6 ms·
BTW, Caffeine is also a naturally occurring insecticide, yet humans tend to repurpose and hack things.
by Sam6late 9mo ago
BTW, Caffeine is also a naturally occurring insecticide, yet humans tend to repurpose and hack things.
- barbacoa 9mo agoSome argue that THC in cannabis actually works similarly because when herbivores regularly ingest it, they become lethargic and lazy, causing them struggle to survive in the world. Kinda like my roommate.
- spike021 9mo agoyour last sentence reminds me of my dorm roommate in college. very standard stoner who was constantly blazing and years later i've never known a lazier dude.
- shaneofalltrad 9mo agoBut cannabis the needs heat to convert, it’s more likely it evolved with Human influence considering the years of overlapping land races tied to our trade routes
- joquarky 9mo agoBut CBD does not need heat to convert. I have a hypothesis that taking cannabis (and especially CBD) out of our food chain may be contributing to the increase¹ in prevalence of chronic pain. ¹ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12588185/?utm_source=chatgpt.com https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12588185/?utm_sourc...
- jbkkd 9mo agoWhen was cannabis ever in the human food chain?
- TheGoddessInari 9mo agoTHC comes in a plant in the THCa form. CBD comes in CBDa form. Both are not bioactive by default in their natural form.
- horsawlarway 9mo agoAll I'll say is go spend a day picking hops without gloves. There are a large number of cannabinoids at play, some clearly (as in observably and demonstrably) are bioactive in their natural, unheated form. --- None of which is said to endorse the other theory. Just to point out that claiming heat is required is incorrect.
- mothballed 9mo agoThe farm bill makes 'hemp' anything with below 0.3% THC legal. For this reason, we have a LOT of testing on the THC content of cannabis, since it is required to sell and manufacture. As it turns out, naturally cannabis quite commonly has >0.3% THC even before heating or activation of THCa. Any human-like animal with our receptors eating a large amount would get high as fuck, cooked or not. A ruminant eating pounds of the stuff raw, would not be that different from a human consuming an ounce of baked pot.
- shdjhdfh 9mo agoThis was killed in the recent budget bill: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/13/congress-thc-hemp-ban.html https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/13/congress-thc-hemp-ban.html
- heavyset_go 9mo agoBoth degrade into actives over time or exposure to air/sun/warmth, and then into CBN, which is itself active.
- Aloisius 9mo agoTHCa in cannabis plants is unstable. It will slowly convert to THC as it dries even at room temperature.
- LPisGood 9mo agoI thought it wasn’t generally psychoactive until heated?
- hammock 9mo agoIbotenic acid, muscarine, psilocybin, amanitin, muscimol, THC, caffeine - these all natural pesticides target bugs primarily. Which are the biggest threat. Sort of funny how it also affects people though
- heavyset_go 9mo agoIt's a phytochemical that degrades readily in sunlight, it's likely both a UV protectant and aversive.
- bdbdbdb 9mo agoThat's, like, your opinion, man
- boxed 9mo agoAll spices basically too afaik.
- h33t-l4x0r 9mo agoChilis, tobacco and tomatoes are all in the same family (nightshades). And they are all "New World" plants. Which means Europe had to live without them until 1600 or so. If you can call that living.
- swiftcoder 9mo agoDon't forget the potato! Europe before the potato seems like a miserable place
- smegger001 9mo agoyeah before potato they had lots of lots of turnips and rutabagas, it is little wonder they went out exploring the world looking for anything better to eat. the new world gave tonnes of food not just nightshade family plant mentioned earlier (gp left out eggplant btw) corn, sweet potato, chocolate, sunflowers, and pumpkins, squash, peanuts, pineapple, cranberry and turkey.
- swiftcoder 9mo agoEggplant is actually an old-world nightshade! Arabs brought it to Spain as early as the 8th century, probably from Southeast Asia
- creshal 9mo agoAnd coffee didn't make the jump until around the same time, either. No wonder Europeans wanted to be anywhere on the planet except Europe.
- anthk 9mo agoCoffee in Europe predates 1492 I think.
- jacobolus 9mo agoThere are some flowers which produce tiny amounts of caffeine in their nectar, apparently to give the pollinators a buzz.
- bamboozled 9mo agoLove me some Capsaicin, even though I’m not supposed too (I guess)
- jyounker 9mo agoIt's even weirder than that. It turns out that at very low concentrations caffeine seems to have similar effects on insect neurology as it does on ours. There are some plant species whose flowers produce caffeinated nectar. Bees seem to like these flowers preferentially, and have an easier time remembering where they are. (Yes, bees get buzzed.)
- raverbashing 9mo agoCapsaicin as well And birds are immune to it