ABERDEEN, Scotland, Sept. 7 (UPI) -- A Scottish scientist says a key ingredient in cannabis suppresses appetite, a finding that could be used in the fight against obesity.
Cannabis had long been shown to enhance the desire to eat, but Roger Pertwee, a neuropharmacologist at Aberdeen University, says there is more to this story.
"We've discovered to our surprise that cannabis, as well as containing a drug that boosts appetite, contains a drug which has a blocking effect," he told a meeting in Britain, the Guardian newspaper reported.
"The work so far has been working with tissue and we've yet to see what this drug does when we give it to a whole organism and what it does when we give it to humans."
He said the ingredient known as tetrahydrocannabivarin, works on the same receptors as another ingredient THC but has entirely the opposite effect. His finding will be published in the British Journal of Pharmacology.
Why THCV does not manifest itself in those who smoke cannabis is a mystery, says the report. But Pertwee thinks it might have something to do with the proportions of the various ingredients in the drug. "The relative proportions of THC and THCV vary from cannabis to cannabis," he said.
