CBD vs. CBN: Similarities, Differences, And Benefits

Most people have heard about the THC in weed and the CBD in popular CBD products.

But what in the world is CBN?

THC, of course, is the psychoactive compound in cannabis that gets users high. CBD is the active ingredient in the CBD oil, capsules, edibles, gummies, vapes, and topical products legalised for sale in the last few years and popular for their apparent medical benefits.

CBN is similar to both THC and CBD in several key ways. They’re three of the 100+ plant compounds known as cannabinoids, they’re all found in both cannabis and hemp plants, and they all appear to provide health and wellness benefits, particularly when taken together.

There are several important differences, too.

For starters, THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) is bountiful in cannabis, hemp is rich in CBD (cannabidiol), but CBN (cannabinol) is a minor cannabinoid that’s only present in small amounts in harvested plants. More CBN is only created as THC degrades over time.

Second, CBD is non-intoxicating, while THC alters users’ perceptions, thoughts, and moods. CBN is in between the two, with about 10-25% of THC’s psychoactive properties.

Third, THC is readily available in marijuana and cannabis products (in “legal” countries and US states, naturally). CBD products have been legal in most Western nations since the late 2010s and are easy to buy.

CBN products aren’t illegal, but they’re more difficult to find and much more costly. The cannabinoid is virtually impossible to extract from hemp or cannabis plants, and it’s expensive and time-consuming to manually create CBN from cannabis.

Finally, there’s been very little research into CBN’s possible medical benefits. Studies on THC’s and CBD’s potential benefits are also preliminary, but those cannabinoids’ effects in the body are much better understood.

THC has been used medically for years to help patients deal with chemotherapy side effects, chronic pain, and epilepsy, among other conditions. CBD is believed to help with a wide range of issues from anxiety and depression to neurodegenerative diseases and immune conditions.

What help can CBN provide? That’s largely unknown, although some studies imply that it may be effective for insomnia, appetite stimulation, and pain.

Let’s get to the details.

Hemp, Cannabis, and Cannabinoids

First, some plant talk.

Cannabis and Hemp Plants

Hemp and cannabis are members of the Cannabis sativa plant family and are quite similar. Most importantly for this discussion, they each contain a large number of cannabinoids, and many of those compounds are common to both plants.

Psychoactive THC is the dominant cannabinoid in cannabis, which contains only low levels of CBD. Lots of non-intoxicating CBD, but only very low levels of THC, are present in hemp. CBN is a different matter.

Only negligible amounts of CBN are found in each plant when they’re harvested. That content increases as the plants are stored and matured, however, because CBN is created when oxidation caused by exposure to oxygen, UV light, and heat causes THC to degrade. It can also be manually created by exposing THC to heat through a process called decarboxylation.

A Deeper Dive on THC, CBD, and CBN

THC and CBD are the two major cannabinoids in cannabis and hemp. The high concentration of THC in cannabis is what’s made marijuana (and products made from it)so popular as a recreational drug for its intoxicating and believed medical properties. It’s been used for millennia— even though THC itself wasn’t “discovered” by scientists until the 1940s.

The existence of CBD in cannabis and hemp was also discovered in the mid-20^th century. Since it’s not a psychoactive compound, though, it received little attention from researchers until about 50 years later. The list of cannabidiol’s apparent medical benefits continues to grow in the 21^st century, explaining the booming popularity of CBD products which were only recently legalised.

CBN is one of the so-called minor cannabinoids, but it was the first to be identified in cannabis, back in the late 1800s. Its structure was mapped in 1940, around the same time that CBD was discovered. Like CBD, however, it was largely ignored; it wasn’t known to possess health and wellness benefits and wasn’t believed to be important in any other way.

THC can be extracted from cannabis to create other products, although most users ingest it by smoking the marijuana harvested from the plant or “homebrewing” their own derivative products. Hemp usually isn’t smoked (because it doesn’t get users high and it’s illegal in countries like the UK); CBD is extracted from hemp plants to produce CBD oil, edibles, and other products.

CBN, as mentioned, isn’t naturally occurring in amounts large enough to extract for the creation of CBN products. Some producers do subject cannabis to light, heat, and oxygen to accelerate the conversion of THC to CBN and create products like CBN oil. But it’s a lengthy and expensive process, making CBN products pricier than their CBD counterparts.

Cannabinoids and the Body

Research into the potential benefits of THC, CBD, and CBN went into high gear in the late 20^th century because of a landmark discovery in 1988.

That’s when a study on rats’ brains at St. Louis University revealed the existence of molecules embedded in calls that are “activated” by THC. Further research discovered that those molecules, dubbed “receptors,” are one element of a large network that runs throughout not only the bodies of rats but the bodies of all mammals — including humans.

The Importance of the ECS

That network was named the endocannabinoid system (ECS). As it turns out, the ECS governs an enormous number of major functions like thinking and memory, pain, sleep, appetite, and inflammation. Functions that involve the brain and nervous system are controlled by so-called CB1 receptors, while those like immunity and inflammation are governed by CB2 receptors.

Neurotransmitters work as chemical messengers in the ECS, shuttling between receptors and the rest of the body. They’re called endocannabinoids, and here’s the important fact about them: they’re almost identical in chemical structure to cannabinoids, including THC, CBD, and CBN.

That’s how the cannabinoids deliver their psychoactive and apparent medical effects. THC primarily binds to CB1 receptors (their prevalence in the brain is why THC makes users high), CBD interacts mostly with CB2 receptors elsewhere in the body, and CBN interacts with both. That allows cannabinoids to send their own control messages or alter ones already being sent.

We’ve mentioned that CBN is considered a “minor” cannabinoid; others include CBC (cannabichromene) and CBG (cannabigerol). They all appear to interact with ECS receptors and provide some health and wellness benefits, but their practical importance may be their interaction with THC and CBD in the body.

What is the Entourage Effect?

Researchers have documented an “entourage effect” that maximizes the apparent benefits of both THC and CBD. Extracted CBD, and THC that’s either extracted or consumed in another way, are accompanied by other plant compounds as well: terpenes, flavonoids, and all of the other cannabinoids in the plant.

The entourage effect is often used to explain why full-spectrum CBD, which also contains hemp’s small amount of THC, works better than broad-spectrum or CBD isolate products that have had their THC removed. That’s true, but it’s not just THC and CBD that are more effective in each other’s company. Minor cannabinoids like CBN also contribute to the entourage effect.

Now that we’ve detailed what CBD and CBN are and how they work in the body, it’s time to look at the medical benefits they appear to provide.

Benefits of CBD

The enormous popularity of the CBD products that have arrived online, in dedicated shops, and even in some gas stations and convenience stores, can be attributed to widespread publicity and promotion citing cannabidiol’s apparent medical benefits.

Before we get into specifics, though, it’s important to understand why words like “apparent” or “reported” always precede the word “benefits” when discussing CBD and CBN.

Research into the cannabinoids is still in its preliminary stages. The results aren’t definitive enough to convince regulatory authorities in any country to approve them as prescription treatments (except for cannabidiol’s use to treat a few rare types of childhood epilepsy), and not sufficient to convince the medical establishment to widely recommend them to patients.

However, studies on CBD’s potential benefits have discovered a wealth of possibilities — and since CBD products can be sold legally, they’re red hot. The reputable data-gathering company Statista projects that more than a billion people worldwide will be using CBD by 2027.

Some of the benefits they may experience:

• Easing of anxiety, stress, depression, and even more serious mental health conditions
• Relief of chronic pain caused by inflammatory and anti-immune diseases like arthritis, fibromyalgia, gut diseases, asthma, diabetes, and many more
• Helping people deal with insomnia and sleep quality issues
• Delaying the progression of neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases
• Reducing the frequency or progression of epileptic seizures
• Lowering blood pressure and cholesterol levels
• Easing or preventing acne and other skin diseases
• Helping recovery for patients with substance abuse disorders
• Potentially helping to fight some types of cancer

There are also indications that CBD may provide users with both heart health and neurological benefits.

As you’ll see next, some of these potential benefits aren’t exclusively associated with the use of cannabidiol. It appears that other cannabinoids like CBN may provide some of the same effects, in addition to boosting CBD’s effectiveness through the entourage effect.

Benefits of CBN

It may take a little work — and a bigger charge on your credit card — to find CBN oil and similar products. It could be worth the work since CBN is believed to provide benefits for those dealing with:

• Muscle and joint pain (initial research has focused on fibromyalgia and jaw pain caused by TMJ)
• Degenerative diseases like ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease)
• Inflammation caused by diseases like arthritis
• Sleep difficulties (particularly combined with the use of THC)
• Poor appetite

One research review concludes that CBN appears to provide anti-inflammatory, antibiotic, and anti-convulsant properties, foreshadowing the likelihood that a larger number of more specific potential benefits will emerge in the coming years.

It’s also likely that manufacturers will find methods to more efficiently create CBN products from cannabis or THC, making CBN products more widely available and less expensive.

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