Why Mary Jane’s Medicinals Uses Only Whole-Plant Cannabis in Our Marijuana Topicals
It probably won’t surprise you to hear that at Mary Jane’s Medicinals, we’re a big fan of the cannabis plant.
And we also think that maintaining the natural integrity of this plant is what is best, so of course we believe in whole-plant medicine. There’s a big difference between the efficacy of products that use the whole plant and products that use only one cannabinoid—those fundamental components of cannabis, including CBD and THC—extracted in a laboratory.
Many topical products on the market today contain only CBD extract, but as more studies are conducted showing the synergy among the various compounds that make up the cannabis plant, using a whole-plant infusion process makes increasingly more sense.
There’s also been recent research showing the positive impact of terpenes, another natural component in cannabis that gives each strain its distinctive fragrance and flavor. Studies have shown that while individual terpenes have their own powers, it is when they interact with other cannabis molecules that they have the biggest effect in our bodies. Every day we are learning more about the ramifications of familiar and lesser-known cannabinoids and terpenes.
The cannabis plant is an amazingly complex biological lifeform. Scientists have discovered more than 100 cannabinoids and more than 200 kinds of terpenes in the species, not to mention other amino acids, fatty acids, flavonoids, sterols and proteins. We don’t know yet the exact role each of these elements plays, but given the therapeutic effects cannabinoids and terpenes have been found to have, it’s clear the whole is greater than each constituent part.
More important to us than scientists—no offense, scientists—are the testimonials we hear from our clients who tell us: “Whatever it is about your product, it just works better than anything else out there.”
At Mary Jane’s Medicinals, respecting the power of the plant starts by sourcing our cannabis from licensed growers here in Colorado who use organic cultivation methods and materials to grow high-quality plants we can be confident in.
Once we get the harvest crop, we process the plants and infuse them into a high-grade natural oil that is then heated to the temperature we have found through years of experience is the perfect temperature to bring out the best in the plants. Other products on the market rely on distillation techniques that heat the plant over boiling temperature. This heat destroys some of the natural elements, including terpenes, and causes chemical conversion of some of the amino acids that reduces their effectiveness.
Some terpenes evaporate completely during commercial distillation, which means these fragrant compounds have to be added back in. That’s like decaffeinating coffee beans, only to add synthetic caffeine back in.
With many extraction methods, dangerous man-made solvents are often used, while nature’s ingredients are removed. The beautifully complex whole is reduced to a few of its parts.
At Mary Jane’s Medicinals, while we don’t take anything out, we give our products an extra-healing power punch by mixing in natural oils like jojoba, avocado, almond, coconut, peppermint, lavender and orange.
Only by using the whole cannabis plant can infused products provide the full spectrum of healing ingredients found in this incredible botanic miracle. Relying on full-spectrum, whole-plant cannabis means that we are ensuring our topicals have the same ratio of cannabinoids and terpenes as Mother Nature imbued in the flower form, which humans have relied on for its healing properties for thousands of years.
That’s why whole-plant infusion is the only way we make Mary Jane’s Medicinals products, and always will.