Cannabinol (CBN): The 1899 Compound on a Modern Label

One molecule, one spelling problem

CBN is short for cannabinol, one of the compounds that can be isolated from the cannabis plant. It belongs to a family with a broader name, and it holds a date the rest of that family cannot claim: 1899. The first cannabinoid ever separated out of cannabis was not CBD, and it was not THC. It was cannabinol [1].

Start with the family name, because it does most of the confusing. Cannabinoid is a collective term. It covers the whole catalogued set of related plant compounds found in cannabis, and chemical surveys kept adding to that catalogue over the decades. The 2005 survey by ElSohly and Slade describes cannabis as a complex mixture, with more than a hundred cannabinoids catalogued alongside terpenes and other constituents [2]. Cannabinol is one entry on that list. One compound, one name.

Now put the two words side by side. Cannabinol. Cannabinoid. Same root, nearly the same spelling, a couple of letters apart. That closeness is why 1899 often gets quoted as the year cannabinoids were discovered, when it was the year a single compound was isolated. The paper by Wood, Spivey and Easterfield covered the isolation of cannabinol from cannabis and nothing wider than that [1]. The family of more than a hundred compounds was mapped over the following century, mostly by other people, in other laboratories.

The chemistry side of cannabinol has been on paper since that 1899 work [1]. What came next is the interesting part, or rather what didn't come next. For roughly a century, cannabinol stayed a footnote inside cannabinoid chemistry: named, catalogued, rarely the subject of the work itself. It shows up in the 2005 inventory of plant constituents as one item among many [2].

That same survey is a useful reminder of scale. Cannabis is not one active compound with decoration around it. It's a mixture, and the cannabinoids in it are only part of the list, which also runs through terpenes and other constituents [2]. Reading a hemp extract properly means reading several lines, not one.

Cannabidiol went the other way. The published research record on CBD is considerably larger than the record on cannabinol, and that gap exists despite cannabinol's head start of several decades [1]. A first isolation date is a historical fact. It is not a measure of how much evidence has accumulated since. Worth saying plainly, because the 1899 story tends to get told as though it settled something.

Two things are settled. Cannabinol is non-intoxicating, on the same basis as CBD. And a compound that spent a century in the footnotes is now a formulated ingredient, ours included: Cibdol CBN oil pairs both cannabinoids in one bottle.

That bottle is where the chemistry turns into something you can check. Our CBD oils carry a percentage, from 5% to 40%, because the compound is present in quantity and a percentage of the oil is the readable way to state it. The CBN oil carries milligrams instead: 500mg CBN and 250mg CBD per 10ml bottle. Two figures, one ratio, printed rather than implied.

Since 2014, the standard here has been the same one. Know what's inside the bottle, then publish it. Cannabinol doesn't change that. It just gives the label a second line to read, and it lets you find both cannabinoids stated in figures, per bottle, before anything is bought.

Ten notes on cannabinol

1. The abbreviation. CBN stands for cannabinol, a single compound. Cannabinoid, with the extra syllable, is the family term for the whole catalogued set of related plant compounds identified in cannabis [2]. Shared root, two very different jobs. Most of the muddle around this molecule starts right here, in the spelling.
2. The date. 1899. That is the year cannabinol was isolated from cannabis and written up by Wood, Spivey and Easterfield [1]. It makes cannabinol the first cannabinoid to be isolated, a piece of chemistry history that predates almost everything else the category talks about.
3. Not CBD, not THC. Neither of the two better known cannabinoids holds that first place. The 1899 work concerned cannabinol alone [1]. The compounds that later dominated the literature, and the shelves, arrived in the record afterwards.
4. The common misreport. 1899 is frequently cited as the year cannabinoids as a class were discovered. The paper describes one isolation of one compound [1]. Single isolation year, not the birth date of a hundred-plus family. The near-identical spelling is the reason the error travels so well.
5. The size of the family. Later chemical surveys showed cannabis to be a complex mixture. ElSohly and Slade catalogued more than a hundred cannabinoids in their 2005 review, alongside terpenes and other constituents [2]. Cannabinol is one line in a long inventory.
6. A change of status. Roughly a century as a footnote in cannabinoid chemistry, and then a second act as a formulated ingredient. Cibdol CBN oil belongs to that second act: a compound that used to be mentioned in passing, now measured and stated per bottle.
7. The evidence gap. Despite the 1899 head start, the research record on cannabinol remains much thinner than the record on cannabidiol [1]. Any comparison between the two runs past the available evidence long before it runs out of opinions. We would rather say that than fill the gap with adjectives.
8. Intoxication. Cannabinol is non-intoxicating, on the same basis as CBD. In our CBN oil the two are paired in a single formula, which means both entries on the label sit in the same non-intoxicating category.
9. How it's stated. High-quantity compounds are readable as a percentage of the oil, which is why our CBD oils run from 5% to 40%. The CBN oil is stated in milligrams: 500mg CBN and 250mg CBD per 10ml bottle, giving a 2:1 ratio that is printed on the bottle rather than worked out afterwards.
10. The standard behind the figures. Since 2014, one rule has governed our labels. Know what is in the bottle, then publish it. That applies to a compound isolated in 1899 exactly as it applies to the ones everybody already recognises.

Cannabinol next to cannabidiol

What the bottle prints