Tetrahydrocannabinolic acid, or THCA for short, does not have the same psychedelic effects as fresh, live cannabis. Raw cannabis isn’t popular among recreational users because it doesn’t make them feel high. Medical cannabis users, on the other hand, can use THCA as medicine by eating raw cannabis, which has the same health benefits as THC but doesn’t get them high.
What’s THCA?
In cannabis, THCA is an acid that comes before THC. The THC a slowly changes into THC as the cannabis die. Also, THCA will change into THC if it is exposed to heat and light. Keeping the cannabis plants is the easiest way to turn THCa into THC. After it’s dried, it slowly changes into THC.
When THCA turns into THC, it gives the cannabis plant the psychoactive properties it needs. The most important part of the raw cannabis plant is THCA. Almost everything about it is the same as THC, but it has one more molecule, which is carbon monoxide or Co2.
What the THCA does
Early research suggests that THCA might be static because it hasn’t been able to cross the blood-brain barrier and connect the endocannabinoid receptors like CBD and THC do. THCa works in the different ways that living things work because CBD has anti-inflammatory effects.
It can lead some people to say that THCa is very good at reducing inflammation. For now, the best thing to say is that they are both great in different ways until we see how they work in real life.
THCA’s Good Points
Even though there isn’t enough research to say for sure what benefits THCa has, there is evidence that THCa is an important part of cannabis medicine. Like THC, THCa can make you hungry and increase the number of cannabinoid receptors in the brain, which helps protect the brain.
THCA has an anti-inflammatory property that helps fight cancer, other types of inflammation, AIDS, and even people who have trouble sleeping. It has been used to ease some of the most common cancer symptoms.
Here are some of the benefits that THCa could have:
- Anti-inflammatory: One of the most well-known benefits of THCa is that it helps treat lupus and arthritis by making the body less sensitive to pain.
- Neuroprotectant: It slows down the damage to the nervous system and is used to treat diseases that cause nerve cells to die.
- Analgesic: It helps to relieve pain and is very good at managing pain.
- Anti-sleep aid: It helps you sleep better.
It is used to treat people who feel sick and want to throw up or lose their appetite.
It slows down the growth of cancer cells, like those in prostate cancer.
Keeping the immune system in check, THCa also makes the immune system better and could even make it too strong.
How to Look for the THCA
The THCa is in every high-THC cannabis strain that hasn’t yet been broken down. Most of the time, their cannabinoid levels are high, just like a freshly picked cannabis plant. If you bought a fresh cannabis flower that had been tested in a lab, you might see that the label told you how much THCA was in it.
The THA is usually in a lot of different products, like tinctures, oils, transdermal patches, and even balms. If you want to get the benefits of THCA without getting high, you may first want to avoid using any heat that turns THCA into THC.
THCa can be gotten in many different ways. The easiest and most effective ways to get THCA are as follows:
- Buy Raw Cannabis: Bought a dried THC strain that hadn’t been cured to get the THCA. As was already said, uncured cannabis plants have more THC than dried plants, but the dried plants still have some THC to make sure that they haven’t been decarboxylated yet.
- THCA Crystalline: This method is almost pure THCA and is the most concentrated. It is hard and crystal-like, just like rock salt when you try to break it up. THCA Crystalline is usually eaten as a powder that is mixed into food or put into capsules.
- Mixing Fresh Buds and Leaves: Mixing or juicing the fresh or dried high-THC cannabis. When these two are mixed, they have more nutrients than when they are juiced separately.
Balms and creams: There are a lot of topical creams on the cannabis market that can be used for things like bug bites and rashes. On the other hand, balms are used to ease the pain of inflammation in sore muscles. - Juicing: The most common way to get the THCa is to juice fresh cannabis leaves.
You can get the health benefits of THCA even if you don’t smoke it. Fresh cannabis buds can be trimmed and the plant matter can be juiced. You can also try out different recipes for fresh cannabis smoothies to find the easiest and most effective way to take THCA.
You can also try just letting the leaves soak in hot water. This method helps keep the temperature of the compound low, so it doesn’t turn into THC. You could also try adding salad dressing to the top.
How does THCA become THC?
The process of decarboxylation at normal temperatures and how it cures the cannabis plant. When the parent THCa goes through the decarboxylation process, which uses heat to get rid of the CO2, the psychoactive effects of THC are likely to show up when the fresh cannabis plant is baked into a tasty edible or smoked into a thick cloud.
Also, using heat to cure and dry the cannabis leaves can also change the THCa into THC. For example, if you dry cannabis leaves at 60 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit, you will lose a lot of CO2 and the main compounds that turn THCA into THC. The percentage will depend on how long the process takes, which can be up to two years depending on the producer.
Conclusion
THCA has properties that reduce inflammation. Also, it works better than THC to treat nausea. This cannabinoid is good for people who need medical cannabis but can’t handle how high THC makes them feel. THCA is not only related to being able to grow the cannabis plant, but it also shows a guarantee of good health when taken as is.
