Revolutionizing Traditional Medicine With Cannabis-Based Medicinal Products

Cannabis, one of the oldest and most commonly used drugs in the world, is derived from the cannabis sativa plant and contains hundreds of active ingredients. These include the most abundant active constituents, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is the primary psychoactive component of cannabis, and cannabidiol (CBD) which has therapeutic effects but less psychoactivity. They both act on the cannabinoid receptors that are part of the endogenous cannabinoid system. Beyond the well known psychoactive effects of cannabinoids, new research has shown that these constituents also interact with a number of systems in the body where the cannabinoid receptors are located, leading to the potential therapeutic effects within the central nervous system and its periphery.