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Liverwort isn’t much to look at. These low-to-the-ground plant
species creep along unobtrusively enough, spanning their hand-
like fronds over rocks and logs alike. But there’s a secret side
to some of these mossy weeds. In a report published yesterday
(Oct. 24) in Science Advances, researchers revealed that certain
members of the Radula genus of liverwort—there are about 9,000
species of liverwort; Radula comprises some 200-300
species—contains a chemical compound that relieves pain, much
like the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) found in marijuana. Unlike
THC, however, perrotetinene, as the compound is known, doesn’t
give you a psychoactive high.

Perrotetinene has a molecular structure similar to THC, which
enables both compounds to easily attach to the brain’s
cannabinoid receptors. Once they’re there, the compounds stem
the flood of pain signals to the brain and dampen their effects,
providing relief from pain and inflammation. That’s assuming
perrotetinene will work the same way on human brains as it does
on mice, the primary focus of this recent study.

In the past, it’s been easy for scientists to overlook
liverwort—literally. “Nobody really notices [liverworts] because
they’re so small,” Ohio State University- Columbus phytochemist
Douglas Kinghorn told ScienceNews. “Sometimes you find important
medicinal compounds in plants from unexpected sources.” But that
doesn’t mean that you should start scouring your garden for any promising-looking moss. The study only identified three species
of liverwort—Radula perrottetii, Radula marginata, and Radula
laxiramea—known to produce the compound, and even then only in
tiny quantities. (R. marginata, which is endemic to New Zealand
and Tasmania, is sometimes sold online as a “legal high”—though,
as the study notes, “the online community reporting about legal
highs both affirms and refutes the anecdotes regarding the
cannabis-like effects of smoked R. marginata.” In short, it
might not work.)

Still, scientists say they’re optimistic about the synthetic
version of the chemical, produced by replicating its molecular
structure in a lab setting—though it’s a long, long way off
being commercially available.

https://qz.com/1437745/liverwort-produces-a-chemical-almost-
identical-to-thc/

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* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)