNF-alpha, and nitric oxide, as well as the expression of iNOS and COX-2, in cultured mouse peritoneal macrophages stimulated with LPS, by inhibiting the MAPK and NF-kB pathways.

The separation of models is not a bibliographic formality. The result from culture describes what happens in a vessel, and between the vessel and the patient stand absorption, metabolism in the liver, and excretion. The result in mice pertains to an animal to which the isolated reagent was administered to the stomach, not a human inhaling vapor from dried flower. Two entries from these twenty-two do not even concern a mammal: for farnezen, there is a study on transgenic radish and aphids, and a review of insect literature. With such material, it is fair to state what the measurement pertains to, rather than transferring the conclusion to humans.

What has not been shown about pinen?

No anxiolytic or analgesic effects of pinen have been demonstrated in humans; available data only concern its impact on sleep in mice after oral administration and anti-inflammatory effects on mouse macrophages in culture. This statement closes the list, rather than opening it: apart from the two results described above, the evidence base has nothing more on this compound.

It has not been shown how much reaches humans from a portion of dried flower. No entry in the database measured blood concentration after vaporization or combustion, so even if the result in mice were transferable to humans, it is unknown at what quantity it would occur. The sleep study administered the isolated reagent to the stomach of the animals, which is a different route, a different dose, and a different species than inhaling vapor by a patient.

It has also not been shown that this component is responsible for anything in the effects of the strain that lists it as the primary component. The pharmaceutical label describes the composition, not the effect. No study from the database compared two strains differing solely in this component or examined what it does together with the rest of the plant's contents. The entourage effect is often cited as an explanation for such differences, but there is no measurement in this database that would confirm or refute it.

Finally, no anxiolytic effects in humans have been demonstrated, although the 2016 result is often summarized this way. The affinity for the benzodiazepine site, which is the same one targeted by sedative medications, was described in mice and measured with respect to sleep, not anxiety. The authors noted the lack of effect on the intensity of NREM sleep and the duration of REM sleep, thus narrowing the result themselves. The statement about calming the patient has no support in this material, and the page that makes it adds it on its own.

What adverse effects have been reported after pinen?

There are no reports for the name of the terpene itself. Publicly available data on harmfulness concern two other things: the pure industrial reagent, for which alpha-pinen has its own hazard statements regarding skin, and the hemp dried flower treated collectively, for which the symptoms described below recur. There is simply a lack of an intermediate layer.

In the EU classification and labeling registry, compiled based on 2036 submissions from 51 notifications, two statements regarding skin recur for the pure substance: H315, which indicates skin irritation, present in 83.2% of submissions providing a hazard code, and H317, which indicates the possibility of causing skin allergic reactions, present in 66.1%. The statement about respiratory irritation did not exceed the ten percent threshold, below which the compilation does not show the code at all, so the repeated thesis about respiratory irritation from terpenes is not confirmed here. The classification describes a liquid in industrial packaging, not vapor from a vaporizer, and transferring it directly to pharmacy dried flower would be an abuse.

Reports of adverse effects are collected for medicinal products with a batch number, not for the strain name, so the following pertains to hemp dried flower as a group of raw materials. The most frequently reported symptoms are dry mouth, red eyes, and increased heart rate. Dizziness upon rapid standing, daytime drowsiness, and temporary worsening of short-term memory are less frequently described, as well as anxiety that increases with dosage. A separate issue is medications taken concurrently, especially sedatives and those affecting coagulation: their assessment requires knowledge of the entire list of preparations, not just the description of the plant. We do not provide the frequency of these symptoms numerically, as public compilations for hemp dried flower in Poland do not separate them by individual products.

Which strains from Polish pharmacies have pinen as the leading terpene?

Six entries from the pharmaceutical registry: Black Tuna, Island Sweet Skunk, L.A Confidential, Mimosa, OG Kush, and Penelope. Together, they account for ten catalog numbers out of one hundred forty-one collected in this compilation, placing this component among the two least frequently indicated leading terpenes.

The distribution within this six is very uneven. Island Sweet Skunk is the only entry supplied by more than one manufacturer: under this name, submissions from S-LAB, Synoptis Pharma, and Tilray stand, totaling five catalog numbers, which is half of the entire pool. The remaining five strains each have one number and one supplier, respectively Aurora with L.A Confidential, Bliss Pharma with OG Kush, Canopy Growth with Penelope, and S-LAB with the two subsequent names.

This list comes from pharmaceutical labels, not from our own measurement: it indicates which terpene the manufacturer identified as leading for their registered entry. The composition may vary in subsequent batches, permits expire, and new submissions enter circulation with their own declarations, so the compilation should be read together with the current list of available strains. Dried flower sold over the counter is found in the store in a separate category and it is not the same raw material as the items on the list below.

Do the profile databases indicate the same strains as the pharmacy list?

Not fully. The profile databases list this compound in the composition of forty-two strains from this set, but consider it leading only in six, and of those six, five names overlap with the pharmacy list. One item diverges in one direction, and another in the opposite.

The divergence looks like this. For the strain Mimosa, the pharmacy list places this ingredient first, while the shares provided by the profile database indicate caryophyllene. The opposite is true for Sweet Berry Kush: there, the shares prioritize the discussed compound, while the pharmacy label mentions limonene. The other five names recognized by the shares as leading are Black Tuna, Island Sweet Skunk, L.A Confidential, OG Kush, and Penelope.

The value of these forty-two entries varies greatly. Only for three strains do both profile sources describe the composition consistently. For eleven, the sources provide different sets, meaning one lists ingredients that the other does not recognize. For twenty-eight, the strain is described by only one source, leaving nothing to compare it with. Island Sweet Skunk remains the only case where both sources consistently place this compound at the top of the profile.

Why don't we provide the percentage of pinene in the profile in numbers?

Because we do not know the denominator. In the database budcare.pl, seventy-seven entries have the percentage of this component listed, but the total percentage of all terpenes in a single entry takes on thirty-one different values, ranging from fifty-eight to one hundred twenty-five. A number without a denominator looks like a measurement, but it is not.

The median of these sums falls at eighty-five. A full hundred is provided by six entries, and three exceed it, which should not happen at all in a percentage record. Since the total sometimes falls below and sometimes above the full scale, a single number next to the component name does not indicate what part of what it constitutes. Therefore, we provide the composition as composition: what is in the profile and in what order, without pretending to be precise.

Additionally, two lists from the same source do not agree with each other. The ingredient list on budcare.pl mentions the discussed substance in seventy-four entries, while the percentage table lists seventy-seven, so three entries have a number without an entry on the list. The second database, medweed.pl, does not provide percentages at all, only the order: the substance appears in eleven out of sixty-five of its descriptions, with it being in the first position in three.

Frequently Asked Questions about pinene

Does pinene have anxiolytic effects in humans?

This has not been demonstrated. The evidence base of this site contains two studies, both on mouse material, and neither measured anxiety in patients. The 2016 study described sleep in mice after oral administration, not human anxiety behavior.

At what temperature does alpha-pinene boil?

Reference collections indicate 156 °C at a pressure of 760 mm Hg and 155 °C without specified pressure, and the Fahrenheit reading of 313.2 °F converts to 156.2 °C. None of these readings noted measurement under reduced pressure, so they can be compared.

Is boiling temperature a setting on a vaporizer?

No. Boiling temperature describes a pure liquid in a laboratory vessel, while dried flower is a mixture of many substances in plant material. This value does not imply any device setting, and this site does not provide such a setting.

How many strains in Polish pharmacies have pinene indicated as the leading component?

Six: Black Tuna, Island Sweet Skunk, L.A Confidential, Mimosa, OG Kush, and Penelope. They account for a total of ten catalog numbers out of one hundred forty-one collected in this compilation.

Can pinene irritate the skin?

Pure industrial reagent can. In the EU classification and labeling list, most submissions indicate a statement about skin irritation and a statement about possible allergic skin reactions. This applies to the liquid in industrial packaging, not the dried flower from the pharmacy.

Does pinene from dried flower enter the bloodstream after vaporization?

This has not been measured. The available data does not include a measurement of the concentration of this substance in human blood after vaporizing dried flower, so it is not possible to answer the question about penetration and the duration of its presence in the body with a number.

Dried flower is a pharmaceutical raw material dispensed by prescription in the Rpw category, and its use is determined by the attending physician. The material is informational in nature, describes the state of evidence, and does not replace medical advice.

Editorial text: redakcja ubucha.pl.