What is CBN (Cannabinol)?
And what is health and wellness value proposition?

If unharvested or cut hemp flowers are left unattended for a prolonged period of time and permitted to remain exposed to air and sunlight -or any highly oxidized environment for that matter, naturally occurring THCA (tetrahydrocannabinolic acid) within the biomass will spontaneously degrade and ultimately convert to CBN, or cannabinol.
Defined as a “minor cannabinoid” typically found in trace amounts (less than 1% of the cannabis plant), CBN resulting from old, stale hemp was long viewed as a useless cannabis byproduct offering little to no redeeming health and wellness benefits, much less meaningful economic value. However, based on results of numerous research studies in recent years, opinions of cannabinol have done a 180 degree turn, making it a cannabinoid of serious interest to scientists, medical researchers and cannabis entrepreneurs, alike. However, before attempting to evaluate the promising health and wellness benefits of CBN, let’s first take a look back.
The history of old weed
While the history of cannabis use for medicinal and recreational use dates back virtually thousands of years, it wasn’t until 1896 that scientists first isolated the very first phytocannabinoid, which they extracted from a red oil distilled from Indian hemp (1). That phytocannabinoid was cannabinol.
But it was not until 1932 when British chemist Robert Sidney Cahn reported the partial chemical structure of CBN (2). Then, in 1940, Sir Alexander R. Todd, a future Nobel Prize winner, and American organic chemist Roger Adams – in separate independent research studies – isolated, purified and identified cannabinol from hemp and showed its relationship to THC. While the onset of World War II had preempted Todd’s cannabis research, it was noted that Todd said he was “of the opinion that the interesting and varied pharmacological effects and the potential medical uses (of CBN) were strong justification for pursuing that work (3).
For more than two decades following the 1940 discovery, cannabinol was largely misunderstood, thought to be the primary psychoactive component of cannabis – the component in cannabis plants that makes you feel “high.” Then in 1964, Israeli researchers Yechiel Gaoni and Raphael Mechoulam successfully isolated THC and discovered its psychoactive dominance within the plant. This discovery led to further research that identified CBN as an oxidized, degraded version of THC, but without THC’s intoxicating effects (4).