Pepper it Up!

Black Pepper~Another seasonal favorite of mine!  Besides spicing up our food and warming and relaxing our digestive system did you know that Black Pepper is one of the highest carriers of a dietary cannabinoid, β-Caryophyllene?  β-Caryophyllene is the primary sesquiterpene contributing to the spiciness of black pepper; it is also a major constituent of cloves, hops, rosemary, copaiba, and cannabis. It was one of the first cannabis-derived compounds other than THC, CBD, and CBN shown to bind directly to endocannabinoid receptors (Gertsch, 2008). In fact, it was one of the first cannabis-derived compounds with a fundamentally different structure from the classical cannabinoids that interacts with the endocannabinoid system in humans.

This oil can have profound impacts on the human body, particularly in peripheral body tissues. It is an awesome oil for treatment of inflammation, pain, atherosclerosis, and osteoporosis. It has also been shown to be directly beneficial for colitis (Bento et al., 2011), osteoarthritis (Rufino et al., 2015), diabetes (Basha and Sankaranarayanan, 2014), anxiety and depression (Bahi et al., 2014), liver fibrosis (Calleja et al., 2013; Mahmoud et al., 2014), and Alzheimer-like disease types (Cheng et al., 2014). In cancer studies, β-caryophyllene demonstrated synergy with the chemotherapy drug Paclitaxel on human tumor cell lines, and alone it stimulates apoptosis and suppresses tumor growth (Legault and Pichette, 2007).

For winter, I love this oil as it can also assist with increasing cellular oxygenation, support our digestive glands and stimulate the endocrine system. Its analgesic qualities help with seasonal influenza aches and pains and has even shown to alleviate nausea.