Even though the market is mainly focused on THC and CBD products, the cannabis plant contains a huge number of different cannabinoids. The lack of proper research, however, has prevented further exploration of the diverse cannabinoid constellation. At the same time, companies like Dutch Passion are striving to advance the sector by developing genetics with a high percentage of new compounds. One of these is THC-V. “THC-V is available only in limited quantities in the plant, usually,” Jouke Piepenbrink with Dutch Passion explains. “This is why we have developed a new variety specifically focusing on getting a high percentage of that. Since last January, we have released a strain in the market with 7-8% of THC-V.”
Jouke Piepenbrink
The search for new cannbinoids
As Jouke points out, the job of Dutch Passion is to find cultivars with special cannabinoids. “As a seed company, our role is to bring such new cannabinoids on the stage through identifying cultivars, crossing them and stabilizing them. This is our responsibility.” At the same time, in order to find out more about the medicinal value of such cannabinoids, the market and research institutions have to pick up these types of genetics to better understand them. “When it comes to such new cannabinoids, you cannot compare them with things like CBD, because CBD has always been available in hemp varieties. On top of that, it’s much easier to produce CBD-rich products and do research. With THC-V that is a bit complicated. However, thanks to our THC-Victory variety, which is stable and has a high amount of THC-V, advancing the research is completely possible.”
This is why Jouke wants to give a shout out to the industry to look more into such cannabinoids. “We do not know what the benefits might be with regards to medicinal effects,” he says. “We are humble seed breeders; we are not doctors. All we know is that there is huge potential, but we don’t want to make big claims. With a variety like our THC-Victory, you can produce good percentages of THC-V and see what its applications might be.”
THC-Victory
The THC-Victory is a typical Sativa variety. “It is a long stretchy plant with long flowering periods,” Jouke remarks. “The flower has an open structure and is not as compact as with Indica varieties. Growing such a variety is not any different than growing another variety: you need the right treatment of light, nutrients, and everything that factors into growing a high-quality flower.”
Jouke points out that the ultimate goal is to bring the THC content of the THC-Victory variety even further down, to get around minus 1% of THC. “At the same time, we are also looking at another cannabinoid, namely CBD-V. It is a little bit equal to THC-V. We have seen that in the genetic family where we got THC-V rich plants, we also found CBD-V rich plants. It shows up in the analysis. The next step is to stabilize this variety, and then release it to the market so that it will shed more light on what CBD-V can accomplish.”
More research necessary
In order to facilitate the spreading of the THC-Victory variety, Dutch Passion has released small batches of seeds so that more growers could look into it. “There is very little research on THC-V,” Jouke says. “There is some evidence for its medicinal value, but it is of the utmost importance to better understand it and how it might help people. We have already distributed some of our seeds to licensed producers in Canada, Australia, Israel and the Netherlands. We want to contribute to the research in such a field, that is why we have an open-source model with regards to the THC-Victory. The more we understand these new cannabinoids, the more easily we can help people with specific conditions.”
For more information:
Dutch Passion
Hoogoorddreef 133
1101BB Amsterdam
0031 (0)20 567 39 00
sales@dutch-passion.com
dutch-passion.com